Month Year Issue

March 2002 Issue: 24

Journal of Conceptual Modeling
www.inconcept.com/jcm

Editor's Corner
by Patrick Hallock

Confusion Over What to Buy

There has been some discussion on the InConcept discussion list about which product to buy in order to get Object Role Modeling. The correct version is the "Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect Version" - not the enterprise edition. Also there are several choices in the database area of Visio. True ORM models are created using "ORM Source Models". They become source documents for the "Database Model Diagram". All the other choices are not the right combination when using ORM. The Database Model Diagram can use many ORM and other Database Model Diagrams as source documents at the same time. This is actually a very nice feature.

John Miller at PDATA

John has created an interesting site at .com. This site is based on a "wiki"concept. Don't ask. Anyone can contribute to an area within the wiki subject area. For example, if you wanted to define a term in ORM you could go there and contribute the term and the definition. It is a public forum on a subject and it keeps John also has ORM to XML software. He spent a lot of time creating the XML extract form the Visio ORM diagrams.

Alternative Visio "Save As" Formats

A small model is presented several different ways for you to sample. Each one can be used on the web. Download the Visio Web Component Reader first for .vdx or .vds
    Pages Saved as:
        Web Page    - needs only a browser, custom properties are displayed
        VDX            - XML format, requires Visio Web reader Component
        VDS            - Visio file - requires Visio 5 - 2002, launches
                           Visio in your browser
All of these options present multi-page drawings. These options permit a new way to share models or other Visio drawings between users on the web. In this month 's articles we have used this to allow readers the option to launch a diagram into the Visio Reader and then zoom in to see the tiny print - handy for us old guys.

Presentation at the University of Minnesota

Inconcept was the quest of Dr. Gordon Everest and his undergraduate and graduate level design courses. Dr. Everest presents ORM at both levels of study and has about ninety student enrolled. Since they are required to do some conceptual modeling using ORM, we presented the environment and how to use the ORM solution within the Visio software. We have been added to their course chat area so that we may continue to help them with answers to tool usage - we are not doing their homework for them. We are also providing a special page within our site for them to see screen displays for added support. That is at www.inconcept.com/uom it is under construction and should be ready soon.

This Month's Article from Terry

Be sure to read about the subtypes this month. There are some special issues with subtypes. If are a user of the ORM solution you need to aware of the current solution for subtypes.

New Author

Alexandra Galatescu is a new presenter this month. The article focuses on natural language and modeling. It is an interest article and addresses not only data modeling but process modeling using natural as well.

Changes in the Journal

The Journal is a different format this month. I received from comments from Amit Bhagwat. Amit and friends made several good suggestions, some of which were implemented. The bright colors, fun for those us in the Winter bound North, but not in all situations. The look may change slightly again. Some of the JCM navigation frame has been moved in order to keep the need for a scroll bar to a minimum. Since, each article has the copyright statement, it was removed from the outline frame giving more room for the article. The header font was also reduced to give more vertical reading space.

Fabian Pascal

Fabian is person I have head about and read some of his work. I hope readers will try debunking the quotes he provides. He has been using this strategy for some time to correct things people are saying about the relational model The web site provided in the article can be an enjoyable read. The winner gets,...

Joining the JCM List

If you would like to submit responses to the John Sharp problems, or the Fabian Pascal article quotes, or merely kept up with conceptual modelers, submit an email to
jcm-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Patrick Hallock is a Senior Partner and Principal Consultant for InConcept. He has over 20 years of ORM/NIAM experience and is a certified ORM consultant, trainer/train the trainer and a certified Visio trainer.

Contact Information:

Patrick Hallock
President and Co-Founder
InConcept
8171 Hidden Bay Trail N
Lake Elmo, MN 55042
path@inconcept.com
(651) 777-8484
fax: (651) 777-9634
http://www.inconcept.com