SQL2XMI: Reverse Engineering of UML-ER Diagrams from Relational Database Schemas

Data modeling is an essential part of the software development process, and together with application modeling forms the core of the model-driven approach to software engineering. While UML is considered the standard for application modeling, there is really no corresponding open standard for data modeling. In this paper, we propose an approach and a tool to help bridge the gap between application and data modeling based on source transformation technology. The tool, called SQL2XMI, automatically transforms an SQL schema into a UML-ER model expressed in XML meta interchange (XMI) 2.1. By bringing the data model to the UML world, both data and application models can be manipulated using the same UML-based tools.

[1]  Aniello Cimitile,et al.  Decomposing legacy systems into objects: an eclectic approach , 2001, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[2]  Charles W. Bachman,et al.  Data structure diagrams , 1969, DATB.

[3]  T. J. Teorey,et al.  A logical design methodology for relational databases using the extended entity-relationship model , 1986, CSUR.

[4]  Davor Gornik,et al.  UML Data Modeling Profile , 2002 .

[5]  James R. Cordy,et al.  Schema translation using structural transformation , 1994, CASCON.

[6]  Sam Chung,et al.  Bridging the Gap between Data Models and Implementations: XMI2SQL , 2006, Advanced Int'l Conference on Telecommunications and Int'l Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services (AICT-ICIW'06).

[7]  Giuseppe A. Di Lucca,et al.  Recovering class diagrams from data-intensive legacy systems , 2000, Proceedings 2000 International Conference on Software Maintenance.

[8]  Laurian M. Chirica,et al.  The entity-relationship model: toward a unified view of data , 1975, SIGF.

[9]  William C. Chu,et al.  Acquisition of Entity Relationship Models for Maintenance-Dealing with Data Intensive Programs in a Transformation System , 1999, J. Inf. Sci. Eng..

[10]  William J. Premerlani,et al.  An approach for reverse engineering of relational databases , 1993, [1993] Proceedings Working Conference on Reverse Engineering.

[11]  James R. Cordy,et al.  The TXL source transformation language , 2006, Sci. Comput. Program..