FrontBase Database Support
Visual Paradigm now supports FrontBase database! With the FrontBase support, you can draw an ERD in VP, and generate the database to FrontBase. Also, you can reverse engineer the FrontBase database into ERD for further editing. Besides this, you can generate the persistence object tier for communicating with FrontBase database.
Generate Database
Database can be generated from ERD drew in VP. Before we start drawing the ERD, it is important to spend some time to configure the database settings, because part of the data design such as datatype of a column can be database-specific, say, the data type “bit-varying” type for FrontBase database.
Database Configuration
To open the
Database Configuration dialog, select
Tools > Object Relationship Mapping (ORM) > Database Configuration... from the main menu.
Select
FrontBase as the database type, and fill in the
Database Setting.
Press the OK button to confirm the settings and exit the dialog. Now you can use the database specific datatype in your ERD.
Generate Database
After configuring the database and completing the ERD, we can generate the ERD to database.
Select
Tools > Object Relational Mapping(ORM) > Generate Database... from the main menu.
This shows the
Database Code Generation dialog box.
Enter the Output path for storing the DDL file, and check the Export to Database option.
Press the OK button to proceed with generating the database.
Generate Code
It is possible to generate the ORM persistence tier for accessing the FrontBase database. The ORM persistence tier is an API for communicating with a relational database in an object oriented approach.
In order to generate the persistence tier, the object model of the database must exist beforehand.
Right-click on the ERD, and select
Synchronize to Class Diagram in the popup menu.
This produce a new class diagram that conforms to your data design, thus the database. All the
ORM Persistable Classes are mapped with entities that have the same name.
Select
Tools > Object Relational Mapping > Generate Code... from the main menu.
This shows the
Database Code Generation dialog box.
Enter the
Output Path for storing the generated code, and configure the code generation settings.
Press
Ok to proceed with generation. The code files are generated under the directory specified.
Reverse Database from FrontBase DB
Besides generating database from ERD, it is also possible to reverse an existing database into ERD. This facilitate the migration of legacy database design to a new one.
Select
Tools > Object Relational Mapping (ORM) > Reverse Code... from the main menu
Select the programming language, and press the
Next button to continue.
Enter the database settings, and press the
Next button to continue.
Select the Schema, and press the
Next button.
Select the tables for reversing, and press the
Finish button to reverse.
Upon finishing, an ERD will be created, showing the data design of the selected database.
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