Supplementing and manual schema

Dataedo has two sources of data schema (tables, columns, etc.) - imported and manual.

Imported metadata is what gets imported from the source database (schema from data dictionary).

Manual is what is entered manually with Dataedo editor.

Manual documentations

You can create manual documentation that has no connection to physical database. In manual documentation all objects need to be created manually.

To add manual documentation click Add in the ribbon and choose Manual database option.

Manual schema

The following documentation and schema elements can be added manually to Dataedo repository:

Tables and columns

You can add a manual table to all documentations - manual and imported. To add a table right click on repository Tables folder, select New and choose Table option.

Primary/unique keys

Dataedo allows you to add manual to any table or view primary (yellow icon) and unique (blue icon) keys, apart from those imported from database schema. Key is defined by type (primary/unique) and a list of columns.

Relationships (foreign keys)

Dataedo allows you to add manual relationships between any tables and views, apart from those imported from database schema. Relationships can be defined between tables in entire repository. Relationship is defined by foreign and primary table/view, list of pairs of columns (foreign and primary) and cardinalities for both ends of relationships.

You can do it in table details view or on ER diagram editor.

Supplementing schema

Apart from defining schema manually you can also supplement schema imported from database.

Primary/unique key

For any imported table and view you can define primary and unique key.

Relationships (foreign keys)

You can define relationship (foreign key) between any pair of imported and manual tables or views.

Relationships cardinality

For each relationship, including the ones imported from database, you can define cardinality of foreign table, in a way that you can document foreign key as one-to-one relationship.

This functionality will be improved in the future.

Manual columns

You can add manual columns to imported tables. You might want to add a column to imported table to document a virtual calculated column (e.g. gross_amount - amount + tax, or is_open - status = 'OPEN').

To add column to a table open the designer and click Add button in the ribbon. To open table designer right click table and click Design table option or select it and choose Design table option from the ribbon.

Reordering columns

Many database engines or development processes do not allow to reorder columns in existing tables. New columns are always added to the end. This can be confusing, especially when table has many columns. Dataedo enables you to sort columns manually without interfering with mechanism importing schema and changes from the database.

You can sort columns in table designer.

Icons

Manual elements have a blue person avatar in their icons.