The DB-MAIN CASE tool

Last update: July 13, 2006.

This tool is the eighth version of the Database Engineering Assistant. In its current state, it includes most basic functions commonly found in other DB CASE environments, but also some other functions which are less frequently available. Currently (July 2006), the tool offers functions for:

• entering and managing multischema projects
• entering and managing conceptual, logical and physical database schemas, based on ER model or as UML class diagrams
• entering and managing UML activity diagrams
• entering and managing UML use case diagrams
• viewing schemas through 7 formats : 4 hypertext and 3 graphical
• deriving logical schemas from conceptual schemas (database forward eng.)
• deriving conceptual schemas from logical schemas (database reverse eng.)
• transforming data schemas (for normalization, optimization, restructuring, implementation, reverse engineering, etc), thanks to a toolset of 25+ operators
• executing problem-solving activities through a simple and intuitive transformation assistant
• automating the application of some transformations to a schema through a advanced global transformation assistant
• integrating projects, schemas or entity types
• analyzing schemas and searching them for complex structural patterns
• proposing some popular heuristics to find foreign keys
• writing design scripts and structural submodels, and running them
• generating executable code according to several DBMS (SQL, IDS/II, CODASYL, COBOL and XML-DTD)
• generating reports
• extracting physical schemas from SQL, COBOL, IMS, RPG, IDS/II DDL and XML (DTD) source texts
• browsing source texts, such as programs, with a sophisticated, interactive, pattern matching engine
• processing sophisticated program analysis: dependency graph analysis, program slicing
• updating a logical schema from a source text
• sophisticated name processing
• logging user's actions into a design history, and replaying them selectively
• creating views with automatic update propagation
• importing/exporting external specifications
• and much more...

NEW: Version 8 includes a JIDBM (Java Interface for DB-MAIN) library designed to develop Java plug-ins for DB-MAIN. With this library (available in all DB-MAIN editions), the DB-MAIN users can develop their own functions in the CASE tool.

A complete 4GL development environment allows building user-defined functions which can be integrated into the tool. This environment provides a language (Voyager 2), a compiler, debugging facilities and integration guidelines.

Specific methodologies can be built thanks to a method development environment (MDL) that includes a method description language, a complier and a graphical engine.

This tool is implemented in C++, and runs on MS-Windows workstations (95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP).

Warning

The Demo edition is fully functional, but is limited to projects of at most 250 objects (entity types, rel-types, attributes, constraints, etc). The Education edition is simpler (less advanced functions) and limited to 500 objects. When this limit is exceeded, the tool refuses any kind of I/O. The project size can be checked in the status bar. Industrial editions are available too. See conditions on the Web site.

The DB-MAIN viewer

The Viewer edition is a light version of DB-MAIN that allows users to examine large projects, to print reports, to generate reports (textual or graphical views, light or extended RTF generators) and to export graphical schemas to text processors. It can be distributed and redistributed free of charge, but its integrity must be preserved. In its current version (Version 8), the tool includes the following functions and components:

• loader for any DB-MAIN project
• viewer and browser for the followed method
• viewer and browser for the history
• viewer for schemas and texts
• selection, marking, moving, colouring of schema and history elements
• generation of RTF or customized reports (note that the customized report generator has to be written with a full version of DB-MAIN).

Installation

Execute dbm8.exe, dbm-demo8.exe, dbm-educ8.exe or dbm-view8.exe to install the DB-MAIN CASE tool on your machine. This installation creates a directory for DB-MAIN and fills it. In the registry, only a single entry is created for easy uninstalling of DB-MAIN. A file DB_MAIN.INI is created in the directory of Windows when DB-MAIN is run. Except that, nothing else is written outside of the DB-MAIN directory.

Contents of the setup files

These programs copy in the installation directory the following components:

(*) see below for a complete description of its contents.

Contents of the Documentation directory

Manuals

• DB-MAIN-reference-Manual is the reference manual of the CASE tool.
• JIDBM-reference-Manual is the reference manual of the Java Interface for DB-MAIN library.
• JIDBM-javadoc is the javadoc for the JIDBM library.
• Method-Engineering-Manual-(MDL) is the MDL programmer's guide.
• ORACLE-Design&Generation-Manual is the ORACLE physical design and SQL generation user guide.
• Report-Generator is the user guide of a RTF report generator.
• VOYAGER-2-reference-Manual: Voyager 2 reference manual.

Tutorial

• First-Steps-in-DB-design: a quick tutorial for using the DB-MAIN CASE tool to develop a small relational database.
• Introduction-to-DB-Design: introduces the reader to database engineering problems and processes by developing a small database step-by-step.
• Database-Modelling contains the current state of a series of volumes dedicated to database engineering problems. The formula is "learning-by-doing"; it combines readings with using the CASE tool. The first lessons only require elementary knowledge in database.
• Method-Engineering-(MDL): a demonstration of the DB-MAIN methodological engine (process modelling).

Contents of the Examples directory

• DDL sources: some examples of DDL (data description language) scripts for different database management systems (SQL, IMS, CODASYL, COBOL).
• Method definition: some examples of files containing process modelling methods.
• Projects: some typical DB-MAIN projects.
• Reverse engineering: two reverse engineering projects (one in English and one in French).
• Scripts: some patterns and transformation scripts
• Java add-ons: some examples of JIDBM programs, including SQL generator and statistic program.
• Voyager add-ons: some examples of Voyager 2 programs, including generators, XML engineering tools, and more.

How to Obtain DB-MAIN ?

The DB-MAIN packages are located at:  http://www.db-main.com.

DB-MAIN References

The principles of the DB-MAIN approach to DB engineering have been presented in various research papers and tutorials. Most of them can be obtained in Postscript and PDF format, on the site of the Database Application Engineering Laboratory of the University of Namur: http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/libd.

Contacts