Controlling Database Generation and Reverse Engineering

PowerDesigner supports generation and reverse engineering of databases through scripts and live connections via SQL statements and queries stored in the Script/Objects category. Generation and reverse-engineering of scripts and generation to a live connection all use the same statements, while reverse-engineering from a live connection uses separate queries.

PowerDesigner performs generation and reverse-engineering as follows:

Generation/Update Database - Each model object selected is applied to the statements in the Script/Objects category.
Reverse engineering:
- Script - PowerDesigner parses the script and identifies object creation statements by comparing them with the statements in the Script/Objects category.
- Live connection - PowerDesigner uses the queries in the Script/Objects category to retrieve information from the database system tables. Each column of a query result set is associated with a variable. The query header specifies the association between the columns of the resultset and the variable. The values of the returned records are stored in these variables which are then committed as object attributes.

Script Generation
PowerDesigner can generate a SQL script from a PDM to create or modify a database. The statements that control script generation are available in the Script/Objects category.
Script Reverse Engineering
PowerDesigner can reverse engineer SQL scripts into a PDM. The statements that control script generation are available in the Script/Objects category.
Live Database Generation
PowerDesigner can generate or modify a database from a PDM to a live connection. The statements that control live generation are available in the Script/Objects category, except when the DBMS does not support standard SQL syntax. For example, MS Access, which needs VB scripts to create database objects, has special generation statements defined in the ODBC category.
Live Database Reverse Engineering
PowerDesigner can reverse engineer from a live database connection into a PDM. The queries that control live reverse engineering are available in the Script/Objects category.
Generating and Reverse-Engineering PDM Extended Objects
Some DBMSs have objects that are not present in the standard PowerDesigner metamodel, and that must be represented as extended objects. PDM extended objects are defined in the Profile category, but their generation and reverse-engineering is controlled by statements and queries defined in the Script/Objects category.
Adding Scripts Before or After Generation and Reverse Engineering
You can specify scripts to be used before or after database generation or reverse engineering.

Parent topic: DBMS Definition Files