Entity Relationship Diagram to Data Dictionary using Visio 2003

[kevinh]

Hi,

I'd like to know if Visio 2003 is capable of generating a report from an
Entity Relationship Diagram. I'd like to create a Data Dictionary from the
diagram in Excel format.
If this is possible, could someone also tell me the exact steps to do this
in Visio and whether it requires Professional or Standard?

Thanks

 

[Chang Oh]

Visio in Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect is capable of
generating reports as well as generating databases. I am not sure what you
are looling for in terms of data dictionary. Excel worksheets may be
imported into Visio database diagram using generic ODBC driver.

Chang Oh
Visual Studio Enterprise Frameworks and Tools

 

[Chang Oh]

I am not sure what functionality you are looking for. Visio is not a
reporting tool for the content in Excel. I believe Crystal Report can be
used to generate reports off of Excel. If you are interested in modeling
the structure of your data storage, then Visio can be useful. I haven't
personally tried, but I believe you can use Generic ODBC driver to reverse
engineer the table structure of your Excel file.

Chang Oh
Visual Studio Enterprise Frameworks and Tools

 

[kevinh]

I was thinking along the lines of being able to generate a list of all the
attribute names of all the entities from the ERD into Excel.

 

[Chang Oh]

You could use VEA's automation APIs to accomplish this. The API's are
documented at http://www.pdata.com/VME/VisioModelingEngine.htm.

Chang Oh
Visual Studio Enterprise Frameworks and Tools