This is probably a FAQ, but I haven't been able to find the answer.
Briefly, I am looking for tools that will help me document a
database. Visualization would be nice too, so that I could quickly
see the relations between tables.
Less briefly. I am new to MySQL, SQL in general and databases. I
have inherited a project that uses, Apache, PHP, and MySQL. The
MySQL Press book, MySQL Tutorial has been extremely helpful.
My predecessor, who did know something about MySQL, left no
documentation. As I am trying to figure out what is what and what
the relationships are between tables, I've got paper and pencil
pictures, and a text file full of notes. But, mostly it is just an
understanding -- for the parts that I understand -- in my head. Now
I can always redraw my paper and pencil stuff with something like
xfig, but it struck me that there is probably a standard, well
conventional, notation for this kind of thing and tools for the purpose.
I'm a bit of a geezer and my memory isn't as reliable as it used to
be. Plus, I don't want any successor on this project to curse me
quiet as vehemently as I curse my predecessor.
So advice or pointers to advice would be very welcome. As for tools,
I'd be looking for things that can run on Unix systems (GNU/Linux and/
or OS X). If I've hit the wrong list, I sure someone will tell me
where to go.
Cheers,
-j
