Documenting tables and views

Dataedo imports stored procedures and functions from a database you document.

What gets imported

Dataedo imports the following metadata from the documented database:

• List of tables and views stored in the documented database/schema
• List of columns with their data types and nullability
• Primary and unique keys (constraints and/or indexes)
• Relations (foreign keys)
• Table triggers with trigger event
• Scripts (for views)
• Descriptions (see below)
• Dependencies

Imported descriptions/comments

While importing schema, Dataedo reads descriptions and comments added in DBMS. You can then edit those descriptions in the Dataedo repository using Dataedo Editor. Those descriptions will not be saved to the original documented database.

Imported descriptions include:

• Tables and views description
• Columns description
• Foreign keys description
• Primary and unique keys descriptions
• Trigger descriptions

Read more about importing descriptions.

Documentation scope

When you imported your database schema, you are ready to complete documenting tables and views.

Documentation of tables and views consists of:

• Description of each table/view (rich text with images)
• Optional title of each table/view (more on titles
• Description of each column (plain text)
• Optional title of each column
• Description of each primary and unique key
• User-defined primary and unique keys
• Description of each relation (foreign key)
• User-defined relations
• Description of each trigger
• User-defined custom fields

Table/view description

To write a table or view description, select it in the tree navigator and go to the Table/View tab in the editor in the right pane of the interface.

Enter or update text inside the editor. After the edit is done, you need to save changes. Saving includes all changes of an entire object on all tabs. Learn more about working with editor.

Column descriptions

To describe columns, go to the Columns tab of a table or view editor. The Columns tab displays a table of all table/view columns imported from the database. The table of columns has the following columns:

1. Icon - Icon of a column. A column deleted in the database is represented by an icon.
2. PK - Indicator if a column is part of the primary key - icon.
3. # - Column position in a table (imported from the database).
4. Name - Column name.
5. Title (editable) - Optional column title defined by the user only in the Dataedo repository (learn more about titles).
6. Data type - Column data type defined in the database.
7. Nullable - Indicator whether a column is defined as nullable or not. is visible for nullable columns.
8. Description (editable) - Column description entered by the user (or imported from the database).

To describe a column, edit the text in the description and optionally title fields (learn more about titles). After the edit is done, you need to save changes. Saving includes all changes of an entire object on all tabs. Learn more about working with editor.