Does anyone have any recommendations on a good database modelling tool that can be used with Sybase? Want something that is easy to use for building the tables, defining the columns, managing the relationships, and generating big ER diagrams. If it has a Query Analyzer that would be good feature as well.
I was thinking of trying TOAD (http://www.toadsoft.com/toaddm/toad_data_modeler.htm).
Anyone else have any suggestions?
I have used Sybase’s Power Designer (PD) for years and it integrates well with Sybase. Presently, I am using Postgres instead as a backend (but still model with PD).
PD works fairly well (some areas are non-inuitive … ERWin (or whatever it’s new name is) is sometimes more intuitive). My DBA’s used to use TOAD and liked it. PD seems a bit dated in some areas but I continue to use it as it is quite predictable with Sybase backends.
PD, assuming you do not buy the whole suite, can be gotten for something around the $600K range.
Michael
I’d definitely take a look at Aqua Data Studio as well. In the latest (beta) release they are also supporting a Sybase Debugger tool which I haven’t tried yet. The things I like:
Uses JDBC to connect to ALL JDBC compliant SQL backends just like Servoy so it is often useful for double-checking any error/connection problems you might run into.
GREAT support. Join the mailing list and I have never seen it be more than a few hours before you will get a reply for a feature request, bug or what have you directly from the main guy.
Does everything well (querying, table/column/index/procedure creation/dropping/altering,direct editing of table data - nice when doing valuelists and what not, decent ER diagram,explain plans, analysis, reporting using pivot tables and many more things that are very DBA-oriented and I haven’t touched). At the same time it gives you a common interface for all databases if you ever have to use more than one vendor. That is crucial for me as I have to interact with MS SQL, Oracle and Sybase every day and I want to get into PostgreSQL if I ever get some time!
If you ever need to migrate a database or a whole schema or want to compare different versions of schemas/tables/queries and/or query results it will do the whole thing for you with no trouble at all. Huge help when you are working with different test/production environments.
Finally as you start to support different client installations and import Servoy solutions you will undoubtedly get some messages about whether you want to override something or other that is different in the import solution than it is in the current solution in terms of your backend database. Almost all the time these are relatively minor differences that come about through Servoy essentially classifying everything numeric (integers,double,float,whatever) as ‘double’ and can be safely ignored. For those anal-retentive types of us like myself, though, it is great to be able to run a comparison analysis of two schemas and, with a click of a couple buttons, be able to compare the two in the tab panels in Aqua Data Studio. It’s big time.
Hi Gary
We use Enterprise Object Modeler (EOModeler). It was part of WebObjects and is now part of the Apple Xcode development platform. It’s with no doupt an enterprise class tool for Enterprise Objects Modelling. As far as I know, it can handle any size of Data Models, i. e. number of objects/entities (our biggest contains > 100 entities and some hundred relationships)
Some features I personally think are useful:
Best of all it’s free )
I am though not sure about if it is available on Windows (it used to be some years ago but I don’t know the current status)
Sorry I get the feeling that my post sounds like an Apple advertisement, but I used to work with many high end tools (starting with the Oracle CASE*… suite a long time ago .-) but the EOModeler is the best I came accross (use it now for more than 10 years). This is of course my personal opinion only.
Best regards, Robert
gdotzlaw:
Does anyone have any recommendations on a good database modelling tool that can be used with Sybase? Want something that is easy to use for building the tables, defining the columns, managing the relationships, and generating big ER diagrams. If it has a Query Analyzer that would be good feature as well.I was thinking of trying TOAD (http://www.toadsoft.com/toaddm/toad_data_modeler.htm).
Anyone else have any suggestions?
Personally I like PowerDesigner a lot. And not because we have a contract with Sybase, I was using their tool back in my Oracle days before Servoy. And hey, Servoy’s original repository was designed in PowerDesigner! But I’m not a typical developer, in fact our Engineers have locked me out of our CVS so I can’t touch any source-code ever again!
I looked at PowerDesigner, and like the idea that it is tightly integrated with Sybase which we are using. The problem is the cost. Sybase quoted me $2995 for the data modeler only, per seat. That is rather expensive (and almost my beer budget for ServoyWorld!).
I investigated TOAD, and found it very easy to use. The big problem with it is that once you generated the initial SQL script for your design and create all your tables and relationships, you can never use it again. TOAD does not have the ability to produce the SQL script for new changes you made to the design (add or delete a column, for example). Without this, unfortunately, I don’t see it being much use except for documenting the table design via reverse engineering at the end of the project. Quest is working on a new version which will sync with the existing tables so that the changes you make to the design will be generated in the SQL script, but there is no release date.
PowerDesigner in its most advanced form is indeed expensive. In most cases you will only need the Physical Modeler which for example is bundled with Servoy PRO edition ($995 in our store if I recall correctly).