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BigRetina
Posting Yak Master
144 Posts |
 Posted - 2002-10-21 : 04:11:22
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| Salute..I have been given the aweful mission of docuemnting our whole DB..(forgive me, but I hate it)...I have to document the tables structure(columns,data types and ifNullable..etc)..document the constraints..document the business rules that were enforced through the triggers..and such things..Can someone guide me to a sample document ?..or maybe sample layout that I can work with?..i need to export the sql diagrams into word or pdf( i already posted that in a previous post!)...where should I start??..is there a standard to follow when documenting SQL server database??I really appreciate this!..Thanks In Advance |
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak
15732 Posts |
Posted - 2002-10-21 : 08:08:36
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| If you have to do a serious job of documenting, you really need to get something like ERWin or MS Visio 2000. Visio is fairly inexpensive and you might already have it, and 2000 has a Reverse Engineer Database wizard that will do 90% of the work as far as the diagram is concerned...and it's a REAL diagram too, not a screenshot. Seriously, you will save yourself a great deal of work and aggravation. |
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jasper_smith
SQL Server MVP & SQLTeam MVY
846 Posts |
Posted - 2002-10-21 : 13:53:27
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| A cheaper alternative - pretty neat - we use ERStudio but it's not cheap[url]http://www.ag-software.com/ags_scribe_index.asp[/url]HTHJasper Smith |
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BigRetina
Posting Yak Master
144 Posts |
Posted - 2002-10-22 : 03:23:48
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Thanks..I am swimming in VISIO.... ....It is an OCEAN!..lol..I never used it but the DataBase reverse engineering is quite interesting.Thanks Again.. |
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solart
Posting Yak Master
148 Posts |
Posted - 2002-10-22 : 15:23:52
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| There is an inexpensive tool called "Dezign for Databases". This tool produces an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram" and sells for about $149, single copy.There are companion products which perform reverse engineering of existing databases. Also inexpensive at $61.These products suppport a myriad of databases: Oracle, DB2, MS Sql Servery, MYSql, Sybase, etc..The URL for the home page is: http://www.datanamic.comIt also has a free download demo. I find the learning curve to be light.solart |
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Documenting a SQL Server DB