Entity Relationship Diagram

Yahoo Archive
1
Greg,

Based on your description of what you're attempting to do, I can suggest a
program that might be, as Mark Pladson might say, "an elegant solution" for
your project. If you haven't done so already, you should seriously consider
investigating Microsoft's Visio 2002 Professional. You would be especially
interested in the database reverse engineering functionality in this program
(why Microsoft would be involved in reverse engineering, I'm not sure! :-)).
I believe a separate ODBC driver would be required to use Visio 2002 with
Progress.

Based on the demo I've seen, I believe you would find this "way cool"! I am
planning to license Visio 2002 primarily for this reason, but it would also
be useful for network diagramming, office floor plans, organizational
charts, etc. If I do this, I'll let you know how well it works.

Good luck.

Regards,
Scott A. Lepley
Systems Administrator
Mauell Corporation
31 Old Cabin Hollow Road
Dillsburg PA 17019-8815
Phone: 717-432-8686, ext. 14
Fax: 717-432-8688
Email: sal@...

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Krumrey [mailto:gkrumrey@...]
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 4:52 PM
To: 'vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: [Vantage] Entity Relationship Diagram

BTW: This project is not dead, just slowed down a little.

The Entity Relationship Diagram is a flowchart-like chart of various
tables in Vantage, the linkages between them and fields used to join
them. An accurate ERD can save a lot of time (and avoid errors) when
building queries.

Previously, I attempted to build the ERD from the Data Dictionary, but
could not because the data dictionary is not 100% accurate.

I have been building the ERD slowly. Instead of using the Data
Dictionary, I have been building it a few tables at a time, after I
build a report in Report Builder and verify the joins first. I also ask
Vantage Support from time-to-time to make sure I'm on the right track.
When I have enough knowledge gained this way, I may attempt to
automatically build it again, using my existing info to verify it's
accuracy.

Greg Krumrey
Information Manager
Patriot Machine, Inc.
Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
fax: 636-940-8933
email me: mailto:greg.krumrey@...
Alt email: mailto:greg@...
visit us at: www.patriot-machine.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
2
I have been working on constructing an Entity Relationship Diagram for
Vantage. What it looks like is a flowchart of tables and their
relationships. The intent is to have a visual guide of where data is
stored and how to join tables when building reports.

Has anyone seen or worked on something like this? I am using data from
the Progress Data Dictionary Reports (to get details of various tables)
and the eMfg Data Dictionary Report (to get accurate relationship info).
I then import this into MS Access and am using Visual Basic to locate
relationships and build trees. It's sounds bizarre, but I'm getting
closer to usable data.

Greg Krumrey
Information Manager
Patriot Machine, Inc.
Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
fax: 636-940-8933
email me: mailto:gkrumrey@...
visit us at: http://www.patriot-machine.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
3
At 04:25 PM 6/25/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>I have been working on constructing an Entity Relationship Diagram for
>Vantage. What it looks like is a flowchart of tables and their
>relationships. The intent is to have a visual guide of where data is
>stored and how to join tables when building reports.

There are various DataBase Modeling Tools on the market to do this. They
can be used to build a generic definition of a DB, then spit it out to run
on a specific platform (Oracle, Progress, etc.) I think most of 'em will
do the reverse, too: read directly from a DB, or definition script, and
build a generic model.

The guys down the hall at the software company have a package, Platinum's
ER/Win that does this. It's supposed to handle Progress. I tried reading
in the *.DF files in Vantage\DB, but it choked on most of them, and I never
messed with it much more. Also, I'm not sure if the .DF files Epicor makes
available go all the way back to a blank slate, or not.

There's also a good chance the fine print in your Epicor contract prohibits
such things... However, the writers of the Vantage 4 & 5 Installation
Manuals generously suggest you just "read the new .DF files to answer any
questions regarding changes in DB structure." Hmm, how about just give us
the source [like the good ol' days ;)] and save the effort developing those
help files and tutorials?!

-Wayne Cox
4
Hi Greg,

What you are doing is a brilliant idea. In fact, I have been doing
something very similar, using a process map, to help our current folks
better understand what they do and how it affects others. I am going to
forward this to our contact at Epicor. I would think this is something
they must have already created for the training of their employees.
Have you requested anything like this from them?

Jim


Jim McKechnie
General Manager
Signtech Electrical Advertising, Inc.
jim@...
jrmckechnie@...
(619) 527-6100

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Krumrey [mailto:gkrumrey@...]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 2:26 PM
To: 'vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: [Vantage] Entity Relationship Diagram

I have been working on constructing an Entity Relationship Diagram for
Vantage. What it looks like is a flowchart of tables and their
relationships. The intent is to have a visual guide of where data is
stored and how to join tables when building reports.

Has anyone seen or worked on something like this? I am using data from
the Progress Data Dictionary Reports (to get details of various tables)
and the eMfg Data Dictionary Report (to get accurate relationship info).
I then import this into MS Access and am using Visual Basic to locate
relationships and build trees. It's sounds bizarre, but I'm getting
closer to usable data.

Greg Krumrey
Information Manager
Patriot Machine, Inc.
Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
fax: 636-940-8933
email me: mailto:gkrumrey@...
visit us at: http://www.patriot-machine.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
5
I've been working on this too. Wrote a program to find one-to-many
relationships between tables. Also interested in documenting field
relation problems, not ones named the same in different tables. But
those that are the same field but have different names or formats,
like one is alphanumeric while the other is numeric. Or fields that
have the same name but aren't the same field.

Chris Robisch
425-788-2489

--- In vantage@y..., Greg Krumrey <gkrumrey@p...> wrote:
> I have been working on constructing an Entity Relationship Diagram
for
> Vantage. What it looks like is a flowchart of tables and their
> relationships. The intent is to have a visual guide of where data is
> stored and how to join tables when building reports.
>
> Has anyone seen or worked on something like this? I am using data
from
> the Progress Data Dictionary Reports (to get details of various
tables)
> and the eMfg Data Dictionary Report (to get accurate relationship
info).
> I then import this into MS Access and am using Visual Basic to
locate
> relationships and build trees. It's sounds bizarre, but I'm getting
> closer to usable data.
>
> Greg Krumrey
> Information Manager
> Patriot Machine, Inc.
> Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
> fax: 636-940-8933
> email me: mailto:gkrumrey@p...
> visit us at: http://www.patriot-machine.com
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
6
I used to be part of a team of programmers writing a new software product.
Those people spend many hours doing exactly what you're talking about.
Epicor will have one of these in some form or another in their programming
dept. Whether they give it out is another story. But I don't see why they
wouldn't have something already put together that they can hand out to
clients. Especially, considering the number of clients who use Crystal or
Report Writer.

Gary Polvinale
Denton ATD
garyp@...

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Robisch [mailto:crobisch1@...]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 1:33 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Entity Relationship Diagram


I've been working on this too. Wrote a program to find one-to-many
relationships between tables. Also interested in documenting field
relation problems, not ones named the same in different tables. But
those that are the same field but have different names or formats,
like one is alphanumeric while the other is numeric. Or fields that
have the same name but aren't the same field.

Chris Robisch
425-788-2489

--- In vantage@y..., Greg Krumrey <gkrumrey@p...> wrote:
> I have been working on constructing an Entity Relationship Diagram
for
> Vantage. What it looks like is a flowchart of tables and their
> relationships. The intent is to have a visual guide of where data is
> stored and how to join tables when building reports.
>
> Has anyone seen or worked on something like this? I am using data
from
> the Progress Data Dictionary Reports (to get details of various
tables)
> and the eMfg Data Dictionary Report (to get accurate relationship
info).
> I then import this into MS Access and am using Visual Basic to
locate
> relationships and build trees. It's sounds bizarre, but I'm getting
> closer to usable data.
>
> Greg Krumrey
> Information Manager
> Patriot Machine, Inc.
> Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
> fax: 636-940-8933
> email me: mailto:gkrumrey@p...
> visit us at: http://www.patriot-machine.com
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder and
Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/. Note: You must have already
linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
7
BTW: This project is not dead, just slowed down a little.

The Entity Relationship Diagram is a flowchart-like chart of various
tables in Vantage, the linkages between them and fields used to join
them. An accurate ERD can save a lot of time (and avoid errors) when
building queries.

Previously, I attempted to build the ERD from the Data Dictionary, but
could not because the data dictionary is not 100% accurate.

I have been building the ERD slowly. Instead of using the Data
Dictionary, I have been building it a few tables at a time, after I
build a report in Report Builder and verify the joins first. I also ask
Vantage Support from time-to-time to make sure I'm on the right track.
When I have enough knowledge gained this way, I may attempt to
automatically build it again, using my existing info to verify it's
accuracy.

Greg Krumrey
Information Manager
Patriot Machine, Inc.
Voice: 636-940-1776 x 130
fax: 636-940-8933
email me: mailto:greg.krumrey@...
Alt email: mailto:greg@...
visit us at: www.patriot-machine.com