Re: Tales from the Dark Side

On 17.03.2006, at 15:11 Uhr, Ken Collins wrote:

> As I am new to RoR and Wo, I was wondering if anyone can help me  
> understand the best of breed for modeling a database and what  
> EOModeler is really meant to facilitate?

1. Use the EOModeler standalone application, not the Xcode plugin.

2. Use Prototypes (look at any better WO book to learn about them).

3. Use EOModeler for the use with WebObjects applications, not for  
designing databases or setting up db schemes for other tools  
(EOModeler lets you define delete rules, but doesn't transfer them to  
the database as this is handled by EOF).

> For instance, I use an application now called SQL4X Manager J to  
> work in a few different databases. It has an E/R Modeler feature  
> that I find easy to use, although again, I'm just learning the  
> basics of structuring a DB.

You should not try to learn too many things at once. If you use  
WebObjects, use EOModeler. Read the tutorials and the PDFs regarding  
the several tools and techniques.

If you want to use Ruby, use another tool to design you db. Or at  
least use EOModeler only to easily create some SQL for your database  
which you can edit by hand to handle the constraints you want to have.

Or use any tool you like to do the db design task (I prefer to sketch  
everything on a whiteboard, transfer this to OmniGraffle and then use  
this as a base for modeling the "real" database in EOModeler.

No, I don't update my OmniGraffle files after the "design and  
implement phase". I'm lazy.

> So my question is, if I am using WO or even RoR, is EOModeler the  
> best of breed (for Mac) out there for building and thinking about  
> database driven applications?

No. EOModeler has nothing to do with database driven applications.  
EOModeler is a tool that lets you create EOModels. It has some  
features for building the database schema too, with generating sql  
and the like. But this is NOT thinking about db driven applications.  
It's just a tool to create a file (the EOModel). This file is used by  
WebObjects to build the object graph from a relational database.

> Also, I am really getting heavy into PostgreSQL. Off hand, I did  
> not see that this was supported?

Get the PostgreSQL plugin and the PostgreSQLPlugin.bundle from  
ProjectWonder. There is a nightly build server around (I don't have  
the url at hand, sorry).

cug

-- 
PharmaLine, Essen, GERMANY
Software and Database Development

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