SQL Server varbinary(max) data type

[DL]

I am trying to model an SQL2005 DB that includes a table that contains varbinary(max) columns.  Does anyone know how I do this in EA.  It keeps telling me the max length is 8000

[Oyvind]

I'm having the same problem. Seems you can't define varbinary(max) in Enterprise architect.
An option could be to use image instead, but according to Microsoft this datatype is only included in SQL server for backwards compability with older databases running on never servers and should not be used. It will eventually be removed from SQL Server.
If you find a way to define varchar(max), please let me know

[ning]

Please goto Settings menu | Database Datatypes submenu| select SQL server 2005 for produce name. Add Datatype like varchar(MAX), varbinary(MAX), nvarchar(MAX). And then try to create column or import column again.

Hope can help you!

[«Midnight»]

Ning,

Hopefully if this tweak works it will be incorporated into the next base model. I don't like the thought of an individually 'customized' definition of SQL 2005 at each user site, or even project.

This should be done soon - build 828 would be most appropriate - and documented in the release notes.

What say?

See below: These changes have been in EA 7.1 since beta 1. Good work Sparx!

David

[Oyvind]

Please goto Settings menu | Database Datatypes submenu| select SQL server 2005 for produce name. Add Datatype like varchar(MAX), varbinary(MAX), nvarchar(MAX). And then try to create column or import column again.

Hope can help you!
 

Thanks for your reply.

I agree with midnight. Standard SQL Server Datatypes should be selectable without going through this procedure.
However, having this option to register datatypes and even new database-implementations is a great strength as there will always be databases or add-ons to existing databases (for instance PostGIS) out there supporting SQL DDL with natively defined datatypes. This registration option enables definiton of table layouts for any database or add-ons inside Enterprise Architect.

Øyvind

[«Midnight»]

Øyvind,

Another thing you can do is define a 'pure' DBMS using more primitive datatypes. This can help when defining a PIM that must consider database issues as well as variables and such. EA makes this easy (or at least easier), which can be a real help.

You can even do this with code datatypes. Some time ago I created a 'language' for specifying the OMG CWM. It meant some serious work up front, but paid off before I finished the first implementation of the metamodel. [Of course this is all ancient history now, since EA 6.1 and later can read the OMG version, but back in EA 4.1 days it was a life saver.]

David

[DL]

Hi everyone

Thanks for the tips - I will try them out soon

FYI I received an email from EA informing me that varchar(max) & varbinary(max) are included from build 825 onwards

[«Midnight»]

Thanks for including that note. I did not notice that it was an earlier version that was missing these datatypes.

I've amended my earlier post to reflect that Sparx had already taken care of this.

David