Still no Database? Build a Data Model from a DDL script

In my last post I said that you can use the SQL Developer Data Modeler to build a data model without needing a database, all you need to do is start drawing. Well, you can also create a data model, without a database, but with a DDL script. The Data Modeler page on OTN has a number of the DDL scripts that you can use for this purpose. On OTN they're in zip files for easy download; all you need to do is extract the DDL file and then using the Data Modeler, import the DDL file.

This quick online demo shows you how you can import one DDL script to create an initial relational model and then use the Data Modeler to add the contents of a second file.

Next week we'll start work with a database, so if you haven't got access to one, now is the time to download and install Oracle Express Edition, to use as your sandbox. The next two demos I plan are to connect to the database and import a model and of course the one that follows has to be how to create those update scripts.