> Can anyone advice about a tool to visualize a database schema? Ideally, I would like something that takes the SQL
definitionof a schema or database
> (essentially the output of pg_dump) and produces a graphical representation of the tables, constraints and indexes
whichcan be moved around for ease of
> visualization (something like the "Graphical query builder" that comes with pgAdmin =>1.14).
A simple method for this, open source cross-platform and work for various RDBMS, is the following:
1. Download SQL Power Architect at https://code.google.com/p/power-architect/downloads/list (it's a java app so you
needa JVM installed and JDBC drivers for the RDBMS to use)
2. Run it, right click in left pane and choose "Add source connection" -> "New connection..." to create a connection
foryour db
3. Expand the connection and the database and then simply drag and drop the schema to the right pane.
4. Click on "Automatic layout" in the toolbar (it's the icon that looks like three connected boxes and a green
triangle)
From there you can examine the database. There are some limitations, constraints for example, so for more complicated
tools
look into ERD-tools as suggested by John in another reply.
Regards,
roppert
