Chapter 9 Database Design and Modeling

9.1 Modeling Interface
9.2 Additional Modeling Tools
9.3 Modeling Tutorials
9.4 Forward and Reverse Engineering
- 9.4.1 Forward Engineering
- 9.4.2 Reverse Engineering
9.5 Schema Synchronization and Comparison
- 9.5.1 Database Synchronization
- 9.5.2 Compare and Report Differences in Catalogs
9.6 Table Templates
9.7 Customizing DBDoc Model Reporting Templates
- 9.7.1 Supported Template Markers
- 9.7.2 Creating a Custom Template

Modeling simplifies database design and maintenance by enabling you, the data architect, to visualize requirements and resolve design issues. Model-driven database design is an efficient methodology for creating valid and well-performing databases, while providing the flexibility to respond to evolving data requirements. Models are used to build EER diagrams and physical MySQL databases.

MySQL Workbench provides extensive capabilities for creating and manipulating database models, including these:

Create and manipulate a model graphically.
Reverse engineer a live database to a model.
Forward engineer a model to a script or live database.
Create and edit tables and insert data.

This is not an exhaustive list. The following sections describe these and additional data-modeling capabilities.