Data modeling

unknown

We found a database document for each of the S3 work areas but I was wondering if this was the best and only guide available for a DB data dictionary?  These are txt documents and not quite what we are used to so just wanted to reach out and double check.  Thanks!

unknown

I create .txt documents, and, sorry, they're the best that I can find. I download the dbdoc information. Over the years with the various versions of Lawson S3, I've re-created them again and again, one batch for each Lawson version. I find that the "-n" option eliminates needless clutter, so I use that. Of course it would be nice if this format was easy to get into a spreadsheet format. When I have to do so, it takes some manual work to convert it. Oh well.



The dbdoc information is only as good as the stored comments. Sometimes there isn't a lot of information. However, dbdoc is critically important for the following things, which exist only in the dbdef data model, not in SQL. They are vital to understand for customizations, to create custom tables and to build reports in Crystal Reports.

- Elements

- Derived fields - these fields will not appear in SQL at all

- Index information (separate section!)

- One-to-one relationships (separate section)

- One-to-many relationships (separate section)



Most recently I set up a batch file t hat created the text files from dbdoc in one big run, like this:



* Create DBDOC database information text files

dbdoc -n productline AC > dbdoc_ac_n.txt

dbdoc -n productline AD > dbdoc_ad_n.txt

dbdoc -n productline AM > dbdoc_am_n.txt

dbdoc -n productline AP > dbdoc_ap_n.txt

dbdoc -n productline AR > dbdoc_ar_n.txt

dbdoc -n productline BL > dbdoc_bl_n.txt

...

and so on.