Redgate acquired a data modeling tool from Vertabelo recently and I wanted to explore how it works. This is a short look at this tool and how it might be useful in working with databases.
This is part of a series on Redgate Data Modeler.
A Simple Layout
The tool is a cloud tool, designed to work in a browser. This negates the need to install anything, but this also means you need to be connected to the Internet to use it. Once you get past the licensing (I won’t show this), you have a basic screen that looks like this:
There isn’t much to see and this doesn’t feel that intuitive to me, but that’s because I’m not familiar with it. Most tools have some sort of modeling surface to start, but here we have a list of models, of which I have none. That is because this is designed to be used by multiple people across multiple platforms with shared designs. Ideally that’s what many of us want, not a set of project files we have to share, version, copy, etc.
The icons at the top have two “new” ones at the left, some greyed out ones since I don’t have models, and then some layout ones on the right that control the left, top, and right panes/blades.
If I right click in the middle, I see two options, which correspond to the two icons on the left: new folder or new document.
A folder makes sense, as these are for organization. The documents make less sense, as I expected just a modeling diagram. Instead, if I pick this I get three choices: logical model, physical model, and sql script. I’ll choose logical model and go from there.
Logical Models
A logical database model is a kind of an outline of your entities and the domain of data you want to capture. When I click this button, I first get asked for a name, which makes sense.
Then I get a blank canvas that looks like the one below. I have my entities on the left, properties on the write and a canvas with some icons. There’s also a toolbar.
The icons above the canvas are where you can add entities. You can’t import anything here, which I don’t like, but that was never built. I get that most of us might go from Logical to Physical to SQL, but if I want to get a handle on existing databases, I have to add everything myself.
Let me start with a new entity. I’ll click this icon.
Once I do this, I get nothing. The icon is selected, and I need to click on the canvas, and I’ll see an entity. Note that the left shows this as an item with errors, which are reflected on the right in Entity Issues.
The error is I need an attribute. I can also see the name above on the right, where I can set the name, a comment, and add attributes. I’ll start with a few items that matter for SQL Server Central.
When I add a title, want to pick a type. In the attribute table, I can select a gear icon (cog). This is next to the datatype field.
This brings up a list of types I can choose. When I choose varchar, I get a box at the top for the length.
Once I have filled out what I need, I can see my canvas image is updated with the attributes. Notice that I’ve marked the three attritibutes as required (the M column) and the ArticleID as the PK (the PI column).
I’ll add a second entity, that I want to relate. Once I’ve added it, I see the icon at the top for a 1 to many relationship.
If I click this, I can then click on article and drag to ArticleSchedule. That gives me a visual linkage between the two items.
If I continue and add a few more entities, I can start to see a nice relationship for my model. I’ve added some many-many relationships, which you can see are different than the one-many.
Saving the Image
Once I want, I can save this as an image. There is also the option to share with others in my org, or export a PDF.
Once I click this, I choose the type and if I’m doing part of the model or the whole thing.
I click Generate and get a link to download my image.
When I download it and open it, I see this. An image of just my entities.
I can also generate documentation. When I click this icon, I get a choice of formats.
When I generate that, then I open it and see a document. It’s here if you want to look at it, but here’s an image of one page.
If I click on the Data Modeler icon in the upper left, I go back to the main screen with my model listed in the middle. I can see this is a logical model based on the icon.
Not a bad little tool to start modeling, though likely for most of the things I do, I’d live in a Physical model with the ability to import from a SQL Script. I’ll look at those features in another post, but this has shown you a quick look at getting started and creating a logical model.
Give Redgate Data Modeler a try and see if it helps you and your team get a handle on your database.
