I've been running about the internet like a chicken with my head cut
off looking for my dream database tool and most have come up short in
one way or the other. Rather than continue my random walk, I thought it
would be ncie to come up with a list of objective factors and here is
what I present for your criticism:

Factors in Evaluating a Database Design Tool
============================================


General
-------
* What platforms does it run on
* What databases does it work with
* Is it primarily a physical or logical database design tool?
* Support - email, phone, chat. What is the cost
* Cost - what is the cost of the product? And upgrades.
* Documentation - HTML, PDF, PNG?


Interactive Design (Forward Engineering)
----------------------------------------
* Can the entity boxes be sized smaller than the number of attributes
and made scrollable? The only thing I have seen with this ability is
`SyBrowser
<http://www.macsos.com.au/shareware/sybrowser/SyBrowser.html>`_
* Does it come with a sample database
* Does it automatically create intermediate tables for many to many
relationships?
* Does it generate SQL for DDL deltas? Or does it only generate SQL
for the entire schema? Are arbitrarily deep backward and forward
deltas possible?
* Foreign key - does it support ON DELETE and ON UPDATE functionality
* Sibling fields - what is this anyway?


Reverse Engineering
-------------------
* Can it reverse engineer a database design by parsing a SQL file or
directly connecting to a database




Products
========
* `DbWrench <http://www.dbwrench.com/>`_
* `dbSketch <http://codercentric.com/>`_
* `SyBrowser
<http://www.macsos.com.au/shareware/sybrowser/SyBrowser.html>`_
* `SQL Editor <http://www.malcolmhardie.com/sqleditor/cocoa/>`_
* `DeZign <http://www.datanamic.com>`_

metaperl wrote:

only OS X! that's bad. That's why I left datanamic dezign - I was a PC
user and now I am a mac user... why should I have to switch tools

MySQL, Sybase, Postgres, Oracle

logical

free once you buy the product. email and phone

A very reasonable 69.00

JPEG, PNG

I dont think so

No

No! It let me create a many to many relationship but did not make the
intermediate table in the generated SQL!! That means I have to manually
create the table!!!

None of this appears possible.

only ON DELETE

The manual did not describe this and I don't know what the heck it
is... yet it is was in the options for attribute design

Don't think so

good product, but no response to my email query to them. they don't
really seem to be alive

new product. physical design. java based so multi-platform .responsive
customer support.

demo is horribly limiting. really could get no idea of how good it is
via demo. It does look nice and it has been around a long time and it
does run on all platforms. It does seem like a slightly more featureful
product than SQL Editor, but again, why should I pay money for
something I have not been able to try thoroughly? Anyone can make a
nice webpage, but without trying out the software I could come out
empty-handed.

Nice simple straightforward package. Really should have support for
automatic creation of many to many jons.

Was a great product when I was a windows user. Very good customer
support. Very nice product. I was a version 3 user. Version 4 looks
even nicer.

The only product I know that does all that and do it elegantly is a product
called Sybase Power Designer.

It's not cheap though, but its good. Supports all major databases (and ODBC
compliant ones if not listed), provides models at logical and physical
level, creates SQL DDL and also as deltas comparing one database to another
by reverse engineering. Can convert one DDL into another depending on
database type.

Also, good for diagramming as you can see the pages on the diagram of how
they will be sectioned when printing and duplicates of entities can be made
so they are referenced on different parts of the diagram.

Commercially, its the best tool around.

AMO

AMO wrote:
I went to their website and it appears to only run on Windows. I'm on
OS X but strongly prefer things that run on all platforms.

"AMO" <NoSpam (AT) SpamFreeWorld (DOT) com> wrote

I concur with the positive comments about Power Designer. It's been a few
years since I touched it, but it sure was the pick of the crop.

A few details:

Power Designer is a package with several component applications in it. The
one we are talking about is Data Architect (DA).

The two kinds of models DA dealt with were Conceptual Data Model (CDM), and
Physical Data Model (PDM). There was a third kind, called an OODM, for
interfacing with a language like Java.

A CDM was more like an ER model than like a relational model, but the rest
of what AMO said applies anyway.

It was superb at reverse engineering. I never tested it for difference
management, but I'm not surprised to hear that it wirks well at that.

One of the criteria listed was what platform the tool runs on. I don't
think that's nearly as important as what platform the resulting database
runs on. The version of DA that I fooled around with ran on windows, but
the resulting databases could run on anything the database server could run
on.

"metaperl" <metaperl (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

I personally don't think that much software that runs on all platforms is
any good. The obvious exception to this rule is anything that runs via the
web the way all the AJAX tools are going for remote development etc - just
open a browser on any computer in the world, log on and you can work.

I would look at things like plugins for the Eclipse framework as an
alternative. However, they'll need a few years to mature. At the moment,
they're pretty much useless and certainly don't come close to ticking off
many items on your list.

AMO