{"id":621,"date":"2009-11-23T12:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blogs\/bobb\/post\/And-the-secret-word-for-tonight-is.aspx"},"modified":"2014-01-20T12:25:53","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T20:25:53","slug":"and-the-secret-word-for-tonight-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/bobb\/and-the-secret-word-for-tonight-is\/","title":{"rendered":"And the secret word for tonight is&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nNo, the secret word for tonight is not &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fillmore_East_-_June_1971\">mudshark<\/a>&quot;, although it does begin with the letter M. It&#39;s modeling. SQL Server data can be modeled in a variety of ways and, after the last few weeks, there&#39;s even more.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWhen I think of relational database modeling, I think of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/IDEF1X\">IDEF1X<\/a> language and visual modeling tools like <a href=\"http:\/\/erwin.com\/products\/\">ERWIN<\/a>. Those database diagrams that took up two (and sometimes three) of my cubicle walls. Data defined using functional decomposition based on a series of normal form rules.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nOr Peter Chen&#39;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Entity-relationship_model\">Entity-Relationship modeling<\/a>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/aa730866(VS.80).aspx\">Entity Framework<\/a> and Linq to SQL allow mapping relational models to object models, and VS2008-2010 include visual modelers based on crow&#39;s foot diagrams. And let&#39;s not forget&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.orm.net\/\">Object Role Modeling<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Unified_Modeling_Language\">UML<\/a> (a general purpose modeling language), both of which are supported by Microsoft&#39;s Visio product (there&#39;s an add-in for ORM).\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBut in SQL Server, there&#39;s even more. With Analysis Services 2005, the <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ms345143(SQL.90).aspx\">Unified Dimensional Model<\/a> was introduced as &quot;a thin layer over the data source&quot; to provide a &quot;more readily understood model of the data&quot;. Report <a href=\"http:\/\/technet.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/cc678411.aspx\">models<\/a> are also used in SQL Server Reporting Services to isolate the user from the database structure and make it easier to produce reports.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe lastest CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 includes Master Data Services,&nbsp;an offering to help an organization manage master data, and with it, a way to <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ee633746(SQL.105).aspx\">define models of master data<\/a> (think customer list or product line, the items that companies buy other companies to acquire). Master data models are stored in SQL Server and are visualized using a specialized web application.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAnd last week Project Oslo became SQL Server Modeling Services, which uses SQL Server to store and manage enterprise models and helps in building enterprise applications. You design models non-graphically, although, once it&#39;s stored in the repository, you can graphically visualize it with the Quadrant application. Currently it includes &quot;domain models&quot; for UML, T-SQL and others (like a domain for System.Identity).\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSo it seems that SQL Server and the data stack is almost awash in a sea of models, repositories, and visualizers. Maybe time for some data modeling redux&#8230; Or at least something like&nbsp;a tool I once used called &quot;Paradigm Plus&quot; which (among other things)&nbsp;could convert (graphics and all)&nbsp;from one model to another, depending on which modeler was in the room at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No, the secret word for tonight is not &quot;mudshark&quot;, although it does begin with the letter M. It&#39;s modeling. SQL Server data can be modeled in a variety of ways and, after the last few weeks, there&#39;s even more. When I think of relational database modeling, I think of the IDEF1X language and visual modeling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.9.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>And the secret word for tonight is... - Bob Beauchemin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/bobb\/and-the-secret-word-for-tonight-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And the secret word for tonight is... - Bob Beauchemin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No, the secret word for tonight is not &quot;mudshark&quot;, although it does begin with the letter M. It&#039;s modeling. SQL Server data can be modeled in a variety of ways and, after the last few weeks, there&#039;s even more. 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