Visually mapping mysql database schema

Question

I need to visually understand the database schema of an open source erp software (Dolibarr), for that have found a java based tool dbschemaviewer which make use of eclipse and GEF to map out an existing database. I let it do the process overnight but no results

I need some other software that can map existing database schema visually and that shows connections, and allow me to edit it too once i have studied its connections

i am currently using wampserver 2 on which i have installed the erp software

any solutions, ideas or software that i can use to map the schema?

Please help,

Renee

Answer 1

You could try the MySQLWorkbench tool from MySQL. It has been a Windows only for for a while but there are now Alpha releases for Linux and MacOS. I haven't used these Alpha versions so I don't know how stable they are.

There are free and pay-for versions, but the free version does allow you to create an ERD from a SQL script.

Answer 2

You could try Microsoft Visio to reverse engineer the database and generate a database model diagram.

Answer 3

I use DBVisualizer to graphically view my Oracle and Sybase databases. It does a pretty good job with overall good performance.

Answer 4

I'll go with @dave Webb's advice to use MySQL Workbench. You can create SQL Scripts from SQL Administrator and take backup of the database. It will cerate .sql file. This sql file can be opened with MySQL Workbench to reverse engineer database.

Alternatively you can check DB Design 4 (OSS project by fabFORCE.net)

You can also try using SQL Developer by Oracle to connect and view database schema and design.

Answer 5

Check this out: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/schemaball/?about

Also check another SO discussion: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/433071/good-tool-to-visualise-database-schema

Answer 6

Okay i have reviewed a few softwares and extensions to java, mysql Workbench seems to be a nice program and has an easy interface to work with as suggested by dave and trailblazer but in case of larger amount of tables it displays them in a very complex layout which complicated to understand and view and another thing is it doesn't directly connect to your db but you need to generate a .sql file of your database which you import to reverse engineer and then you can create a diagramatic view of that database

I found another program which was suggested in this SO post its called SchemaSpy which is open source which analyzes the metadata of a schema in a database and generates a visual representation of it.

It is operated using the command line and it creates tables using Graphviz however there is a gui called SchemaSpyGUI its very easy to install them as u have to install Graphviz and unzip the contents of the other programs in the bin folder of graphviz. you also need mysqlconnector/J and this is the installation process for it

It diplays the tables, relationships(visual schema), utility tables, constraints, anomalies and columns it very comprehensive and display tables in a cleaner format than workbench though its just going to be a matter of preference of which software to use to visualize.