RE: Reverse engineering a data base using Visio

["Fisher, Don" <Dfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Microsoft claims a lot of things are possible. :-)

We attempted a similar project with a product called Erwin and had about the
same experience you are having.  I don't have all the details, but I imagine
some of the problems can be traced to the following:
1.  Use of OVRDBF not understood by the product.
2.  Internally described files and key sequences not fully understood by the
product, if at all.
3.  Other OS/400 specific techniques that make our jobs easier not
understood by the product.
4.  Related files that use different field names to describe the key fields.


This is NOT an attack on Microsoft, but rather an attempt to explain why
such tools can fail.  Even Hawkeye, written specifically for the iSeries and
AS/400, does not offer such an option.  The fact is that automatically
constructing an entity relationship diagram from an existing system is a
daunting task.

My opinion is that if you really want to create an entity relationship
diagram, identify the primary functions used.  Then identify the files used
by those functions and use Hawkeye, or a similar product, to figure out
where things go from there.

Donald R. Fisher, III
Project Manager
The Roomstore Furniture Company
(804) 784-7600 extension 2124
DFisher@roomstoreeast.com

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We are trying to reverse engineer a DB2/400 data base (comprised of many
interrelating physical files) using Visio. The purpose is to get an entity
relationships diagram of an application. Microsoft help line for Visio
claims this is possible but, so far, we have been unsucessful. Does anyone
have any experience with this process?
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