Suggestion: ability to type in the Table location

Stephen.West · March 19, 2020, 6:42pm

When using this I wished to keep the table position data in with the rest of the markup.

First I found myself lining up a bunch of tables at the left edge of the and snapping them there. Then moving the window over to the next set of tables, to snap the next set, and so on. Then to get the vertical positions nice, I used a Pokémon card to measure the distance between the bottom of one and the top of another.

Secondly, I would delete a table, then CTRL-Z it back in, and it lost where it was placed.

Thirdly, I wanted to make a similar table diagram, with the idea of exporting each, and mashing them together as a gif. So I copied the markup into a new document, and bam, it’s all wonky. I guess I could open each in tabs, and switch back and forth, moving each table to the right spot. back and forth.

Suggestion, add it to the note, the one with the big block:

Table thing1 {
  id 1
  note {
    x = 10
    y = 20
    'This thing is the main thing'
  }
}

As I put this in I thought if we could reference another table we could get groups.

Table thing2 {
  parent_id uuid [ref: < thing1.id]
  id 1
  note {
    x = thing1.left + 10
    y = thing1.top + 5
    'This thing belongs with the other thing'
  }
}

Stephen.West · March 26, 2020, 7:11pm

I guess I could have read further.

github.com/holistics/dbml

Proposal: Annotation for DBML

opened 11:37AM - 23 Dec 19 UTC

phuongduyphan

enhancement

# Annotation ## Current problems * Every time new concepts are requested for… DBML, we have to look into how those concepts work for other databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL to define the syntaxes that can fit all. * Some concepts cannot be supported in DBML because the concept mismatch across databases. **Proposed solution:** These problems can be solved by annotation. ## Annotation Annotations helps to associate metadata (information) to the DBML elements. ``` @<annotation-name> { // syntax of each annotation is independent. For example, the syntax of // dbdiagram annotation can be different from the syntax of dbdocs // annotation } ``` Example of dbdiagram annotation: ``` Table users { id int [pk] name varchar } @dbdiagram { darkmode: on Table users { headercolor: #f3f2f9 position { x: 181 y: 212 } } } ``` The example below fully demonstrate the power of annotation of supporting different database concepts without mixing concepts into general DBML code. ``` Table users { id int [pk] name varchar status user_status @postgresql { // annotation for this table users; use for exporting this table to PostgreSQL id: [serial] Indexes { name: [type: gist] } } @mysql { // annotation for this table users; use for exporting this table to MySQL id: [auto_increment] storage_type: memory Indexes { name: [type: hash] } } } ``` Annotation can be placed anywhere in our DBML code. If it is placed inside an element, it will provide metadata for that element. ## Avantages of annotation - **Annotation is a way to separate between high level data model (table, schema) and SQL low level implementation (indexes, storage type...)** - One DBML file can contains many kinds of annotation without any problem. For example, one DBML table can be associated with two database annotations (mysql, postgres ... ) for exporting purpose without polluting the original DBML code - Annotation syntax is independent. Anyone, any team can define their own annotation syntax and write the annotation parser plugin to parse them. - From the view of DBML, annotation can be treated like comment. It does not affect the structure or the meaning of the database - From the technical view, DBML dialect with syntax mixed into original DBML code is hard to implement and maintain. For annotation, we just need to write another specific annotation parser plugin. - The render system in third-party applications such as dbdiagram and dbdocs can easily render diagrams/documents base on annotations. - The possibilities is endless. Our DBML will be easier to extend without worry how the mix specific database syntax into the general code.