Shane Bell

If you're working on a project that uses a relational database (I don't think I've ever worked on one that didn't) then you really need to check out SchemaSpy. It's a great tool that automatically produces a complete overview of your schema - diagrams and all.

Here's a sample of what it can produce.

It's very useful for navigating around the tables and seeing relationships between them. It even does some analysis of your schema to identify any potential problems.

One thing to note is that it takes a static "snapshot" of your schema. The information is not produced in real time, so you'll need to re-run the program now and again to keep it up to date.

The application itself is a single jar file that you can execute from a command line. You'll also need a JDBC driver so it can talk to your database.

Finally, in order to produce all the fancy diagrams, you'll need the "dot" executable from Graphviz. Check the docs for more info on that.

And best of all - it's free (as in beer).