> There is a project on sourcefore called Alzabo which will create an SQL
> database from an object representation or will go the opposite direction as
> well (reverse engineer an existing SQL database to create an object
> representation.
handy. I know somebody else who is doing something like that and has just
rolled his own, I'll mail the url to him.
also I could use it or chunks of it (assuming its under a decent
license) for autodia. It sounds very useful.
> The object representation can be manipulated via html/browser screens and
> the changes zapped back into the database.
>
> I was thinking of writing a perl script which would create DIA UML diagrams
> (the text file) from the internal representations in Alzabo (also written
> in perl). These diagrams could be visualized in DIA, modified (move around
> the boxes so result is better formatted), and then reparsed by a script to
> be compatible with Alzabo, which would write the changes into the actual
> database (and ignore/retain the visual formatting info)
Try using autodia's Diagram and DiagramFoo modules - they do most of the
hard work, better still write a Handler - I'd appreciate any feedback on
how the framework works for stuff like that.
> Perhaps your Dia SQL plugin, or the Dia2SQL can do the same thing?
I think Dia2sql reads the Dia XML (fairly easy as long as you don't use
DOM) and creates Dia XML statements. This can be taken further and
actually inereact directly with a Dataase if you feel like living on the
egde and have some perl skillz up your sleeve.
> The basic need here is to build up enough tools so that once you have a Dia
> UML diagram, something can be done with it besides hanging it up on the
> wall.
So far I have enough tools to create Dia UML diagrams from most data
sources. Next I plan to add support for GraphViz (which handily lays out
diagrams) and then do UML to Code / SQL / XML / Documentation / HTML.
A.
