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Show HN: A JavaScript Tool for Database Diagramming

75 points by rms_returns 10y ago

badgeek 10y ago
Hi check this out similar tools but tied to laravel now... https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigner https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigne... Ps, im the author
- overcast 10y ago
  Ps. Create your own Show HN, instead of shitting on someone elses.
  - badgeek 10y ago
    Sorry.. Doesnt mean to do that..
  - stephenhuey 10y ago
    Overcast day giving you the blues? I tend to appreciate seeing related tools mentioned. We'd need too many Show HN posts to see them all.
    - overcast 10y ago
      I agree with that, however they didn't offer any type of analysis or commenting on OP's work, or offer an alternative that addresses issues they may have found. Blatantly just posting your work as the first post doesn't really accomplish anything except spam.
- rms_returns 10y ago
  Nice tool badgeek! You've given me some nice ideas for displaying the tables on canvas. I like the fact that you've given "add column" button on the tables itself instead of opening a separate edit view.
  - badgeek 10y ago
    And you give me idea on how to add column seems nice with one dialog cheers!
avmich 10y ago
Another pretty good tool e.g. for fast prototyping: https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner
curun1r 10y ago
Disclaimer: I don't want to minimize your achievement or be overly critical of the tool you've built. I've used a lot of relational database modeling tools in the past and what you've built looks perfectly capable for the job. But I clicked on your link hoping for something very different and didn't find it. So hopefully others can point me in the right direction if what I am looking for exists. The crux of my disappointment stems from you having left out a word in the description of your tool. It's a Relational Database Diagramming tool...the Relational aspect of it making it significantly less useful for me. I've worked with Relational databases for close to 30 years and I find that I'm able to design schemas in my head without the need for a tool. On occasion, a tool that's able to reverse engineer a visualization of the model from the schema can be useful in quickly coming up to speed on an existing schema, but even that isn't essential. Where I think tools would really help me is in designing for non-relational databases. It's a harder problem, since those databases are often schemaless, but that would make a design tool all the more useful, since those designs could act as documentation that's often unnecessary in the relational world where the schema is readily available. So can anyone point me towards a visual design tool for non-relational databases, document, kv or otherwise?
- voycey 10y ago
  Crayons?
- onion2k 10y ago
  "schemaless databases" are somewhat badly named - there is a schema, in the sense that something knows what the constraints on the data are, but it's not defined in the database itself. It's defined in the code that interacts with the data in the database. With that in mind, the thing that you actually need to diagram (or model) is the data, not the database. What your diagram needs to tell you is what data there is, what type of data it is, and what that means. That doesn't change regardless of what technology you're using.
- rms_returns 10y ago
  Thanks for your views, I'm the author of the linked VA tool. One of the primary aspects of this tool besides diagramming is to automate code generation. Presently, it exports the diagram to SQLAlchemy classes and raw mysql format. The idea is that once you design the tables in your head, you should be able to seamlessly translate it to an actual database format like mysql, pgsql, etc. and don't have to waste much time on that! As for "schema-less" diagramming tools, I think your best bet will be a mind-map. There are many mind-mapping software available including GPL ones like Freemind. What it does is take a central idea and create branches from that root. For example, Database will split into Relational/Non-relational branch. Relational will split into mysq/pgsql and non-relational will split into mongodb/couchdb, etc. To the best of my knowledge, this is how non-relational databases like mongodb work document inside a document inside a document, right?
amelius 10y ago
Hi, this looks nice, but could you make the examples somewhat more realistic? I really wonder what this looks like with, say, 50 entities, all interconnected.
- rms_returns 10y ago
  Your only issue would be perhaps screen real estate! Since this is a pure JavaScript plus jQuery app and doesn't have any heavy framework like Angularjs, performance shouldn't be a problem. Having said that, there are a few UI issues that needs taken care of and I'm working on those bugs.
  - amelius 10y ago
    Yes, screen real estate would be a problem, and also the way in which the relationships between the entities are drawn (I am imagining that it may become a "tangled" mess :) So a realistic example would be awesome.
yAnonymous 10y ago
I like it, thanks. One thing: When two tables are right next to each other, there's no need for the relation links to curve. Generally, rectangular links are easier to follow.
- rms_returns 10y ago
  Thank You! Yes, I've been struggling with the jsPlumb library to convert that to rectangular curves, but its on the list!
romanovcode 10y ago
It's nice but I like tools that actually take the database and then design the layout e.g. Entity Framework Power Tools.
gholevas 10y ago
This is a similar tool I authored, however, tied to Mongoose/mongodb http://mongomulch.com/ http://mongomulch.com/
- shash7 10y ago
  Hey I would like to try this but it fails to download. I reckon you could host the zip on github which would be better. Edit: Nevermind, finally downloaded, and its for mac only. Darn.
  - gholevas 10y ago
    Since its an electron app you should be able to build a local copy for windows by just following the directions on the github repo: https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch
systemtrigger 10y ago
Impressive. By chance have you looked at jsPlumb? If so what, if any, pain points did you encounter? http://jsplumbtoolkit.com http://jsplumbtoolkit.com
- rms_returns 10y ago
  Yes. I'm using exactly jsPlumb to create the relationship links between the table! The only slight issue I've encountered till now is that the joining points are slightly moved to the left whilst the table is being moved, which creates a slightly ugly user experience!
- splitbrain 10y ago
  hmm it seems their community edition has no autolayout mechanism. And OPs tool doesn't either. Anyone got some pointers how to add auto layout to jsPlumb community edition?
projectramo 10y ago
I really liked this tool, and it's what I used to quickly knock out the data structures for my flask app. Is there an alternative for django or flask? p.s. I found the ability to save and reload old schemas was buggy (or i couldn't get it to work).
threepipeproblm 10y ago
Nice work. On your github page this caught my eye... "Governance: Meritocracy" So, who does Merit-determinance?

75 points by rms_returns 10y ago

Hi check this out similar tools but tied to laravel now... https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigner https://github.com/BioDesignRealWorld/LaravelDatabaseDesigne... Ps, im the author

overcast 10y ago
Ps. Create your own Show HN, instead of shitting on someone elses.
- badgeek 10y ago
  Sorry.. Doesnt mean to do that..
- stephenhuey 10y ago
  Overcast day giving you the blues? I tend to appreciate seeing related tools mentioned. We'd need too many Show HN posts to see them all.
  - overcast 10y ago
    I agree with that, however they didn't offer any type of analysis or commenting on OP's work, or offer an alternative that addresses issues they may have found. Blatantly just posting your work as the first post doesn't really accomplish anything except spam.
rms_returns 10y ago
Nice tool badgeek! You've given me some nice ideas for displaying the tables on canvas. I like the fact that you've given "add column" button on the tables itself instead of opening a separate edit view.
- badgeek 10y ago
  And you give me idea on how to add column seems nice with one dialog cheers!

avmich 10y ago

Another pretty good tool e.g. for fast prototyping: https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner https://github.com/ondras/wwwsqldesigner

curun1r 10y ago

Disclaimer: I don't want to minimize your achievement or be overly critical of the tool you've built. I've used a lot of relational database modeling tools in the past and what you've built looks perfectly capable for the job. But I clicked on your link hoping for something very different and didn't find it. So hopefully others can point me in the right direction if what I am looking for exists. The crux of my disappointment stems from you having left out a word in the description of your tool. It's a Relational Database Diagramming tool...the Relational aspect of it making it significantly less useful for me. I've worked with Relational databases for close to 30 years and I find that I'm able to design schemas in my head without the need for a tool. On occasion, a tool that's able to reverse engineer a visualization of the model from the schema can be useful in quickly coming up to speed on an existing schema, but even that isn't essential. Where I think tools would really help me is in designing for non-relational databases. It's a harder problem, since those databases are often schemaless, but that would make a design tool all the more useful, since those designs could act as documentation that's often unnecessary in the relational world where the schema is readily available. So can anyone point me towards a visual design tool for non-relational databases, document, kv or otherwise?

voycey 10y ago
Crayons?
onion2k 10y ago
"schemaless databases" are somewhat badly named - there is a schema, in the sense that something knows what the constraints on the data are, but it's not defined in the database itself. It's defined in the code that interacts with the data in the database. With that in mind, the thing that you actually need to diagram (or model) is the data, not the database. What your diagram needs to tell you is what data there is, what type of data it is, and what that means. That doesn't change regardless of what technology you're using.
rms_returns 10y ago
Thanks for your views, I'm the author of the linked VA tool. One of the primary aspects of this tool besides diagramming is to automate code generation. Presently, it exports the diagram to SQLAlchemy classes and raw mysql format. The idea is that once you design the tables in your head, you should be able to seamlessly translate it to an actual database format like mysql, pgsql, etc. and don't have to waste much time on that! As for "schema-less" diagramming tools, I think your best bet will be a mind-map. There are many mind-mapping software available including GPL ones like Freemind. What it does is take a central idea and create branches from that root. For example, Database will split into Relational/Non-relational branch. Relational will split into mysq/pgsql and non-relational will split into mongodb/couchdb, etc. To the best of my knowledge, this is how non-relational databases like mongodb work document inside a document inside a document, right?

amelius 10y ago

Hi, this looks nice, but could you make the examples somewhat more realistic? I really wonder what this looks like with, say, 50 entities, all interconnected.

rms_returns 10y ago
Your only issue would be perhaps screen real estate! Since this is a pure JavaScript plus jQuery app and doesn't have any heavy framework like Angularjs, performance shouldn't be a problem. Having said that, there are a few UI issues that needs taken care of and I'm working on those bugs.
- amelius 10y ago
  Yes, screen real estate would be a problem, and also the way in which the relationships between the entities are drawn (I am imagining that it may become a "tangled" mess :) So a realistic example would be awesome.

yAnonymous 10y ago

I like it, thanks. One thing: When two tables are right next to each other, there's no need for the relation links to curve. Generally, rectangular links are easier to follow.

rms_returns 10y ago
Thank You! Yes, I've been struggling with the jsPlumb library to convert that to rectangular curves, but its on the list!

romanovcode 10y ago

It's nice but I like tools that actually take the database and then design the layout e.g. Entity Framework Power Tools.

gholevas 10y ago

This is a similar tool I authored, however, tied to Mongoose/mongodb http://mongomulch.com/ http://mongomulch.com/

shash7 10y ago
Hey I would like to try this but it fails to download. I reckon you could host the zip on github which would be better. Edit: Nevermind, finally downloaded, and its for mac only. Darn.
- gholevas 10y ago
  Since its an electron app you should be able to build a local copy for windows by just following the directions on the github repo: https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch https://github.com/gholevas/mongomulch

systemtrigger 10y ago

Impressive. By chance have you looked at jsPlumb? If so what, if any, pain points did you encounter? http://jsplumbtoolkit.com http://jsplumbtoolkit.com

rms_returns 10y ago
Yes. I'm using exactly jsPlumb to create the relationship links between the table! The only slight issue I've encountered till now is that the joining points are slightly moved to the left whilst the table is being moved, which creates a slightly ugly user experience!
splitbrain 10y ago
hmm it seems their community edition has no autolayout mechanism. And OPs tool doesn't either. Anyone got some pointers how to add auto layout to jsPlumb community edition?

projectramo 10y ago

I really liked this tool, and it's what I used to quickly knock out the data structures for my flask app. Is there an alternative for django or flask? p.s. I found the ability to save and reload old schemas was buggy (or i couldn't get it to work).

threepipeproblm 10y ago

Nice work. On your github page this caught my eye... "Governance: Meritocracy" So, who does Merit-determinance?