Have You Seen Your Data Model Visually? Now You Can!

Viewing data models in tools like Visio has always been a difficult task for DataFlex developers even if they use a relational database as their back end. The reason why is that the DataFlex runtime reads relationship information from the INT files rather than from the server. The new Synchronize Relationship feature within Mertech's v10.1  Flex2SQL Migration Tool (see below)  allows users to transfer their DataFlex relationship to the server back end or retrieve the relationship information from the server into the INT files.

To transfer and create all relationship information from DataFlex to SQL Server, you select the top most level "All .INT Files" and click on the transfer arrow pointing right. This transfers the relationship information from the INT file to the server.

Once the relationship has been created on the server, other data modeling tools can now understand your DataFlex data model and create the visual representation in a couple of clicks.

The following data model diagram was generated from the data files used in the Visual DataFlex 16 Order Entry example. Visio and other data modeling tools like Power Designer, have an option to read the data model directly from the database server. The Order Entry example was generated using the "Reverse Engineer" option in Visio 2010 which walks the user through a few simple steps, the first being creation of a connection string or using an existing DSN name to connect to the database. Flex2SQL creates all the information needed by tools like Visio to create a complete data model diagram.