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Question

Possible to convert an ER Diagram in QuickBase?

  • March 27, 2017
  • 0 replies
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I have an ER Diagram I created for my various tables.  Is there a tool which imports the diagram, whether from Visio or some other program, and builds the tables automatically?  This is something akin to using Visio in SharePoint to automatically build workflows based on a flow chart.

As always, this is an extremely helpful group!
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    Wow, big ask.  Maybe in the future the Quickbase Engineers will develop a developers tool for the Mercury incarnation of QuickBase to allow an app to be developed that way.   I do know that they think about these things.  ie how to make it easy for users to build apps form scratch.

    But today, I have never heard to a tool to do that, and I have been haunting this forum for a long time.
    • MCFNeil
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    • March 27, 2017
    Neil,

    Often times an ER Diagram only tells half the story, and trying to get QuickBase (which has much more strength then SharePoint).

    Using an ER Diagram is a create starting point to make sure your process flow is correct, but there is a bit of a bridge that needs to be made to connect that "process" to a relational database.

    Granted, for simple apps, this could be a great enhancement, and rumor has it the next release of QB will have something similar.
    • ArchiveUser
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    • March 27, 2017
    No worries.  Never hurts to ask.  I am sure that getting the process flow down might be an issue.  The big thing is if you have 15 tables, having to type in 15 tables, primary/foreign keys, and the rows within each table.  Basically, speed that up and make a provision to manually enter the crows foot notation.

    Thanks for the help and replies.
    just one last thought.
    When you go to build an app from scratch, there is a sort of wizard helper that lets you set up a bunch of tables, fields and relationships all in one screen.  Then press Create and it all gets created in one go.

    I think that there is a limit on how many tables though.  It's not 15, for sure.
    • ArchiveUser
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    • March 27, 2017
    I'll dig into that.  Just been trying to feel my way around so far.  Talked to Matthew Neil a bit and so now I'm going to start pulling things together.
    • anomDiebolt
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    • March 27, 2017
    I always draw the ER diagram by hand first. If you run through the every table one after the other and examine the relationships every relationship will be listed twice so there is an inherent double check on every piece of information. I typically sketch the ER diagram on banner paper or randomly tape together several sheets of paper when extra space is needed and frequently redraw the diagram highlighting the essential relationships, adding notations and possibly dropping relationships related to summary and lookup calculations (they add noise to the ER diagram).

    In my experience most software based ER diagramming tools are difficult to understand if they run automatically and just spit out a diagram.
    • ArchiveUser
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    • March 27, 2017
    I didn't use an ER diagramming tool.  With one of my Gmail accounts I have access to a free add-on called draw.io.  It is a glorified version of doing a flowchart in Word, except it comes with database tables predrawn.  It's exactly like you do by hand only on the screen.  It doesn't help in any way by saying that a primary key is used twice or by helping to "see" the flow.  It's just a simple flowchart builder.  I do have Visio, but this is free and very easy. 
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