Finally a good tool for Data Modeling: Oracle SqlDeveloper Data Modeling

How long did you search for a good tool to do Data Modeling. Well not long I guess, I always used Microsoft Visio for it. But how long did you search for a tool to create a Data Model and export the DDL statements or vice versa and also for one which is free? I did it now for around 4 year and then I found this blog entry: Finally – free tool for Oracle Data Modeling

It’s called Oracle SqlDeveloper Data Modeling

I just downloaded it and tried it out: It’s absolutely nice. You can create logical models like you know it from Visio but you can also create relational models where you can already define column data types, constraints and so.

But not even that, you can create relational models out from logical and vice versa!

Oracle SqlDeveloper Data Modeling can also export it to DDL (a feature I searched long for!). And even better: You can choose which DDL (Oracle 9i, 10g, 11g; SQL Server 2000, 2005; DB2 7, 7.1, 8, 8.1). The only bad thing: MySql isn’t supported right now 😦 (Already gave feedback on that! 😉 )

Of course you’re also able to play it the other way round and import DDL and create a datamodel out of it – really cool stuff! And you can again import it for any databases listed above!

And now the best feature: If you’ve access to the DB catalog, you can even create a data model out of an existing schema!

Sorry for the grey shadows but a little bit of data protection must be! 😉

All in all Oracle SqlDeveloper Data Modeling is really a good tool. It has lots of more features which I didn’t try out so far (Design Rules, Multidimensional Models, Process Models, …) and the best thing: It’s free – at the moment. It seems that there were some rumors about a license for this tool. We’ll see!