Logical and Conceptual Modeling

ModelRight 4.0 introduces Logical and Conceptual Model types:

When Logical or Conceptual is selected, your Model is then defined in terms of Entities, Attributes, Relations, Key Constraints, Check Constraints and Logical Datatypes.

ModelRight also allows you to create supertype/subtype and many-to-many relations in a Logical Model.

When a supertype/subtype symbol is selected, the property page of the Property Browser contains the following controls:

 Category Transform -  specify how to convert the supertype/subtype structure when converting to a physical model:

Model Sources

ModelRight 4.0 introduces the concept of a Model Source.  A Model Source stores information about Model to Model compares so that previously matched objects are matched even if their name changes.  A Model Source also allows you to see what has changed in either of the compared Models since the last time they were compared.

Model Sources are listed in the Diagrams section of the Model Explorer under the Model and Model Subset objects.

Model Source objects in the Model Explorer

You can create a new Model Source by right clicking on the background of the Diagrams section and selecting "Create Model Source"

:

or simply by doing a Model to Model compare (i.e.selecting Compare with Model under the Model menu) and selecting "Save as Model Source".

The following property page is displayed in the Property Browser when a Model Source object is selected:

Model Source property page

 Model File - the last known location of the Model to compare with.

 Store Smart Compare Info - controls whether or not information about which Model changed objects and properties is maintained.

 Sync - shortcut button to start a Model to Model Compare using the selected Model Source

 Open - shortcut button to open the Model Source's linked Model.

Model Compare Filter

A Model Source can have any number of Model Compare Filters.  A Model Compare Filter controls what objects from the other Model are included in the compare.  Having multiple Model Compare Filters allows one to quickly and easily compare different parts of the other Model.  When a Model Compare Filter is selected, the following property pages are displayed in the Property Browser:

Derive and Compare Models

To quickly create a new Model from an existing Model, ModelRight 4.0 provides a Derive Model feature:

Derive Model creates a new Model based on the existing Model.  The new/derived Model can be a different type of Model (i.e. Logical vs Physical) or a different Physical database type (i.e. Oracle vs SQL Server).  The derived Model will contain a Model Source that links the objects in the derived Model back to the objects in the original Model.

Selecting the menu item Model/Derive Model Wizard will bring up a wizard with the following pages:

Derive Object Types - select the type of objects to display for selection.  This also effects the objects that will be included in the derived Model.

When doing a Model Compare, the Select Object Types and Objects wizard pages are also displayed  to let you narrow down your compare.  With Model Compare the following page is also displayed to show and resolve the differences between the Models being compared:

ModelRight 4.0 introduces the following controls:

Source Only Objects - only display objects that have no matching target object

Target Only Objects - only display objects that have no matching target object

Only Source Changes - only display objects and properties that have changed in the source Model since the last compare

Only Target Changes - only display objects and properties that have changed in the other Model since the last compare