OEA Schema designer?

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 19-Mar-2010 13:57

I"m looking at putting together a new system, and was wondering if there's an Eclipse tool that'll allow me to design the schema, generate a .df and then apply it to a db?

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Posted by Admin on 19-Mar-2010 14:05

I"m looking at putting together a new system, and was wondering if there's an Eclipse tool that'll allow me to design the schema, generate a .df and then apply it to a db?

Not 100% an Eclipse plugin, but executed inside OpenEdge Architect is PCase from IAP:

http://www.tools4progress.com/pcase.html

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 19-Mar-2010 14:12

It looks nice, and for $2.9 USD it better be!

Unfortunately that's a bit out of my price range right now....

Has anyone tried this?

http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/mogwai-erdesignerng#reviews

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 19-Mar-2010 14:29

That's not going to help much in generating a .df.

Have you consider using Enterprise Architect?  Of course, I does a whale of a lot more than just ERD, but with Phil's plugin it will both read and write .df files.

And, who knows, you might find it useful for other things as well, including use cases, requirements, and activity diagrams for documenting the specs of new system to be built.

Posted by Admin on 19-Mar-2010 14:35

Have you consider using Enterprise Architect?  Of course, I does a whale of a lot more than just ERD, but with Phil's plugin it will both read and write .df files.

 

As long as Phil hasn't updated his DF import, the big limitation of it is that it's not able to apply an modified DF file to an existing model. In that case it creates duplicate tables with is really painfull.

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 19-Mar-2010 14:52

Yet another reason for PSC to release the source.

I would think, though, that if one had a version 1 DB and then modified the model to create version 2 schema, that one could output the full df into a new DB and then use the incremental df tool to produce the needed .df.

Posted by Admin on 19-Mar-2010 15:10

Yet another reason for PSC to release the source.

 

Yepp.

I would think, though, that if one had a version 1 DB and then modified the model to create version 2 schema, that one could output the full df into a new DB and then use the incremental df tool to produce the needed .df.

IMHO one time import is not enough. A (ER) modeling tool should be capable of importing external modifications of the model's source. Think of a schema from a third party application database where you have to apply schema changes to your model. So I'm not talking about updating the DB (delta.df), I'm talking about reflecting external changes in the model.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 19-Mar-2010 15:10

tamhas wrote:

That's not going to help much in generating a .df.

Have you consider using Enterprise Architect?  Of course, I does a whale of a lot more than just ERD, but with Phil's plugin it will both read and write .df files.

And, who knows, you might find it useful for other things as well, including use cases, requirements, and activity diagrams for documenting the specs of new system to be built.

I have EA, I was hoping to find something that would work in an OEA environment.

Posted by Thomas Mercer-Hursh on 19-Mar-2010 15:14

My understanding was that Phil's tool *will* read incremental .df files, just not produce them.

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 25-Mar-2010 23:12

I was just at an Ontario PUG meeting where one of the members took an existing open-source Eclipse plugin which could be used for designing non-PSC db's has been made into something that'll work with PSC db structures.

It looks to be exactly what I'm looking for, and extensible too!

Posted by Admin on 26-Mar-2010 00:55

I was just at an Ontario PUG meeting

Surprise

an existing open-source Eclipse plugin which could be used for designing non-PSC db's has been made into something that'll work with PSC db structures.

It looks to be exactly what I'm looking for, and extensible too!

Can you share some deails with us? Is that available as a customized plugin somewhere? What's the original plugins name and download/documentation site?

Posted by Tim Kuehn on 26-Mar-2010 12:07

mikefe wrote:

I was just at an Ontario PUG meeting

Surprise

an existing open-source Eclipse plugin which could be used for designing non-PSC db's has been made into something that'll work with PSC db structures.

>

It looks to be exactly what I'm looking for, and extensible too!

Can you share some deails with us? Is that available as a customized plugin somewhere? What's the original plugins name and download/documentation site?

It was a great meeting.

The member has to do some stuff to it, and it'll be posted to OEHive.org when they're ready.

This thread is closed