Documenting a DB (sql server) with visio or something better?

Question

Hi ..

been reading a few bad reports about viso and documenting DBs ,... I just want something simple to document the DB and show all the keys and relationships...

Is visio the right way to go? .. its a fairly small project and visio does carry a price tag...

I am using vs 2008 and this has database diagrams integrated but i don't think its that powerful

Any views on what anybody uses and why woudd be great

thanks

Answer 1

Bear in mind that SQL Server since at least 2005 (possibly earlier) has been capable of generating ER (Entity Relationship) diagrams from the management studio. That will at least show the tables and relationships and I found it to be useful enough for my purposes most of the time.

Answer 2

for diagram purpose, i would recommend using diagrams within SQL 2005 Management Studio.

For documentation purpose, i would recommend using myGeneration which has an in-built template for generating the complete documentation of SQL DB in very nice looking HTML format with descriptions & other meta data of the tables. after you have installed mygeneration, you can find the template Microsoft SQL Server - Reports - HTML Database Report

Answer 3

Also have a look at RedGate Sql Doc

Answer 4

As Conrad already stated you can use RedGate Sql Doc; though I prefer to use ApexSql Doc, which I found to be more flexible, at least when I compared them more than a year ago: this tools reads the extended properties (usually "MS_Description") of database's obiects, so you'll have to write these properties, and can produce also a diagram of the relationship between the ovbects.

Answer 5

I've used Viso numerous times for Sybase Databases and it works fine.

I have usually ended up using Viso because I need to share the end documentation with a team of colleagues and whilst everyone had Viso which I think is part of Office Professional, they did not all have the same DB tools. For example project managers or GUI developers not working with the database but needed to see the data model.

I think for SQL Server it would be a simple option for documentation. It is limited in reverse engineering though so for proper data modelling and even DB generation I would then look for a tool specialized for my database platform.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,

Kevin