Connecting to a Database

PowerDesigner allows you to define data connections to access information in different database management systems (DBMSs) using Structured Query Language (SQL).

A data connection processes function calls and SQL requests coming from PowerDesigner and sends them to a data source, and returns results to PowerDesigner.

The PowerDesigner physical data model (see Data Modeling) and data movement model (see Data Movement Modeling) allow you to define data connections for target databases in order to generate your models and reverse engineer your data sources, while the repository (see The Repository) requires a database to store your models and other design documents.

PowerDesigner supports various forms of connection, and your choice will depend on the interface that you have already installed:

• Configuring ODBC Machine and File Data Sources
  There are three types of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) data sources:
• Configuring Connection Profiles
  Before you can connect to a database through a DBMS client or JDBC driver, you must create an appropriate connection profile.
• Data Connection Tools
  The Configure Data Connections window provides tools to manipulate your connections to data sources.
• Connecting to a Data Source
  When you connect to your database, PowerDesigner can communicate with it for reverse-engineering, generation or any other form of request.
• Running SQL Queries Against Your Database
  You can use the Execute SQL Query dialog to query your database.