Tag Archives: ERwin

DIY Data Dictionary: ODBC Reporting from the ERwin Metamodel

Application developers and business people accessing relational databases need data dictionaries in order to properly load or query a database. The data dictionary provides a source of information about the model for those without model access, including entity/table and attribute/column definitions, datatypes, primary keys, relationships among tables, and so on. The data dictionary also provides data modelers with a useful cross reference that improves modeling productivity.

It is particularly useful for the dictionary to be a filterable/sortable Excel document, but out of the box ERwin, one of the leading data modeling tools, includes a notably inflexible reporting capability. Luckily, it is possible to directly query the ERwin “metamodel”. However, I found the ERwin documentation a bit hard to decipher and not quite accurate. Hopefully this post will save modelers some steps in figuring out how to query the metamodel.

Here are the topics covered:

  • ODBC drivers in the ERwin install
  • Reporting experience in MS Access, WinSQL, and MS Excel Continue reading

The ERwin Model Mart Access Problem

On two successive client assignments as a data modeler I’ve waited while client technicians wrestled with getting access to the ERwin Model Mart. In short, clicking on File, Mart, Connection, and logging in to the Model Mart failed every time, with various error messages. In both cases the teams lost literally months, in spite of active assistance from the CA help desk. No one involved, including me, could find on the web a list of actions to take to try and solve the problem, although there were a few hints scattered around (if we missed it, please add the link in a comment). Continue reading