| Displaying tables and relationships [message #178455] |
Wed, 21 June 2006 03:42  |
Xaltotun
Messages: 1
Registered: June 2006
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Junior Member |
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I asked this question on the official Oracle forum but later on decided to look for an unofficial forum. It usually takes some time to get an answer on the official forum. That is why I post the question here.
Hi all. I need a tool that can display the tables and relationships between the tables of an Oracle Database in a specific way. Let me explain.
Prehistory
We have an Oracle Database  . It has a lot of tables, many foreign keys etc. The relationships between the tables are quite intricate.
Purpose
The purpose of this is to create a "scheme" of the data (the tables and relationships we have) which is simple to understand. We are going to use this scheme to help new employees understand the data structure. I tried to create such a scheme with the help of Oracle Designer but I found Server Model diagrams and ERD diagrams not satisfactory.
Data scheme description
I want the scheme to display tables like in the server model diagram. But there is one major problem I encountered with server model diagrams. The server model diagram shows everything: column names, column data types, relationships. But there is one thing it does not show (or I couldn't find how to make it show it). I want the diagram to show comments for columns together with the column names (for example in square brackets after the column name). It is obvious that the column name usually does not tell much about what the column contains. It is only comments or descriptions that usually contain a lot of information about the column's contents. And I want comments to be shown on the diagram because I think this will be the simplest way for the new employee to get used to the data structure, understand it and get involved with real projects faster. I.e. make the new employee's "learning curve" much shorter . And I want descriptions (comments are short, they can be shown on the table, descriptions are long, they cannot be shown) to be easy to access on the diagram. For example "Right click -> description menu item". Actually the tool I'm looking for should be able to customize the view of the diagram, show and hide some elements (for example show comments, hide types etc). View customization capabilities are what I'm looking for. I think Oracle Designer lacks these capabilities.
Server model diagram disadvantages
The server model allows to add comments for columns but it cannot display them(comments) on the diagram. Comments are really difficult to access in the server model diagram. One can access only one comment for the column at a time.
ERD diagram disadvantages
I checked out ERD diagram as well. It is a little better at accessing comments. The properties of the table(tab "Attributes") shows column names and comments in one table. It is much more convenient for the new employee. But in the retrofit process (creating ERD diagrams from existing database tables) Oracle Designer deletes all "ID" fields. It places relationship links on the diagram instead of these attributes. In this case I'll have to create these fields manually in order to "reproduce" the exact structure of the database. It is very tedious when we have a hundred tables.
Question
Is there a tool that can create the diagram I want from existing tables (not from the scratch)? Or the server model diagram is my best bet? One more thing. I don't need a tool that can only draw diagrams even in the way I want. I need a tool that can create a diagram from existing tables and after this allow me to customize the view of the diagram, add comments, descriptions, show and hide comments, data types for columns etc. Perhaps there is a way to achieve this goal by means of Oracle Designer?
Additional Info
Database - Oracle 8i
Oracle Designer - Oracle Designer 9i.
Thank you in advance.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 June 2006 03:45] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Displaying tables and relationships [message #178618 is a reply to message #178455] |
Wed, 21 June 2006 18:02  |
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djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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I'm confident that Designer has at least one report that will give you the comments for a table, as well as the table definition. I can visualise what you want and would be interested in hearing of any tool that can do it.
I like Designer because I can generate my code from it, the comments I can get from another panel or from the report.
I prefer the Designer diagrams to give me a 'feel' for the data by showing the tables and foreign key relationships, and then I get the details of the fields elsewhere. When dealing with many tables I think that displaying the comments would make the diagram too 'busy' and difficult to read.
David
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