I was engaged in data warehouse development before, and a very important link was metadata model management. At that time, I used PowerDesigner. This software is powerful, but with the increase of models, the startup is slower and slower, even more than 2 minutes, and I just want to have a look at the relationship between tables. And it’s for a fee. Obviously, I downloaded a cracked version myself, which is not sustainable as copyright awareness grows.

Today, I found a metadata modeling tool developed by Chinese on the open source website. It is free and easy to use. Its name is Chiner, and it supports Windows, Linux and Mac, but PowerDesigner can only be used on Windows. Learning is also expensive.

I downloaded chiner and used it. It took me 10 minutes to get started. There is almost no learning cost and it is very suitable for Chinese people. Reply “chiner” to get the download link.

Chiner is a database relationship model design platform built by the developers after three years of trials and tribulations. It is built using React+Electron+Java technology system. It is a very conscience data modeling tool. Embrace the lilting Chiner. Here are screenshots of chiner’s story and features:

1. Chiner’s past lives

  1. At the beginning of 2018, I formed a loose group with a few friends in the community who were interested in open source and completed the release of PDMan version 1.0 in one and a half months, which solved the problem from scratch.
  2. In May 2018, the first open source public version of PDMan was released, with periodic updates until January 2019.
  3. Every day, more than 3,000 companies and individuals use PDMan to design their databases.
  4. During our own use and the use of users, we put forward a lot of optimization suggestions.
  5. Many of the optimizations and upgrades were very difficult to implement due to insufficient design consideration in the early stage, so we planned another brand new version in December 2019.
  6. When feelings meet survival and development, it is really difficult to speak ideal with an empty stomach. During this period, our team went through several twists and turns and was on the verge of dissolving for several times.
  7. At the end of 2019, we had less than 30,000 yuan of start-up capital and started our business almost bare-ass. Fortunately, we were assigned to two projects with the help of several friends. The core team was divided into two parts: one went to Hangzhou, the other went to the far north.
  8. During this period, we continued to ferment and precipitation. Together with our friends in the community, we completed the technical architecture design, interface prototype design and the development and coding of key core modules in our spare time.
  9. We, along with our friends in the community, have been working on the new version 3.0 until today (July 17, 2021).

2. The origin of the name chiner

  1. First (public release name) : PDMan: Physical Data Model Manager
  2. The second (internal use name) : SINOPER: SINO Popular Entity Relation (the most Popular Entity Relation graph tool in China), the current release of this software, a lot of code at the bottom of the word prefix.
  3. Third (public release name) : CHINER: CHINESE Entity Relation (domestic Entity Relation tool), in order to facilitate the popularity of domestic, CHINESE name is called: tuple modeling, also known as :”** CHINER [tuple modeling]**” public use.

3. Key points of CHINER V3.0

  1. Based on the experience accumulated in the previous 3 years, to solve the genetic defect, start again and do it again.
  2. The architecture is redesigned and the structure is overturned, but it is highly compatible with the original PDMan.
  3. Or the original formula, the original taste, keep the original operation habits, and local optimization.
  4. Fine interface layout and operation optimization, better look, more simple, better use.
  5. Add practical new functions (such as importing PowerDesigner, etc.), more powerful, better ecological compatibility.
  6. Removed some non-critical features that were risky to use, poorly done, and untouchable.
  7. This time we paid for a professional UI design interface.

Preview screenshots

4. Function introduction

Bring your own introduction to reference cases

The home page provides two typical reference cases for users to quickly understand the functions and features supported by the software.

Management object

1 Data table and fields

Provides simple and intuitive data tables and field management and operations. Drag-sort is supported in the list on the left. Supports more data table Settings, such as adding table remarks and extending attribute lists, as shown in the following figure:

2 View associated with multiple tables

The view consists of multiple tables and supports multiple tables and field selection, as shown in the following figure:

View and source data table, as shown below:

3 Customizable data types and data domains

Extensible data types, and support for adaptation of multiple database dialects, as shown below:

Data domain, used to set the same type of data with specific business meaning, as shown below:

4 Data Standards (Field library)

The standard field library is used to solve the common field record, so that users can directly drag from the common field library into the data table when creating a data table. The standard field library can be added by users or moved from existing tables to the standard field library, as shown below:

The standard field library supports exporting JSON files and importing from JSON files to solve shared communication problems.

5 Data Dictionary (Code Mapping Table)

Data dictionary support has been added for clearer parsing of field metadata, as shown below:

Table fields can be directly associated with data dictionaries, as shown below:

Multi-module mode and non-module mode

Simple projects do not need to be divided into modules, but can be directly divided into data tables, views, diagrams and data dictionaries. Complex projects need to be divided into an independent module. The system supports both of these two forms. Simple mode, as shown below:

In the form of modules, as shown below:

The diagram

1 ER association diagram

Data entity association diagram, which needs manual maintenance, as shown below:

2. Simple conceptual model diagram

Simple conceptual model diagrams are supported. Conceptual model diagram entities are only saved on the diagram, and entity objects are not kept, as shown below:

The conceptual model diagram is used to quickly outline the relationship diagram of key service objects of the system and to quickly understand the data model as a whole.

3. Multiple diagrams in the same module

The same module can support multiple diagrams of various forms:

Canvas Design interface

1 Group box and remarks box

Group boxes are used to classify data tables or entities, so that you can understand the hierarchy of data tables more clearly, as shown in the following figure:

For more details, visit gitee.com/robergroup/… .

The future promise

CHINER metadata modeling, as a domestic free open source database modeling tool, source code and compiled procedures are provided for free use by individuals or organizations.

Redeveloped and sold on this basis, subject to magnolia Public License, 2nd Edition.

To simplify user use, CHINER provides a compiled installation package.

In the future, we will adapt domestic operating system and platform according to users’ usage.

Product line (under planning)

In order to better encourage open source, stimulate the enthusiasm of open source contributors and promote ecological benign development, we will try to launch the following two commercial versions:

Cloud Services Web Online edition: in addition to retaining all the original functions, add team collaboration, version management, industry thesewords, intelligent correction, WebHooks and other team and enterprise application functions.

Enterprise Private Deployment Web edition: Provides the same functions as the online Web edition and provides private enterprise deployment to meet the requirements of enterprise data code assets deployed on the Intranet.

The last

No more to say, chiner’s good, who uses who knows.