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ONDA: ONline Database Architect

Nuno Laranjeiro, Alexandre Miguel Pinto

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for free, cross-platform, easy-to-use database modeling tools for education. It presents ONDA, a browser-based solution that encapsulates ER diagram creation, physical schema generation, and multi-engine SQL generation in a single, accessible tool. The work details practical features such as support for weak entities and inheritance, and demonstrates adoption in university courses with hundreds of students, highlighting its educational impact. Looking ahead, the authors plan to extend ONDA with additional notations and PL/SQL editing/storage to broaden its modeling and scripting capabilities.

Abstract

Database modeling is a key activity towards the fulfillment of storage requirements. Despite the availability of several database modeling tools for developers, these often come with associated costs, setup complexities, usability challenges, or dependency on specific operating systems. In this paper we present ONDA, a web-based tool developed at the University of Coimbra, that allows the creation of Entity-Relationship diagrams, visualization of physical models, and generation of SQL code for various database engines. ONDA is freely available at https://onda.dei.uc.pt and was created with the intention of supporting teaching activities at university-level database courses. At the time of writing, the tool being used by more than three hundred university students every academic year.

ONDA: ONline Database Architect

TL;DR

The paper addresses the need for free, cross-platform, easy-to-use database modeling tools for education. It presents ONDA, a browser-based solution that encapsulates ER diagram creation, physical schema generation, and multi-engine SQL generation in a single, accessible tool. The work details practical features such as support for weak entities and inheritance, and demonstrates adoption in university courses with hundreds of students, highlighting its educational impact. Looking ahead, the authors plan to extend ONDA with additional notations and PL/SQL editing/storage to broaden its modeling and scripting capabilities.

Abstract

Database modeling is a key activity towards the fulfillment of storage requirements. Despite the availability of several database modeling tools for developers, these often come with associated costs, setup complexities, usability challenges, or dependency on specific operating systems. In this paper we present ONDA, a web-based tool developed at the University of Coimbra, that allows the creation of Entity-Relationship diagrams, visualization of physical models, and generation of SQL code for various database engines. ONDA is freely available at https://onda.dei.uc.pt and was created with the intention of supporting teaching activities at university-level database courses. At the time of writing, the tool being used by more than three hundred university students every academic year.
Paper Structure (6 sections, 4 figures)

This paper contains 6 sections, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The ONDA Application
  3. Entity-Relationship Diagram Creation
  4. Physical Model Generation
  5. SQL Generation
  6. Conclusion

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Timeline of advances in data storage and management.
  • Figure 2: Main ONDA screen and the creation of an Entity-Relationship diagram.
  • Figure 3: Physical data model generation in ONDA.
  • Figure 4: SQL generation in ONDA.