Update Model from Database losing Notes and Technical Notes

Toad Data Modeler
1

TOAD Data Modeller version 6.5.4.14

Hi There,

I have a model that was created from a database a few years ago.

I have updated Notes, Technical Notes and Comments on the Entities and Attributes in the Model.

I now want to update the Model from the database again but I want to preserve the "Notes", and "Technical Notes" that I have entered against entities and attributes however I want the comments from tables and columns from the database to update the comments on the entities and attributes of the model (again but preserving the "notes" and "technical notes" that are already in the model).

Is this achievable? If so how?

I have been trying by doing the following but I am not having any success:-

  1. Update Model version 1.0 from Database create a new model version 1.1

  2. I then merge model 1.1 with 1.0 and create model version 1.2 however the notes do not transfer as the merged model is based on 1.1. I have also tried the other way around i.e. merging 1.0 with 1.1 but then my new entities(tables) attributes(columns) are not represented in the new model.

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong or am not selecting the correct options when I am doing the merge?

Your help would be greatly appreciated as this is driving me a little crazy.

My example of what I am trying to achieve

  1. I reversed engineered the Oracle scott/tiger schema from an Oracle database

  2. I update the EMP entity on the model and add comment "I am a comment entered into the model from TDM. This may be overwritten if the table comment is updated on the database"

  3. I update the EMP entity on the model and add Note "I am a note entered into the model from TDM. I would like this Note to move forward with the model when I updated the model from database and merge to a new diagram"

  4. I update the EMP entity on the model add a Technical Note "I am a technical note entered into the model from TDM. I would like this Note to move forward with the model when I updated the model from database and merge to a new diagram"

  5. I update the comment on database table EMP "I am a comment entered on the database. I expect this to go to the comment field against the entity EMP in TDM"

  6. I update the comment on column of database table EMP.EMPNO "I am a column comment entered on the database. I expect this to go to the comment field against the attribute EMP.EMPNO in TDM"

What I want to achieve after updating the model from the database over time:-

    1. above Will be overwritten by 5) as it is a comment

  2. I want 3) and 4) notes above to move forward into the merged model

    1. will be added as a comment at the attribute level as it is a new comment

regards
Craig

2

Hello Craig,
When you do Model Update please uncheck selection for Notes and Technical Notes in "Model Update Wizard" step "Select Object Types". It you can do by choose "Detail Settings"

image
image.png836×537 40.6 KB

image
image.png606×681 26.2 KB

Same for attributes. It means that no update will be in unchecked properties.

Regards
Daril

3

Thank you Daril, appreciate that, I am now doing that it has preserved the notes.

It is hard to know what is and what is not going to get overwritten when you update from the database e.g. The model description (Model\Properties\Options\Description Tab) that I try and keep up to date gets overwritten on an update. Do you know is there a way of telling properties that are Model related and properties that come from the database. There are the obvious ones of course table/column --> entity/attribute, comment in database is the comment in Model but some things are not obvious.

regards
Craig

4

Hi Craig,
you can divide properties to "Logical" and "Physical". The logical property is for example a note or a caption and similar. So this value is not stored in DB and after RE is empty or it has some default value. Physical is in DB. You can see there are settings "Only Physical Properties" in the step "Select Object Types". It should select only Physical properties for compare. Unfortunately it is not work for "Technical Notes". It is bug

Regards