STEP1       MODERNIZATION
STEP2       ADMINISTRATION
MIGRATE-DB
RELATE-DB
EVOLVE-DB
VIEWER-DB
TEST-DB
ANONYMIZE-DB
METHODOLOGIES

Provide all development team members with the right database vision.

Enable full communication among all team members. They will have a common yet customizable, graphical vision
of the database, and will be automatically notified about changes to the database structure.

Viewer-DB is the core functionality of Xcase for i, once the database has been modernized.

The functionality of Viewer-DB is included in Evolve-DB, Test-DB and Anonymize-DB, but can be purchased as a stand-alone product for the team members which do not need to modify, populate or anonymize the database.

Viewer-DB: Collaboration and Personalization

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Common database understanding

  • Viewer-DB provides a graphical vision of the database to all the development team members. This will speed up analysis, facilitate integration of new resources, and avoid redundancies created by lack of deep understanding of the database structure.
  • Using Evolve-DB, you can create master models. When a copy of a master model is opened by Viewer-DB, it is automatically compared to its master model and the differences between the models are displayed. This allows to keep a constant up-to date vision, providing dynamic database documentation.
  • The model is updated to reflect the new meta data, but personal diagrams are preserved.
  • Your personal database can be updated using an automatically generated synchronization script between the database and the model.
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Explore data at the level of information you need

  • Graphical: Visualize the database structure via Entity Relationship Diagrams
    •  – Multiple and Embedded Diagrams: A diagram can contain another diagram at any depth allowing graphical top down organization of even the most complex databases
    • – Create automatic clusters: A sophisticated algorithm will separate related objects into embedded diagrams
  • Meta Data: Inspect the database objects attributes
    • – Customizable browsers allow you organize meta data according to your preferences
    • – Sort and search meta data at object or dictionary level
  • Physical Data: Explore the physical data
    • – Relationally navigate your data. In the middle window, view the current table. On the top view the parents in multiple dedicated tabs. At the bottom view the children in multiple dedicated tabs. Go into the children to display also grandchildren and so on
  • Documentation: Export database documentation in various formats
    • – Generate comprehensive PDF reports
    • – Export Diagrams as Enhanced Meta Files
    • – Extract Metadata into CSV
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Test and try with your data

  • When you want to test a program, new rules in the database… and you want to see what is the impact on the data, Viewer-DB provides easy relational access to the physical data
  • You can edit your data with integrity: lookups for Foreign keys and dropdowns for enumerated types are automatically displayed
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Customizable diagrams adapted to stakeholders’needs

  • Stakeholders can also create personal diagrams, fulfilling their need for a specific angle of analysis or focus:
    • – Auto Layout: Multiple layout modes allow you to easily re-organize your diagrams avoiding “spaghetti”
    • – You can select among multiple display modes the one that best suits your needs: Keys only, All fields, Descriptions, Indexes…
    • – Viewer DB allows you to control what is displayed: Physical type, Domains, Relationships…
    • – Zoom Window – Navigator Window: In a dedicated widow, zoom into a specific area or see the Whole diagram.
    • – Viewer-DB provides you full control of all the graphical aspects of the diagrams: Colours, Fonts, Illustrations, Texts…
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Easily generate any database-related code

  • Viewer-DB allows to generate, via a built-in scripting language, virtually any database related code. All the metadata in the model is accessible including user defined attributes. It is even possible to execute SQL statements to access meta or physical data on the database itself.
  • You can add your own metadata for documentation purposes, or in order to generate custom scripts.
  • Viewer-DB allows to generate complex queries and automatically builds the join statements between remotely related tables. A graphical interface allows you to select the path joining the tables. The resulting query code is automatically updated when names of tables and columns or even the nature of the joins is modified.