ER diagrams

Visio 2000 can do this (maybe not all versions though)
It can import a database and draw the links (P.K's)

I found Visio was a bit cruddy. Its clunky and easy to muck things
up, links also seem to unlink themselves. If there's a better (open source)
tool I would also like to know about it!

Martin Chantler
UK

Marc SCHAEFER <schaefer@alphanet.ch>@postgresql.org on 10/05/2001 09:05:07

Sent by: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org

To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
cc:
Subject: [GENERAL] ER diagrams

Hi,

do you know of a tool which could be used to easily generate
entity-relationship diagrams (with integrity constraints, etc), in LaTeX
for example ?

This is a bit unlinked with PostgreSQL but I hope you won't hit me :)

Thank you.

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I use dia, which comes with gnome, on linux. There's also a port for
windows. Diagrams are in XML, but you can export them as eps, tex, and
svg among others. http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/

Ale

Marc SCHAEFER wrote:

Hi,

do you know of a tool which could be used to easily generate
entity-relationship diagrams (with integrity constraints, etc), in LaTeX
for example ?

This is a bit unlinked with PostgreSQL but I hope you won't hit me :)

Thank you.

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--
Alejandro Fernandez Bscp 5 Caledonian University
0790 541 8809 - ale@nin.cx

Alejandro Fernandez wrote:

I use dia, which comes with gnome, on linux. There's also a port for
windows. Diagrams are in XML, but you can export them as eps, tex, and
svg among others. http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/

There's a tool I've hear about called Kivio... But I don't know if it
would suit your needs...;-(

Cheers,

John Clark

--
/) John Clark Naldoza y Lopez (\
/ ) Software Design Engineer II ( \
_( (_ _ Web-Application Development _) )_
(((\ \> /_> Cable Modem Network Management System <_\ </ /)))
(\\\\ \_/ / NEC Telecom Software Phils., Inc. \ \_/ ////)
\ / \ /
\ _/ phone: (+63 32) 233-9142 loc. 3112 \_ /
/ / cellphone: (+63 919) 399-4742 \ \
/ / email: njclark@ntsp.nec.co.jp \ \

Ale,

Can you point me to the port for windows?

Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alejandro Fernandez" <ale@nin.cx>
To: <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 6:09 AM
Subject: [GENERAL] Re: ER diagrams

Hi Martin,

Just to clarify this, does Visio 2000 work specifically with PostgreSQL,
or does it do it generically through ODBC or similar?

Either way, it sounds like it works and should be included in the ERD
Tools section on the techdocs website
(http://techdocs.postgresql.org/oresources.php#erd).

Does that sound appropriate?

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 can do this (maybe not all versions though)
It can import a database and draw the links (P.K's)

I found Visio was a bit cruddy. Its clunky and easy to muck things
up, links also seem to unlink themselves. If there's a better (open source)
tool I would also like to know about it!

Martin Chantler
UK

Marc SCHAEFER <schaefer@alphanet.ch>@postgresql.org on 10/05/2001 09:05:07

Sent by: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org

To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
cc:
Subject: [GENERAL] ER diagrams

Hi,

do you know of a tool which could be used to easily generate
entity-relationship diagrams (with integrity constraints, etc), in LaTeX
for example ?

This is a bit unlinked with PostgreSQL but I hope you won't hit me :)

Thank you.

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--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
- Indira Gandhi

Errr.. make that link

http://techdocs.postgresql.org/oresources.php#erdtools

Sorry about that.

+ Justin

Marc SCHAEFER wrote:

Hi,

do you know of a tool which could be used to easily generate
entity-relationship diagrams (with integrity constraints, etc), in LaTeX
for example ?

This is a bit unlinked with PostgreSQL but I hope you won't hit me :)

Thank you.

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--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
- Indira Gandhi

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

It does work but it is a bit annoying to use!
I heard a rumour that the database documenter is only included with the
enterprise version but I'm not sure about this. I mention it in case anyone
buys Visio and finds the feature is not there.

Martin C.

Hi Martin,

Just to clarify this, does Visio 2000 work specifically with PostgreSQL,
or does it do it generically through ODBC or similar?

Either way, it sounds like it works and should be included in the ERD
Tools section on the techdocs website
(http://techdocs.postgresql.org/oresources.php#erd).

Does that sound appropriate?

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

--

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On 10 May 2001 14:06:19 +0100, martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

I stole this from the Druid forum:

"Here follows a list of the main features I think to implement in the
next druid release:

- Jdbc access to an existing database
- examine the db structure
- perform queries
- retrieve db structure for reverse engineering
- sql diff with db
- upgrade the db structure using druid structure
- diff with previously created databases, generating a diff
report
- Visual browsing
- in which table a datatype is used
- which tables use a given one
- tables used by a given one
- selecting a folder, shows a graphic ER view

Because the last feature is very heavy to implement, if users demand for
it I can release an intermediate version with jdbc support."

http://druid.sourceforge.net/

Cheers

Tony Grant

--
RedHat Linux on Sony Vaio C1XD/S
http://www.animaproductions.com/linux2.html
Macromedia UltraDev with PostgreSQL
http://www.animaproductions.com/ultra.html

Hi Tony,

What section of the "Other Resources" page do you think I should put
Druid in? It doesn't really look like an ERD Tool, maybe in the "Admin"
part?

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

Tony Grant wrote:

On 10 May 2001 14:06:19 +0100, martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

I stole this from the Druid forum:

"Here follows a list of the main features I think to implement in the
next druid release:

- Jdbc access to an existing database
- examine the db structure
- perform queries
- retrieve db structure for reverse engineering
- sql diff with db
- upgrade the db structure using druid structure
- diff with previously created databases, generating a diff
report
- Visual browsing
- in which table a datatype is used
- which tables use a given one
- tables used by a given one
- selecting a folder, shows a graphic ER view

Because the last feature is very heavy to implement, if users demand for
it I can release an intermediate version with jdbc support."

http://druid.sourceforge.net/

Cheers

Tony Grant

--
RedHat Linux on Sony Vaio C1XD/S
http://www.animaproductions.com/linux2.html
Macromedia UltraDev with PostgreSQL
http://www.animaproductions.com/ultra.html

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--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
- Indira Gandhi

Hi Martin,

I'd like to include Vision 2000 in the "Other Resources" section/page of
techdocs, but I really wouldn't feel right about doing that, without
having it Definitely Confirmed to work with PostgreSQL. :(

I someone out there really has tested the combination, could they please
let me know?

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

It does work but it is a bit annoying to use!
I heard a rumour that the database documenter is only included with the
enterprise version but I'm not sure about this. I mention it in case anyone
buys Visio and finds the feature is not there.

Martin C.

Hi Martin,

Just to clarify this, does Visio 2000 work specifically with PostgreSQL,
or does it do it generically through ODBC or similar?

Either way, it sounds like it works and should be included in the ERD
Tools section on the techdocs website
(http://techdocs.postgresql.org/oresources.php#erd).

Does that sound appropriate?

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

--

NOTICE: The information contained in this electronic mail transmission is
intended by Convergys Corporation for the use of the named individual or
entity to which it is directed and may contain information that is
privileged or otherwise confidential. If you have received this electronic
mail transmission in error, please delete it from your system without
copying or forwarding it, and notify the sender of the error by reply email
or by telephone (collect), so that the sender's address records can be
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--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
- Indira Gandhi

On 11 May 2001 00:22:31 +1000, Justin Clift wrote:

What section of the "Other Resources" page do you think I should put
Druid in? It doesn't really look like an ERD Tool, maybe in the "Admin"
part?

Yeah for the moment it is a handy tool for creating databases. The guy
seems to be developing it alone. I was very impressed with it when I
found it. I hope that he gets all of those features in there.

You are missing the Webmin Postgresql module in "admin" too.

Cheers

Tony Grant

--
RedHat Linux on Sony Vaio C1XD/S
http://www.animaproductions.com/linux2.html
Macromedia UltraDev with PostgreSQL
http://www.animaproductions.com/ultra.html

Not open source but...

http://www.ca.com/products/alm/erwin.htm (erwin 4.0)

You COULD find a previous version (3.5.2 in fact -
http://www.sandhill.co.uk/downloads/erwin.exe) for which you could find
a crack
(http://astalavista5.box.sk/cgi-bin/robot?srch=erwin+3.5.2&amp;project=robot
&gfx=robot), but you wouldn't be allowed to use it, though.

Unfortunately you would have to edit the sql code it produces for the
postgres odbc dll a bit.. (primary keys are unique indexies and foreign
keys aren't declared...) but for designing its an ultimate tool.

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org
[mailto:pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of
martin.chantler@convergys.com
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 11:38 AM
To: Marc SCHAEFER
Cc: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] ER diagrams

Visio 2000 can do this (maybe not all versions though)
It can import a database and draw the links (P.K's)

I found Visio was a bit cruddy. Its clunky and easy to muck
things up, links also seem to unlink themselves. If there's a
better (open source) tool I would also like to know about it!

Martin Chantler
UK

Marc SCHAEFER <schaefer@alphanet.ch>@postgresql.org on
10/05/2001 09:05:07

Sent by: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org

To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org
cc:
Subject: [GENERAL] ER diagrams

Hi,

do you know of a tool which could be used to easily generate
entity-relationship diagrams (with integrity constraints,
etc), in LaTeX for example ?

This is a bit unlinked with PostgreSQL but I hope you won't hit me :)

Thank you.

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Thanks Karl.

Maybe Visio 2001 or Visio 2002 will work (or whatever they're called in
the future). We'll include it when its useful.

:-)

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

Karl DeBisschop wrote:

martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

It does work but it is a bit annoying to use!
I heard a rumour that the database documenter is only included with the
enterprise version but I'm not sure about this. I mention it in case anyone
buys Visio and finds the feature is not there.

We bought Visio Enterprise specifically for ER diagrams of our postgreSQL databases. It imports them fine, but we had a bear of a time trying to cleary indicate primary key relationships. We could show which tables were keyed to each other, but trying to show which attributes were the keys, and having that persist as we moved things around was never done successfully.

It could well have been operator problems. But time matters, in the end it was much quicker to install and learn Dia. And it did everything we needed, on our Linux boxes to boot.

End result? I hate to disparage anyones work so I will simply note that the large box/manual set makes an excellent bookend.

--
Karl

--
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those
who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the
first group; there was less competition there."
- Indira Gandhi

martin.chantler@convergys.com wrote:

Visio 2000 comes with a set of drivers which includes an ODBC driver
I haven't tried Visio with Postgres but hopefully it would work, it did
manage to import a DB2 database using the ODBC driver.

It does work but it is a bit annoying to use!
I heard a rumour that the database documenter is only included with the
enterprise version but I'm not sure about this. I mention it in case anyone
buys Visio and finds the feature is not there.

We bought Visio Enterprise specifically for ER diagrams of our postgreSQL databases. It imports them fine, but we had a bear of a time trying to cleary indicate primary key relationships. We could show which tables were keyed to each other, but trying to show which attributes were the keys, and having that persist as we moved things around was never done successfully.

It could well have been operator problems. But time matters, in the end it was much quicker to install and learn Dia. And it did everything we needed, on our Linux boxes to boot.

End result? I hate to disparage anyones work so I will simply note that the large box/manual set makes an excellent bookend.

--
Karl