Reverse engineering Oracle 7.3 database

[Islandtime]

 I have down loaded the trial version of the EA 6.5 software for evaluation. I am looking to reverse engineer an an Oracle 7.3 database. I need to be able to model an existing Oracle 7.3 DB. This model will need to show the tables and relationships.

After quite a bit of reading, I have installed the trial version and opened it to the Corporate version. Next I choose "New Project", then "Database". Next I clicked on Project -> Database Engineering -> Import DB Shema from ODBC...

When the "Import DB Shema from ODBC source" opens, I select the database. I am using the Oracle 73 driver that i setup under my System DSN tab in ODBC. In the filter section nothing is selected. In the Synchronization section I have checked "Import as New objects".

When I click Import, I get a list of the tables in my DB then I "select all". In the reverse engineering window I get:

Reverse engineerr DDL:
-Retrieving list of table from ODBC source...
-Retrieving details for selected tables, views, and stored proceedures...
---details for ADMINISTRATORS

Then I get an error message that says "[oracle][odbc oracle driver]Invalid column number"

I have also tried this using the Microsoft ODBC for Oracle but I got the same results.

Can someone help me step through this so that I can evaluate the software?

[«Midnight»]

Jason,

AFAIK EA does not (at least correctly) reverse engineer Oracle databases before version 8 (or perhaps even 9).

I think this was confirmed here in the forum, but it could have been quite a while ago. You're welcome to search, if nobody can provide an authoritative confirmation.

David

[Islandtime]

I searched for Oracle7, Oracle 7.3, Oracle error, reverse engineer oracle database, and reverse engineer oracle db without much luck. I searched dback 365 days. There were several post that came up for each search but all were dealing with Oracle 9 or 10.

Doesn't sound promising from what you have to say though.

I tried using Visio to do this and also received errors. Visio can model the tables but you have to manually draw the relationship connectors and add the index info.

[«Midnight»]

What does happen when you try to RE the database?

I am assuming without proof that you are successfully connecting, probably by ODBC. You should be able to get some kind of result, whether correct or otherwise.

What happens if you change the default database type?

[You can do this from the EA main menu. First, you must open a project, since this is apparently saved at the project level. Then choose Settings | Database Datatypes. Select a product using the drop-down list, and then check the Set as Default button.]

You can always create a new product, using the Oracle settings in EA as a guideline. I don't think there is a 'clone' option to get you started, but you can start small and add the less common data types (only) if (and when) need be. This would allow you to sort of 'regress' to Oracle 7.3 types. From there you can try to RE the schema.

This is fraught with peril though, or at least it might be. I seem to remember something recently that suggested that reading in a schema for a user-defined DBMS might not go as planned. I don't know where the thread was, but perhaps one of the other forum members remembers this.

If you try this, please let us know if anything good (or at least educational) comes of it.

David

[Islandtime]

I followed your directions but I still get the same error message. Thanks for your help. I figured that I would run into trouble trying to find any software that would RE an outdated Oracle DB.