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Read (and Visualize) Data

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  Read (and Visualize) Data "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
    Re: Read (and Visualize) "Christian" <christian@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
      Re: Read (and Visualize) "CK" <ck@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
        Re: Read (and Visualize) "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
      Re: Read (and Visualize) "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
        Re: Read (and Visualize) "Martin Gregorie" <martin.gregorie@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
          Re: Read (and Visualize) "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
        Re: Read (and Visualize) "Mishagam" <mishagam@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
          Re: Read (and Visualize) "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
            Re: Read (and Visualize) "Lew" <lew@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
              Re: Read (and Visualize) "send.me.all.email" <send.me.all.email@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
                Re: Read (and Visualize) "Lew" <lew@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000
    Re: Read (and Visualize) "Sualeh Fatehi" <sualeh.fatehi@THRWHITE.remove-dii-this> - 2011-04-27 15:34 +0000

#1643 — Read (and Visualize) Data

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
Hi experts,

which approaches would you suggest for:

 - Reading a database schema (tables, fields, relationships) from SQL
Server 2005?
 - Visualizing the DB schema?

For developing a DB tool (Eclipse plug-in) the schema should be read
from the server and then be visualized, e.g. like the SQL Server BI
Development Studio does when importing the whole schema to a data
source view.

Any ideas or hints on how to start approaching this (either reading
schema and/or visualizing it) are welcome!


Regards,
Max

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#1644 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
send.me.all.email@googlemail.com schrieb:
> Hi experts,
> 
> which approaches would you suggest for:
> 
>  - Reading a database schema (tables, fields, relationships) from SQL
> Server 2005?
>  - Visualizing the DB schema?
> 
> For developing a DB tool (Eclipse plug-in) the schema should be read
> from the server and then be visualized, e.g. like the SQL Server BI
> Development Studio does when importing the whole schema to a data
> source view.
> 
> Any ideas or hints on how to start approaching this (either reading
> schema and/or visualizing it) are welcome!
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Max
> 
Well visualization. How about doing it like an Entity-Relationship model...
thats at least one Visulaization that comes to my mind .. may be you
want more..

Christian

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#1650 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.gui
Words to the wise, Christian <fakemail@xyz.de> wrote:

>> Any ideas or hints on how to start approaching this (either reading
>> schema and/or visualizing it) are welcome!

If you are up to an interesting read for visualization databases and
more importantly, user queries on a database, try to locate: 

"VisDB: Database Exploration Using Multidimensional Visualization"
(Daniel A. Keim & Hans-Peter Kriegel, University of Munich) 
contained in 
"Readings in Information Visualization" (Stuart K. Card, Jock D.
Mackinlay, Ben Shneidemann)
--
Claus Kick
Computers are stupid, but they create work

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#1657 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.gui
On 17 Mai, 22:49, CK <a...@c.d> wrote:

> "VisDB: Database Exploration Using Multidimensional Visualization"
> (Daniel A. Keim & Hans-Peter Kriegel, University of Munich)
> contained in
> "Readings in Information Visualization" (Stuart K. Card, Jock D.
> Mackinlay, Ben Shneidemann)

Thanks for the hint. Keim is really a name when it comes to the
visualization of data. I liked the "triangle approach" for visualizing
stock prices he presented on "Analytics Day" at Fraunhofer IGD this
year.

But in my case I just want to show a database schema to the user to
enable him/her to perform selections and basic operations on the
tables. I'm just asking myself what is the current state-of-the-art-
approach to do so. Which frameworks can be used to minimize the
development effort and get a neatly looking GUI?

Regards,
Max

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#1655 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
On 17 Mai, 15:19, Christian <fakem...@xyz.de> wrote:

> Well visualization. How about doing it like an Entity-Relationship model...
> thats at least one Visulaization that comes to my mind .. may be you
> want more..

No, in contrast, I want less. :-)

Generating an ER model based on a given database schema would require
some model transformation or reverse engineering approaches (e.g. to
decide if a concrete relation could have been introduced to realize a
weak entity or a multivalued attribute).

The kind of visualization I have in mind is just an easy to understand
graphical 1:1 representation of the schema. Something like: Tables are
depicted as boxes, containing the fields of the table as rows showing
the name and type of the field. Fields acting as primary or foreign
keys are specially marked. Relationships between tables are depicted
as lines connecting the tables. If the name of a relationship and the
cardinality information are given, then these should also be included
as labels to the relationship lines. The visualization of the database
schema should then allow the user to select tables by clicking on them
and perform basic operations on them.

So this should be no rocket sience, but as I never built such a tool
before, I'm quite interested in what is the current state-of-the-art-
approach to do this. Building an Eclipse-PlugIn using EMF? Which
frameworks to use to minimize the development effort?

Any ideas?


Regards,
Max

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#1658 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
send.me.all.email@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 17 Mai, 15:19, Christian <fakem...@xyz.de> wrote:
> 
>> Well visualization. How about doing it like an Entity-Relationship model...
>> thats at least one Visulaization that comes to my mind .. may be you
>> want more..
> 
> No, in contrast, I want less. :-)
> 
> Generating an ER model based on a given database schema would require
> some model transformation or reverse engineering approaches (e.g. to
> decide if a concrete relation could have been introduced to realize a
> weak entity or a multivalued attribute).
> 
> The kind of visualization I have in mind is just an easy to understand
> graphical 1:1 representation of the schema. Something like: Tables are
> depicted as boxes, containing the fields of the table as rows showing
> the name and type of the field. Fields acting as primary or foreign
> keys are specially marked. Relationships between tables are depicted
> as lines connecting the tables. If the name of a relationship and the
> cardinality information are given, then these should also be included
> as labels to the relationship lines. The visualization of the database
> schema should then allow the user to select tables by clicking on them
> and perform basic operations on them.
> 
> So this should be no rocket sience, but as I never built such a tool
> before, I'm quite interested in what is the current state-of-the-art-
> approach to do this. Building an Eclipse-PlugIn using EMF? Which
> frameworks to use to minimize the development effort?
> 
> Any ideas?
>
As you say, this seems quite doable - the JDBC metadata retrieval 
functions should be able to return most of what you need, though you may 
need to rethink the GUI. It may be enough of a problem to draw a 
readable ER diagram (where E=table, R=fk) showing just the table names 
from a decent sized schema and disentangling it so not to many 
relationship lines cross could be quite difficult. You may want to show 
table properties (columns, keys, indices, etc) only by clicking on a 
table and the same for a relationship.

Are you familiar with the Embarcadero (http://www.embarcadero.com) 
tools? If not you could do a lot worse that download an evaluation copy 
or two. Some of their stuff may be what you need and failing that you'll 
surely get some ideas by playing with it.

If you may find that automatically producing a schema diagram that isn't 
a tangled mess is sufficiently difficult that the way to go is to let 
the user drag objects around to make the diagram readable and then save 
the result. On start-up it should be easy enough to compare the saved 
model with the actual schema. If they are the same there's no problem: 
just show the hand-modified version. If they differ you'll need to do 
something about it: either replace the diagram entirely or just patch it 
to match the schema, again letting the user change any tangled bits.

HTH


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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#1664 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
On 18 Mai, 15:53, Martin Gregorie <mar...@see.sig.for.address> wrote:

> [...] showing just the table names from a decent sized schema and
> disentangling it so not to many relationship lines cross could be
> quite difficult.

Yes, you are addressing a very important point. Finding a framework
for just creating a visualization somehow is one thing. Getting a
neatly layouted schema representation is way more complex, if we
assume this framework doesn't offer ready to use layout algorithms
(layouter) right out of the box.

> Are you familiar with the Embarcadero (http://www.embarcadero.com)
> tools?

No, not yet, but a graphical representation and a layout like e.g.

http://www.embarcadero.com/news/product_photos/ERStudioOverview_HiRes.jpg

would be quite perfect.

> If you may find that automatically producing a schema diagram that isn't
> a tangled mess is sufficiently difficult that the way to go is to let
> the user drag objects around to make the diagram readable and then save
> the result.

This is quite a good solution if no layouter is available or the
effort of writing one, would be overkill. I think the approach you
describe should do it.

Now, the big question is: What framework should I base my tool
experiments on? Which framework is the current "state of the art" for
developing a design environment dealing with database schemas? Using
the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) and start from scratch? Or are
they any sophisticated frameworks available, which could reduce the
development effort?


Regards,
Max

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#1661 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
send.me.all.email@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 17 Mai, 15:19, Christian <fakem...@xyz.de> wrote:
> 
>> Well visualization. How about doing it like an Entity-Relationship model...
>> thats at least one Visulaization that comes to my mind .. may be you
>> want more..
> 
> No, in contrast, I want less. :-)
> 
> Generating an ER model based on a given database schema would require
> some model transformation or reverse engineering approaches (e.g. to
> decide if a concrete relation could have been introduced to realize a
> weak entity or a multivalued attribute).
> 
> The kind of visualization I have in mind is just an easy to understand
> graphical 1:1 representation of the schema. Something like: Tables are
> depicted as boxes, containing the fields of the table as rows showing
> the name and type of the field. Fields acting as primary or foreign
> keys are specially marked. Relationships between tables are depicted
> as lines connecting the tables. If the name of a relationship and the
> cardinality information are given, then these should also be included
> as labels to the relationship lines. The visualization of the database
> schema should then allow the user to select tables by clicking on them
> and perform basic operations on them.
> 
> So this should be no rocket sience, but as I never built such a tool
> before, I'm quite interested in what is the current state-of-the-art-
> approach to do this. Building an Eclipse-PlugIn using EMF? Which
> frameworks to use to minimize the development effort?
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Max
> 
I believe I have seen Eclipse plugin doing just this - probably 
azzurri.clay. I played with it some time ago - you setup parameters like 
database connection, user, password, database used - and it produces 
picture or some structure with database schema.

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#1665 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
On 18 Mai, 22:19, Mishagam <noem...@provider.com> wrote:

> I believe I have seen Eclipse plugin doing just this - probably
> azzurri.clay. I played with it some time ago - you setup parameters like
> database connection, user, password, database used - and it produces
> picture or some structure with database schema.

Yes, thanks for the hint. Azzurri Clay is able to "reverse engineer"
the schema of a concrete database and offers modeling in a visual
manner. Like e.g. depicted in:

http://www.azzurri.jp/en/software/clay/images/clay_eclipse_1.png

So now I'm interested in what frameworks are available to start
building my own visual modeling environment based on a concrete
database schema. Just read the database schema, visualize it and let
the user select some tables and perform some (nontrivial) operations
on it. What's the best framework to start with to minimite the
development effort? Any hints, ideas, approaches?

Regards,
Max

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#1666 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
send.me.all.email@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 18 Mai, 22:19, Mishagam <noem...@provider.com> wrote:
> 
>> I believe I have seen Eclipse plugin doing just this - probably
>> azzurri.clay. I played with it some time ago - you setup parameters like
>> database connection, user, password, database used - and it produces
>> picture or some structure with database schema.
> 
> Yes, thanks for the hint. Azzurri Clay is able to "reverse engineer"
> the schema of a concrete database and offers modeling in a visual
> manner. Like e.g. depicted in:
> 
> http://www.azzurri.jp/en/software/clay/images/clay_eclipse_1.png
> 
> So now I'm interested in what frameworks are available to start
> building my own visual modeling environment based on a concrete
> database schema. Just read the database schema, visualize it and let
> the user select some tables and perform some (nontrivial) operations
> on it. What's the best framework to start with to minimite the
> development effort? Any hints, ideas, approaches?

Any chance you could set the followup on this thread to one newsgroup?  I keep 
reading the same posts again and again.

Which newsgroup best represents the issues of your inquiry?

-- 
Lew

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#1671 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
On 21 Mai, 05:59, Lew <l...@nospam.lewscanon.com> wrote:

> Any chance you could set the followup on this thread to one newsgroup?  I keep
> reading the same posts again and again.

Please correct me, if I'm wrong, but I always thought that the message
I post should have one single unique ID if a proper crosspost is done
(in contrast to multicopying, i.e. copying a post to several groups).
If reading a certain message and this message becomes marked as read,
a proper newsreader should recognize this message in other groups and
show it correctly as already read. This should prevent reading a
single message multiple times in differnt groups. But if things have
changed, I'm willing to adjust my behaviour. :-)

> Which newsgroup best represents the issues of your inquiry?

As it has something to do with databases and GUI development, I think
crossposting to comp.lang.java.databases and comp.lang.java.gui should
be enough.

Regards,
Max

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#1672 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
send.me.all.email@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 21 Mai, 05:59, Lew <l...@nospam.lewscanon.com> wrote:
> 
>> Any chance you could set the followup on this thread to one newsgroup?  I keep
>> reading the same posts again and again.
> 
> Please correct me, if I'm wrong, but I always thought that the message
> I post should have one single unique ID if a proper crosspost is done
> (in contrast to multicopying, i.e. copying a post to several groups).
> If reading a certain message and this message becomes marked as read,
> a proper newsreader should recognize this message in other groups and
> show it correctly as already read. This should prevent reading a
> single message multiple times in differnt groups. But if things have
> changed, I'm willing to adjust my behaviour. :-)
> 
>> Which newsgroup best represents the issues of your inquiry?
> 
> As it has something to do with databases and GUI development, I think
> crossposting to comp.lang.java.databases and comp.lang.java.gui should
> be enough.

You are partly right - you do have a single message "ID", but it shows up in 
every group you cross-post to.  Since I read most of them, I keep seeing the 
same message in each group.

I guess I don't have a "proper" newsreader by your lights, but it's always 
been good enough for me.

I only asked because the thread has gone on for a while and I thought to 
minimize the repetition.  The choice is entirely yours.

-- 
Lew

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#1667 — Re: Read (and Visualize)

  To: comp.lang.java.databases,
Max,

 - Reading a database schema (tables, fields, relationships) from SQL
Server 2005?

SchemaCrawler is an open-source project that produces a rational the
database metadata ojbect model. Take a look at http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/32443
SchemaCrawler can be downloaded from http://schemacrawler.sourceforge.net/

 - Visualizing the DB schema?

SchemaCrawler comes with some dead-simple schema visualization
examples, using JUNG. You can build more elaborate visualization using
a good graphing library.

Sualeh.

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