Summary	Database designer built in Java
Category	design
License	GNU General Public License
Owner(s)	dnc, pocho

Application Ermodeller is a free CASE tool for data modelling which is built in Java. This tool supports conceptual and logical data modelling and in the final step, it allows to create physical model that is specific for particular DBMS.

The basic idea is to support development of database via ER modelling in three levels of abstraction:

• conceptual
• logical
• physical

This separation allows to create database model independent on the particular database system. You may create conceptual model and logical model that are independent on any DBMS. Then, you may generate physical model for each DBMS you will use. Afterwards, physical models allows you to generate SQL data definition for your target DBMS. For more information see concepts page.

System requirements

• Pentium 400MHz, 128 RAM
• Java 1.4 or higher

Basic features

1. Three levels of data modelling
   • Conceptual model
   • Logical model
   • Physical model
2. Support of multiple DBMS:
   • MySQL
   • PotgreSQL
   • Oracle
   • Pointbase
   • Other systems may be installed via XML definition files
3. SQL generation to file or directly to database via JDBC
4. Reverse engineering from DB
5. Model validation

See: Detailed list of implemented features.
See: Detailed list of originally specified features.

Planned features

• Extend DBMS definitions to support DBMS families and support automative definition via JDBC connection
• Allow generation of logical and conceptual model from physical - would be usefull in reverse engineering
• Properties settings
• Enhanced ER-modelling
• Support for triggers/procedures/functions
• Support attributes in relationships

Features next time

• Support for plugins
• Support reports generation
• Support web application generation

Coding rules

There is an ad-hoc list of rules which would be enlarged and refined step-by-step.

List of used libraries

There, you can see a list of used libraries and tools.

Links to other free tools for DB modelling

You can find some freeware ERD tools over the internet. However, the source files are not available.

name	Link	Platform
DB Designer 4	http://www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/	Windows/Linux
My Schema	http://www.brandosoftware.com/myschematrial.html	Windows

Keywords

• ERD = entity-relationship diagram