How to import the contents of an Oracle database into Visio to create an Entity Relationship Diagram

ddlerdimportoraclevisio

I have an Oracle database, and I would like to create an ERD in Visio 2007 Pro.

I have so far looked at DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL commands to generate DDL. I know that I can import an Access DB into Visio, but it seems that Access understands an SQL dialect which is different from Oracle, so I would need to tweak every Create Table command to change the data types.

Is there a simple way to create an ERD using DDL in Visio Pro 2007?

Best Answer

All you need is configured ODBC connection to Oracle DB

    1. Install Oracle Client SW (download from otn.oracle.com). I recommend installing same version as your Oracle DB
    2. Define connection in tnsnames.ora
    3. Create and test ODBC connection to Oracle DB in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) - use Oracle's driver in your ORA_HOME, use connection defined in tnsnames.ora
    4. Importing from defined ODBC connection to Oracle should be same as importing from Access DB