If you are a database designer or developer, you may be racking your brains trying to find the most suitable software to help you with your database design-related tasks. There are pretty many tools for designing and modeling database structures available in the market. However, the question is what features and facilities they offer, what the quality is, how easy-to-use (or complicated…) their interface is, how many databases they support and finally what the price and maintenance costs are.
Putting myself in your shoes, I can imagine how tired you can be of evaluating tens of database modeling tools that don’t live up to your expectations and if do, their price is not acceptable. (Believe me, I have the same experience…) Let’s face it, considering all the aspects mentioned above, the offer suddenly narrows down especially if your budget is tight…
I don’t want to make any marketing research or analyze all database modeling tools in the market. I’ve just wanted to draw your attention to one, quite inconspicuous db modeling tool – CASE Studio 2 (CS2). As a user of this software, I’d like to share my experience on this product with you.
This tool has been designed by Charonware, s.r.o., a software company established in the Czech Republic (member of European Union), and is really worth taking up.
The main CS2 features include particularly: Entity relationship diagrams (ER diagrams), automatic generating of SQL (DDL) scripts, generating of HTML and RTF reports and reverse engineering. CS2 allows users to create ER diagrams for more than thirty databases like Oracle, MySQL, MS SQL, Advantage, Interbase, Informix, Firebird and much more. Also, you can take advantage of the reverse engineering feature and load already existing db structure to CS2 very easily. After ER diagram is created, you are allowed to generate SQL scripts automatically.
Besides these main features, I’ve come across another great one – the possibility to customize the software as I need. Via the CS2 Templates Editor, you can modify system templates, import new templates that are available for free on Charonware’s website, or even create your own templates. CS2 also contains MS Scripting dialog for modifying the scripts.
This way you can customize generation of SQL scripts, modify design and content of HTML and RTF reports etc. This feature makes this product much more flexible and more responsive to each customer’s needs and requirements, which I really do appreciate.
Among other helpful features belong: export into XML format, support for text objects like triggers, procedures, views, sequences etc., Data Flow diagrams, Model conversion, Version Manager and more.
Information on CS2 can be found on Charonware’s website ([http://www.casestudio.com]). Except the free CS2 trial, there’s also a great range of online resources including support documentation, movie tutorials, add-ins, scripts etc.
My friend says: “When you feel like you’re working hard but not getting what you need, it’s pretty frustrating. I need a software that is stable, allows me to do just what I need, is easy to use and… that I can get at a good price!” – That’s it!
Taking into account the CS2 features, functionality and price (Apropos, Charonware provides free updates and free, time-unlimited technical support!), CASE Studio 2 comes out very well!
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