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Data dictionary tools for Apache Derby
List of tools that enable design and building of data dictionaries .
Data Dictionary is a set of important information about data used within an organization (metadata). This information includes names, definitions, and attributes about data, owners, and creators of assets. Data Dictionary tools provide insights into meaning and purposes of data elements. They add useful aliases about the scope and characteristics of data elements, as well as the rules for their usage and application.
SQL Power Architect
SQL Power Architect data modeling tool has many unique features geared specifically for the data warehouse architect. It is a powerful database utility that not only builds diagrams of databases, but also provides data dictionary language output, which can be used to build database solutions.
| Desktop/Cloud: | Desktop |
|---|---|
| ER Diagram: |
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| Export: | HTML |
| Metadata stored in: | Program metadata |
| Commercial: | Commercial |
| Free edition: |
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| Notable features: | Connects to multiple source databases concurrently, Compares data models & database structures and identifies discrepancies, Generates source-to-target visual Mapping Reports, Forward/reverse engineers PostgreSQL, Oracle, MS SQL Server & more |
| Runs on: (for desktop): | Mac OS,Windows |
Visual Paradigm
Visual Paradigm provides a tool to create and communicate visual database design with professional ERD tool. It allows the user to create customize template to generate a data dictionary for the class models and its attributes in your project.
| Desktop/Cloud: | Desktop |
|---|---|
| ER Diagram: |
|
| Export: | HTML,MS Word,PDF |
| Metadata stored in: | Database metadata |
| Commercial: | Commercial |
| Free edition: |
|
| Notable features: | Entity relationship diagram, Reverse engineering, SQL script |
| Runs on: (for desktop): | Linux,Mac OS,Windows |
DbSchema
DbSchema facilitates to design, document and manage SQL and NoSQL databases. It is an intuitive designer for complex databases. It allows editing tables or columns directly in the layout, by double-clicking them.
| Desktop/Cloud: | Desktop |
|---|---|
| ER Diagram: |
|
| Export: | HTML,PDF |
| Metadata stored in: | Database metadata |
| Commercial: | Commercial |
| Free edition: |
|
| Notable features: | Entity relationship diagram, Reverse engineer schema from database, Relational data browse, SQL editor |
| Runs on: (for desktop): | Linux,Mac OS,Windows |
Alation Data Catalog
Alation data dictionary defines and describes technical data terms. Data terms could be database schemas, tables, or columns. Once connected to data sources, Alation automatically indexes data and populates catalog pages. For example, a column catalog page shows the technical column name, a business title name, the data type, and popularity. Additional context can be added to the data dictionary, for shared understanding across the organization.
| Desktop/Cloud: | Cloud |
|---|---|
| ER Diagram: |
|
| Export: | MS Excel |
| Metadata stored in: | - |
| Commercial: | Commercial |
| Free edition: |
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| Notable features: | ML auto-suggested business glossary terms |
| Runs on: (for desktop): | - |
Key functionality of Data Dictionary tools is to give users the ability to document data. Moreover, very important is the possibility to create a collection of multiple repositories, based on different system engines. For a better understanding of the data, some tools allow visualization of the data structure using ERD (Entity-Relationship Diagrams).
From the organization's point of view, a community module within a data dictionary tool proves to be useful. It facilitates the proper information flow, as well as provides sharing opinions on specific objects among the members of an organization.
Nowadays, data discovery and understanding becomes crucial for proper organization performance. There are many benefits to using Data Dictionaries, such as:
• helps avoid data inconsistencies problems,
• it allows introducing unified nomenclature used in the project,
• Make data searchable, and understandable,
• Create a single source of truth about the data from different repositories,
The prepared list includes simple, open-source data dictionaries as well as more advanced software.