WWW SQL Designer - Documentation

Table of contents

Usage

Hello and welcome to WWW SQL Designer documentation. This page will hopefully help you with understanding how WWW SQL Desginer works and how can it be tailored to suit your needs.

Browsers

WWW SQL Designer was tested in the following browsers:

Konqueror is the only browser (from this list) which lacks support for Smooth connectors and XSLT transformations (generation of SQL scripts).

Basics

The application allows you to:

  1. Draw E-R designs
  2. Edit tables and rows
  3. Manage keys
  4. Create relations (FK constraints)
  5. Save & Load designs
  6. Import DB schemas

Most commands are intuitively available from the right sidebar. Some tasks are described below.

To drag a table, press mouse button while pointing at table header. You can then move the table around the canvas.

To edit table properties, either double-click its heading, or select it and then press 'Edit table' button in sidebar.

To edit field properties, either double-click it, or select it and then press 'Edit field' button in sidebar.

To manage keys for a table, select a table and press 'Edit keys' button in sidebar.

To draw a connector (relation), first select a field which forms a Primary Key. Then click 'Create foreign key' button in sidebar and click target table's heading. New field and relation will be created.

To perform any kind of save/load/export/import task, press the 'Save/Load' button in sidebar. A dialog window will appear, allowing you to perform clientside or serverside tasks.

Installation

You will need to install WWW SQL Designer if you want to:

Just download and unpack latest application archive. There are generally no requirements, but to use server-side storage, one should have a working webserver.

Customization

Many aspects of WWW SQL Designer can be customized and enhanced. If you manage to create a new locale / db / backend, feel free to send it to me. I will include your feature in a distribution archive.

CSS

Visual properties of the application can be tuned by editing files in css/ subdirectory.

Locale

Locales can be edited and added in locale/ subdirectory. New locales must be also registered in js/config.js.

Databases

Supported databases (their datatypes and XSLT template) are stored in db/ subdirectory. Each database has a datatype definition file (datatypes.xml) and a XSL transformation (output.xsl). New databases must be also registered in js/config.js.

Backends

Serverside backends allow you to save, load, list and import DB designs. They are written in a serverside scripting language and communicate via HTTP requests. Backends are stored in backend/ subdirectory. A brief summary of backend API follows:

For every action mentioned, the backend may also return HTTP/501 Not Implemented, meaning that this action is not supported by the backend.

Contact

This tool was created by Ondrej Zara, © 2005-2008. It is released under GNU GPL licence.

Changelog