[mmondor gobot ca: Dia and database design]

[Cyrille Chepelov <cyrille chepelov org>]

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Grumpf.

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• From: Matthew Mondor <mmondor gobot ca>
• To: cyrille chepelov org
• Cc: alla lysator liu se
• Subject: Dia and database design
• Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 23:38:13 -0400

Hi,

Dia is a wonderful program which I am very happy to use for various tasks.
There is one thing which I tried to do with it but which seems to be
really hard (there would be missing a few simple tools to do it):
designing databases consisting of tables, with key/index/normal field list
for each...

There could be a simple object, creating a box with a title, and with two
columns such as:

+--------------------------+
| USER                     |
+-----------+--------------+
* user_id   | bigint(11);  *               (a key)
* user_adm  | bigint(11);  *               (a reference index)
| user_nick | varchar(32); |
| user_pass | varchar(32); |
+-----------+--------------+

The * represent link nodes which would be available when the field either
consists of a key or reference index to a key. A key field would appear in
bold also perhaps...

If dia had such a table object it would be suitable to easily design and
chart complex databases. The form to enter the various fields could be
similar to what is used for UML ones. The key idea is to be able to easily
link references/keys, by field rather than simply linking the whole box.
Optionally box link nodes could be added too at the top and bottom lines,
but they are not essencial.

Trying to do it with dia previously forced me to create various text objects, group them in a box after 
attaching a link to the wanted text object, I had to always ungroup and regroup when relinking keys... and so 
I decided to perhaps make a little suggestion about a database table object.

Thanks,
Matthew Mondor
http://mmondor.gobot.ca/software.html

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