Snowflake & SqlDBM…Codeless Data Modelling tool
In this blog, we are going to discuss how SqlDBM can help you accomplish data modeling tasks in Snowflake.
SqlDBM is an online, collaborative data modeling and diagramming tool. It’s a web-based pure SAAS(Software as a Service) data modeling tool. My experience of using the SqlDBM tool was very seamless as I got to know most of it without much effort on my first interaction. User-friendly UI, Collaborative feature, Reverse/Forward Engineering to name some of them is the TRP of this tool.
SqlDBM is now available on Snowflake Partner Connect as a data modeling and data documentation solution.
I was so tempted to use this tool that I was just exploring all features throughout my weekend. I will share my experience with you in this blog. Let’s start then.
What is SqlDBM?
SqlDBM is a development platform for businesses to create databases/ER diagrams online, without writing any code. It allows developers to focus more on the model of the database and not worry about the syntax. Users can import SQL scripts to automatically generate database models. They can also modify or create new SQL scripts along with Alter scripts. DB developers, project managers, and analysts can collaborate transparently on team projects. Other advanced features that enhance the modeling process include controlling the versions of the project, generating alter scripts, and even converting the project into other DB/DW types. You can also integrate with external repositories using Integration services in SqlDBM. Users can also take their existing DB/DW to SqlDBM and automatically generate a database model that has powerful and effective visualizations. Dark and light themes, object color coding, and auto-layout make it easy to customize the models as per the need. The platform also takes care of database documentation and documentation export. SqlDBM has partnered with other platforms such as Snowflake, Microsoft Azure so that businesses can easily integrate the two.
What is the key feature of SqlDBM?
Did SqlDBM support all repositories?
Not all, but most of the renowned ones. SqlDBM supports the below external repository along with its own internal revision system.
How we can integrate an external repository in SqlDBM?
Below is a demo on how we can integrate an external repository in SqlDBM using GitHub. The same is applicable to all others.
What does all database SqlDBM support natively?
As of now, SqlDBM supports the below database as an out-of-box service. They are working on expanding the list in the near future.
What is the Reverse & Forward Engineering feature in SqlDBM?
This is a very interesting feature that can help you generate DDL from ERD(Forward Eng.) or generate ERD from DDL(Reverse Eng.). SqlDBM automatically reads and imports the Snowflake DDL and never accessing the underlying data or even storing login credentials. I had created a detailed video on the same.
How about the vision for SqlDBM? Is this going to level up with the ever-changing market?
I see a quite an aggressive future roadmap for SqlDBM. They are more focusing on collaboration with multiple products & API integration. Hope to see more such cool feature in the future.
They have to improvise on supporting CI/CD simplification while pushing to external repositories. I had suggested a few ideas to the SqlDBM team, let’s see when they get implemented.
I can see below the 2021 roadmap for SqlDBM.
How we can implement standard naming conventions, code conversion & Live Sharing in SqlDBM?
It just takes a minute to choose which naming standardization you need, and you are all set, applying to all existing and all future projects at one click. Here, you can also set default Suffix & Prefix for all database object names.
SqlDBM can automatically convert all database objects from one SQL provider to another, mapping compatible data types and functions to supported formats. Once converted, the familiar “Forward Engineer” functionality will generate the entire database DDL, ready to be imported natively into the target SQL environment.
More details on the demo are below:
Is SqlDBM secure?
The most obvious question comes to our mind when we look at any SaaS tool. How compliant is SqlDBM?
SqlDBM is SOC 2 Type II Compliance…!
Wait, what does that mean?
Developed by the American Institute of CPA's (AICPA), SOC 2 defines criteria for managing customer data based on five “trust service principles” — security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
There are two types of SOC reports:
- Type I describes a vendor’s systems and whether their design is suitable to meet relevant trust principles.
- Type II details the operational effectiveness of those systems.
Hope now we have confidence in the security part.
How does SqlDBM support Team collaboration, Documentation for enhancing business values & Revision comparison?
Team Collaboration, Documentation & Compare revision internally and also with live Snowflake database are a few of the very innovative solutions which can leverage data modeling to the next level. In my below demo, I had shared how you can do that.
How about an SqlDBM usage overview on top of Snowflake?
Overall UI is very simple to use and things are placed in just the right manner to make life easy. A few of the things like COPY & PASTE Entity Diagram, Add Note, etc. make it super comfortable. I had captured the overview of how to use SqlDBM on top of Snowflake in my below video:
New Feature Enhancement:
When I was writing this blog than there was one thing which I found missing and that was the way SqlDBM push files to any repository. It was creating file and folder with random name which was not in sync with how Database Change Management tools works. I approached them with this use case, and fortunately they are already aware of this scenario, and they were working on it.
Now with recent announcement, Sqldbm has release this most awaiting feature. Now we can directly set up CI/CD pipeline from SqlDBM using any repository and Database Change Management tool supporting Snowflake.
How about a quick demo on same?
Hope this blog & YouTube video helps you to get insight on the SqlDBM data modeling tool and how you can unleash the power with Snowflake & help you migrate from other databases to Snowflake. If you are interested in learning more details about SqlDBM, you can refer to their documentation. Feel free to ask a question in the comment section if you have any doubts regarding this. Give a clap if you like the blog. Stay connected to see many more such cool stuff. Thanks for your support.
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