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Subject:Tools for documenting a MySQL database From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 31 May 2005 12:29:20 -0700 (PDT)
Here's my report on tools for documenting a MySQL database:
It turns out DBDesigner does pretty much what I want. It reads the
schema and creates an HTML data dictionary, which is useful as is. The
HTML is generated from PHP templates, which you can presumably
manipulate to alter the output format (DBDesigner apparently includes a
PHP interpreter).
DBDesigner also creates a graphical entity diagram. However, the
entities are arranged in alphabetical order in a grid, and the
relationship lines are quite tangled. So dragging them into meaningful
groups is a chore.
FYI, DBDesigner is sunsetted and is about to be replaced by something
better from the MySQL folks. But it still works just fine.
Alternatively, I found that Toad for MySQL includes a Schema Browser
view that lets you view the schema "live" (but no graphics and no HTML
output). It's a nice SQL client too.
So with the output from DBDesigner plus doxygen, I was able to deliver
a massive amount of useful documentation outlines on Day 2 of my new
project. Nice!
Regards,
Mike O.
--- "Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi... I'm looking for a tool (prefereably free) to export schema and
> auto-generate a documentation framework from an existing MySQL
> database. At a minimum I'd need a basic data dictionary, and diagrams
> would be nice. Hopefully in a nice HTML framework for documentation.
>
> Does anybody have experience with DBDesigner? Can it do what I am
> looking for? (http://www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/)
>
> Background: I need to doc a system that includes MySQL, Java, and
> some
> C++, and even a little Perl. I assume I can use doxygen for the code,
> but I'll also need something for tha database. Even better if I can
> roll all the output up into DocBook, and add the whole doc-generation
> process to their builds. I'll have access to their code next week, so
> I haven't been able to try out anything yet, but I thought I'd ask
> for some advice before I get there.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mike O.
>
>
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