Toad Data Modeler is quite popular design tool from Quest Software. The installation went smooth, and I finished this whole exercise within 15 minutes from downloading Toad — impressive.
As in all previous examples of the series, I am using the database described in the first post.
Step 1
Start the program and click on File –> Reverse Engineering.
Step 2
The Reverse Engineering Wizard opens, note wizard steps on the left pane. The Alias is a name given to a collection of all setup parameters for a specific database; including connection, which objects to reverse, options to use, etc. At this point we have no previously defined aliases, so simply click Next to continue and create a new one.
Step 3
For Data Source, select MS SQL 2005. As you can see from the list, all mayor databases are covered. Note the DDL Script RE branch, Toad allows reverse engineering of a database from a DDL script file too.
Step 4
For the data provider I had only one option available – ADO.
Step 5
The connection details; Toad actually displays the connection string here. To create a new one, click on Data Link Properties.
Step 6
We can type a connection string here, but it is simpler to click on Build and let Toad take care of the syntax.
Step 7
For the provider, choose SQL Native Client. On the Connection tab, enter the name of the server or an IP address; fill-in the username and the password and select the database name. If the list is empty, try clicking on Test Connection first.
Step 8
Now we have the connection string, click OK to continue.
Step 9
Back to the main wizard form, simply click Next to continue.
Step 10
Data Migrator selection — a new concept, did not see this one in previous examples. However, the wording is self explanatory, so simply select Reverse Engineering from Database MS SQL 2005.
Step 11
A list of objects to reverse engineer, followed by a list of options. Select all objects and accept default setting from the list of options.
Step 12
Time to save all this settings as an alias, which can be quickly selected next time. Once saved, select the alias and click Next.
Step 13
First select the Schema and than tables to reverse engineer; click on Execute to start the process. The bottom part of the form shows log messages.
Step 14
Diagram on the left was automatically generated, obviously it needed some rearranging. After some tinkering with shapes, I got the one on the right.
This is enough steps for one post. In the next part we’ll look into the procedures editor, converting the relational to a logical model and reporting. To be continued.