The SQL Guru Answers your Questions...
Today's question is as follows:
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I've moved up to SQL after several years of working with Access. In
Access,
it was extremely convenient to attach descriptions to tables, queries,
fields etc. This doesn't appear to be true for SQL although there are some
features for diagramming and for DTS documentation. Are there any
third-party add-ins you recommend for documenting SQL objects? I see
Sylvain Faust offers such an add-in; however, it appears to require the
purchase
of their SQL development environment. Any suggestions?
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Well, SQL Server doesn't really have a lot to offer in this area. True,
Microsoft has added the database diagramming in InterDev and (starting with
7.0) Enterprise Manager. However, there are better design tools out there.
I'm pretty fond of ERwin
from Platinum software. It's a pretty
comprehensive data modeling tool, and you can wrap all of your logical and
physical models plus comments into a single file. You can also create views
to focus in on groups of tables... nice for those huge data models. It also
has reverse/forward engineering capabilities, so you can diagram an existing
database / create a database from a diagram. The big problems with ERwin
are 1)it's expensive, 2)the user interface is, um, somewhat odd in places,
so expect a pretty steep learning curve.
I haven't looked at it in about 6 months or so, but another promising tool
is ERstudio
from Embarcadero. It's easier to use than ERwin, and less
expensive (last time I looked). However, it isn't as fully-featured as
ERwin... Actually, I just went out to www.embarcadero.com; it looks like
there is a new version out that is closely matched to ERwin's features.
Both of these tools are good at producing database documentation, provided
you enter descriptions and comments in the appropriate places. Plus, they
support different database servers and desktop databases, so they're a
pretty good investment.
Sean
