PowerDesigner is a data modeling tool that supports several types of models and many programming languages. The following modules are available for data modeling in PowerDesigner:
Conceptual Data Model (CDM) to model the overall logical structure of a data application, independent of any software or data storage structure considerations
Physical Data Model (PDM) to model the overall physical structure of a database, taking into account DBMS software or data storage structure considerations
Object Oriented Model (OOM) to model a software system using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) notation, which can then be generated as objects in a supported object-oriented language such as Java or PowerScript
Business Process Model (BPM) to model the means by which one or more processes are accomplished in operating business practices
Free Model (FEM) to create any kind of chart diagram, in a context-free environment
PowerBuilder includes a plug-in that provides the class diagram functionality of the PowerDesigner OOM directly inside the PowerBuilder development environment.
When the PowerDesigner plug-in is enabled, you can link a PowerBuilder target with a UML class diagram through a process called reverse-engineering. You can make modifications and adjustments to the class diagram and immediately generate those changes back to the objects in the PowerBuilder target library.
With the plug-in, you can also create a UML class diagram from scratch (or open an existing OOM file) and generate a PowerBuilder target using PowerDesigner menus in the PowerBuilder development environment. The plug-in facilitates synchronization between a class diagram and the PowerBuilder target objects that it represents.
Requirement for enabling plug-in
You must install the PowerDesigner Object Oriented Model on
your computer before you can use the PowerDesigner plug-in for PowerBuilder.
For a list of PowerDesigner versions that are compatible with PowerBuilder,
see the PowerBuilder Release Bulletin.
You enable the PowerDesigner plug-in through the Plug-in Manager. The Plug-in Manager displays when you select Tools>Plug-in Manager from the PowerBuilder menu. You must select the PowerDesigner item and click OK to enable the PowerDesigner plug-in.
After you enable the plug-in, you can connect to the PowerDesigner Repository. The Repository is a tool for storing versioned documents. It helps you manage development in a multiuser environment. As in PowerDesigner, you can right-click on a model in the tree view of the Local tab and select menu items for Repository operations, such as Consolidate, Update from Repository, or Compare with Repository.
When you open a class diagram painter, the Repository menu is added to the main PowerBuilder menu.
If you installed online Help with PowerDesigner, that Help is also available to the plug-in.
