Conceptual modeling like in the book

[mACKnIFE]

Hi list!

I've just finished reading the nice book: "Data Modeling and
Relational Database Design Volume 1 - Student Guide", by Jan
Speelpenning, Patrice Daux and Jeff Gallus, published by Oracle
University. I really like the way they do their drawings for their
conceptual models (see below for the features of Oracle's book's
conceptual models). In fact, it's a notation that could apply to any
RDBMS and that'S what I'd like to do. But I searched, and searched,
and searched but found no software doing exactly it. I found many
variations of it but not the plain and simple one we can find in that
book.

Is there anybody of you that found drawing softwares actually able to
to do this specific kind of notation? I've looked at Visio, SmartDraw,
DBDesigner, Visible Analyst, ERWin, Database Design Studio (DDS),
dbViz, XCase with no success. None of 'em seems to have a function for
that specific purpose.

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thank you!!

mACHnIFE

Nice features of the models in the book:
Crowsfoot (or tripod) illustrating the many end of a relationship;
-The part of a relashionship that is mandatory drawn as a solid line;
-The part that is optional drawn as a dotted line;
-The verb (ie: "has/held by", "split into/part of", etc) on the each
of the relationships;
-Diamond across a relationship line to represent nontransferability;
-Subtype, represented as an entity within the boundary of another
entity;
-Unique identifier, represented as # in front of an attribute or as a
bar across a relationship line;
-Arcs across two or more relationship lines indicating that any
instance of an entity can have only one valid relationship of the
relationships in the arc at any one time.
-Attributes: * for Mandatory; o for optional;(# for unique identifyer)

[Hans Forbrich]

mACKnIFE wrote:

Hi list!

I've just finished reading the nice book: "Data Modeling and
Relational Database Design Volume 1 - Student Guide", by Jan
Speelpenning, Patrice Daux and Jeff Gallus, published by Oracle
University. I really like the way they do their drawings for their
conceptual models (see below for the features of Oracle's book's
conceptual models). In fact, it's a notation that could apply to any
RDBMS and that'S what I'd like to do. But I searched, and searched,
and searched but found no software doing exactly it. I found many
variations of it but not the plain and simple one we can find in that
book.

Is there anybody of you that found drawing softwares actually able to
to do this specific kind of notation? I've looked at Visio, SmartDraw,
DBDesigner, Visible Analyst, ERWin, Database Design Studio (DDS),
dbViz, XCase with no success. None of 'em seems to have a function for
that specific purpose.

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thank you!!

mACHnIFE

Nice features of the models in the book:
Crowsfoot (or tripod) illustrating the many end of a relationship;
-The part of a relashionship that is mandatory drawn as a solid line;
-The part that is optional drawn as a dotted line;
-The verb (ie: "has/held by", "split into/part of", etc) on the each
of the relationships;
-Diamond across a relationship line to represent nontransferability;
-Subtype, represented as an entity within the boundary of another
entity;
-Unique identifier, represented as # in front of an attribute or as a
bar across a relationship line;
-Arcs across two or more relationship lines indicating that any
instance of an entity can have only one valid relationship of the
relationships in the arc at any one time.
-Attributes: * for Mandatory; o for optional;(# for unique identifyer)

Have you checked Oracle's CASE tool (Designer) which is part of the
Developer Suite?

This stuff sounds familiar. If I understood your description, this
model 'style' has been around since the mid '80s. If so, Oracle Designer
has been doing this since 1988 or earlier!

[Frank]

Hans Forbrich wrote:

Have you checked Oracle's CASE tool (Designer) which is part of the
Developer Suite?

This stuff sounds familiar. If I understood your description, this
model 'style' has been around since the mid '80s. If so, Oracle Designer
has been doing this since 1988 or earlier!

Must be - Jan is (was?) an instructor with Oracle Nederland; doing the
Designer class as well, iirc
And it makes sense that authors, writing for Oracle Press use Oracle
tools, doens't it?
--
Regards, Frank van Bortel

[mACKnIFE]

Frank <fb*****@nescape.net> wrote in message news:<bp**********@news2.tilbu1.nb.home.nl>...

Hans Forbrich wrote:

Have you checked Oracle's CASE tool (Designer) which is part of the
Developer Suite?

This stuff sounds familiar. If I understood your description, this
model 'style' has been around since the mid '80s. If so, Oracle Designer
has been doing this since 1988 or earlier!

Must be - Jan is (was?) an instructor with Oracle Nederland; doing the
Designer class as well, iirc
And it makes sense that authors, writing for Oracle Press use Oracle
tools, doens't it?

Yeah, ok guys! I understand what you're trying to tell me: "Duh!"
Hehe!

I was just kind of hoping that there were other tools to get the job
done. I always like to try two or three softwares to get a global
picture of what they can do before choosing THE one I'll use.

Have you guys tried Oracle's Designer? If yes, did you have a good
experience with it? And if not, do you have any suggestions on other
similar tools?

Thanks!!

mACHnIFE

[Joel Garry]

ma******@hotmail.com (mACKnIFE) wrote in message news:<ba**************************@posting.google. com>...

Frank <fb*****@nescape.net> wrote in message news:<bp**********@news2.tilbu1.nb.home.nl>...

Hans Forbrich wrote:

Have you checked Oracle's CASE tool (Designer) which is part of the
Developer Suite?

This stuff sounds familiar. If I understood your description, this
model 'style' has been around since the mid '80s. If so, Oracle Designer
has been doing this since 1988 or earlier!

Must be - Jan is (was?) an instructor with Oracle Nederland; doing the
Designer class as well, iirc
And it makes sense that authors, writing for Oracle Press use Oracle
tools, doens't it?

Yeah, ok guys! I understand what you're trying to tell me: "Duh!"
Hehe!

I was just kind of hoping that there were other tools to get the job
done. I always like to try two or three softwares to get a global
picture of what they can do before choosing THE one I'll use.

Have you guys tried Oracle's Designer? If yes, did you have a good
experience with it? And if not, do you have any suggestions on other
similar tools?

Thanks!!

mACHnIFE

Last time for me was a few years ago. It had a couple of bugs (such
as "forgetting" the ocassional bit of DDL or its semi-colon), and the
learning curve was steep for some of the people using it, but it was
good enough.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.

[Frank]

jackknife wrote:

Frank <fb*****@nescape.net> wrote in message news:<bp**********@news2.tilbu1.nb.home.nl>...

Hans Forbrich wrote:

Have you checked Oracle's CASE tool (Designer) which is part of the
Developer Suite?

This stuff sounds familiar. If I understood your description, this
model 'style' has been around since the mid '80s. If so, Oracle Designer
has been doing this since 1988 or earlier!

Must be - Jan is (was?) an instructor with Oracle Nederland; doing the
Designer class as well, iirc
And it makes sense that authors, writing for Oracle Press use Oracle
tools, doens't it?

Yeah, ok guys! I understand what you're trying to tell me: "Duh!"
Hehe!

I was just kind of hoping that there were other tools to get the job
done. I always like to try two or three softwares to get a global
picture of what they can do before choosing THE one I'll use.

Have you guys tried Oracle's Designer? If yes, did you have a good
experience with it? And if not, do you have any suggestions on other
similar tools?

Thanks!!

mACHnIFE

I used to work for Oracle in Designer Support - so I'm hardly unbiased.
Steep learning curve indeed, as it tries to do it all.
Have been working with TI's IEF in the early 90's, which used a similar
way of drawing ERD's. IEF was an upper/lower case tool to, geared
towards mainframes.

The main problem with Designer has always been the drive to add new
functionality, instead of getting the bugs out - which I find generally
true for this industry.
--
Regards, Frank van Bortel