Chiner, the data modeling software, coexists with beauty and practicability

[TOC]

1. Introduction to chiner

Before the appearance of chiner, PowerDesigner was used most of the time for database modeling and design. To be honest, it is basically used secretly, because everyone knows that PD is a paid software, and it has lawsuits with domestic manufacturers everywhere. Not only that, but the old-fashioned design interface of PowerDesigner has almost made me unable to bear it, and I have been looking for a replacement for PD.

Recently, I saw a colleague who was designing a database and found that he used a very good-looking tool. At first glance, I was very impressed. My colleague said that this software is very easy to use, and it is open source, called Chiner (pronounced Chiner). :[kaɪˈnər]). As far as this appearance is concerned, to be honest, it belongs to the "King of Glory" among the data modeling software, and it is super capable. Just because I saw you in the crowd, I can never forget your face again!

Because Chiner is developed using electron, it can be installed on windows, major Linux distributions, and MacOS.

Download address: https://gitee.com/robergroup/chiner/releases

How to install this software, I will not write. I also don't want to give you a list of how to use it step by step, how to create a new project, etc. I don't think these are very meaningful. The user interface of this software is very friendly, so there is basically no learning cost. In addition, there is a very detailed operation manual. After opening the software, click the "Operation Manual" button shown in the figure below to jump to a very detailed operation manual interface.

Second, the function points worth paying attention to

Without talking about the steps, what are we talking about? I would like to tell you what functions this software has, what are these functions useful to us, and how good it is.

2.1. Compatible with various formats of data modeling files

• Supports importing data modeling documents in PDMan format. PDman is the predecessor of Chiner and can be understood as the design document of Chiner 1.0.
• Supports importing CHER files. The cher format file is the export file of the current version 3.0, which can be saved independently, and can be imported from here after going anywhere.
• It supports importing PowerDesigner files, which means that if we used PD for database modeling in the past, it can still be imported and used in chiner.
• Import from the database, and reverse engineer the tables in the database by establishing a database connection to form a database modeling document.
• Importing DDL, that is to say, can be imported into the project through some table building statements, view building statements and so on.

2.2. Support multiple databases and code generation

The following picture is an interface for designing table structure for database tables. It is very friendly. I believe that students who have studied database will use it after reading it.

Let's look at the figure below. After the table structure modeling is completed, it can help us automatically generate table building statements for various databases.

Not only that, but also can generate JAVA and C# entity class code related to database table. Yes, it is not only a data modeling tool, but also a code generator.

2.3. Support logical view and physical view design

In the process of database design, we usually need to use an ER diagram (logical view) in the initial stage to express the relationship between the entities corresponding to each table in the database. ER diagram entities can be: one-to-many, one-to-one, many-to-many. As shown in the figure, what I marked in red is the "one" in the logical relationship, and the one marked in blue is the "many" in the logical relationship. for example:

• One class corresponds to multiple students
• A college with multiple classes
• One student corresponds to multiple exams

By looking at the picture, I think this relationship is still very clear and obvious.

After reading the logical view, look at the physical view. The physical view is to give the specific information of the physical structure of the database table on the basis of the logical view.

2.4. Automatically generate database documentation

After all the designs are completed, we usually need to output a "Database Design Document". In the past, this document usually needed to be handwritten by ourselves, but after we have chiner, we can generate it automatically. The following menu bar export, export WORD (that is, "export database design document")!

Take a look at the effect of the exported database document, does it save 80% of your workload? Absolutely!

The presentation structure of the generated database table is as follows.

If you think this is not enough, you can also customize the WORD template, this function is waiting for you to discover by yourself!

3. Summary

Above I just introduced some of the more distinctive functions of the Chiner software. Anyway, I have used it for a while and found it to be very easy to use. The projects developed by Chinese people have been particularly thorough in the research on the usage habits of domestic developers, and the effect is particularly good. !

With all that said, thank you for reading this article, the author wrote it with great care, and I hope to get your support!

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