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In short I'm looking or a "database schema visualization tool", web based, Open Source.

I'm only interested in the schema, not in the data.

Side note: I'm not really interested in exploring foreign keys (the project has no foreign keys for some reasons). I say this since I hope this would include more solutions.

Requirements

The recommendation should go in this direction:

  • Open Source - obviously nowadays
  • input: an SQL file (so it reads the CREATE TABLE)
  • output: allow to visually explore tables and their columns
  • output formats:
    • Very OK: if it is web based and generates a static website
    • Still OK: if it easily generates an SVG or a PNG or a PDF with all the tables+columns
    • NOT OK: if it requires to do some screenshots on your client

Bonus points:

  • handle multiple databases
    • Anyway it's not a problem if just one database at time can be seen. Probably we can surely find a workaround even if it allows to inspect just one database.

Not needed:

  • No need to see data
  • No need to see foreign keys
  • No need to have any "Edit" feature, just Read-only

Root problem

In short this is the root problem:

https://we.phorge.it/Q38

I'm trying to contribute to Phorge (also previously known as Phabricator) and I realize that it is a huge software, since it's a software application that relies on 60+ MariaDB databases (!).

My need is: allow me and other people to understand how the project works, so, viewing the database schemas, etc. and doing it on the web could be really useful, since it would be easier to keep this documentation updated, instead of generating screenshots from DBeaver or some other clients.

What I've seen:

So, this is why the recommendation should be Open Source. Since this would be useful for a community. This is also why the recommendation should be not just "do screenshots", since the solution is huge and the risk to do a mistake or having inconsistent documentation is too much. And, by the way, I'm in 2023, so I think a web tool already exist.

Thank you for your new proposals or any answer about the already-mentioned solutions!

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  • You can use a DB reverse engineering tool and export your diagrams in SVG format. Then embed these SVGs in minimal HTML pages. You can then use Use CTRL+ and CTRL- to enlarge and shrink (at least in Chrome/Safari). You can also style the SVGs with code.
    – knb
    Commented Mar 24, 2023 at 14:18
  • I've only used it with Oracle-specific SQL and don't know how it handles MariaDB/MySQL dialect – but as it's free & FOSS it might be worth a try: HyperSQL meets how you describe the process (feed it a tree of SQL files, get a static HTML presentation with some Graphviz isualizations if you want). Disclosure: I'm one of the authors of this software, but haven't used it for years myself anymore…
    – Izzy
    Commented Mar 24, 2023 at 18:04

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