We would like to thank you for your feedback and suggestions! Based on your feedback, we have added a number of improvements to version 4.2, especially for MongoDB users. Let’s take a look at what Moon Modeler version 4.2 brings.
1. MongoDB indexes
In projects for MongoDB, you can now easily define new indexes for your collections. When you create a new index, the Index Assistant window will appear.
The Index assistant allows you easily define the index. Just select the fields, either from the drop down element or by typing the field name directly.
Then use the user-friendly user interface to comfortably set up:
- options for all indexes
- options for text indexes
- options for 2dsphere indexes
- options for wildcard indexes
- and also the collation
An existing index, either manually created or loaded from an existing database, can also be modified using Index Assistant.
HTML reports and indexes
MongoDB indexes are also included in the interactive HTML reports.
Read more about MongoDB schema design and how to define indexes in Moon Modeler.
2. Cardinality settings
We have refined the cardinality settings and added the ability to display many-to-many relationships in cases where a table column is defined as an array. For these cases, it is not necessary to create a join table (junction table or associative table).
Another improvement you wanted to see in Moon Modeler is support for one-to-zillion relationships (MongoDB schema design). This is a one-to-many relationship extension that indicates a larger number of records for a target collection.
3. Relationships and cardinality captions
When it comes to cardinality settings, it can be useful to view additional information near reference/relationship lines. Whether it is simple information indicating the maximum number of records, or information containing quantification – the minimum number, the most likely number and the maximum number of records. (See the caption [1, 1k, 1M] below.)
You can define this information in the cardinality section (reference/relationship detail).
The display is then turned on via the Display item in the main toolbar.
4. Estimated size
It may be useful to show information about the estimated size in your entity-relationship-diagram or schema design. Version 4.2 brings the possibility to set the Estimated size value for both collection (table) and field (table column).
The display can be turned on or off again via the Display item on the main toolbar.
5. Auto-size, Lock dimensions and Auto expand
One of the very important improvements we have added to this version is the auto-size feature. From your feedback, we recognized that it was necessary to spend too much time resizing graphical elements. Therefore, we have spent more time on this enhancement and optimized the way we work with the size of tables, notes and other objects in ERD. You can now switch between different display modes, change table names to longer names, add nested objects, change data types, etc. Any operations that might affect the height or width of objects in the ERD automatically resize those objects.
If you still want to keep some graphic objects at a certain size, you can enable the Lock dimensions switch. This option will cause the height and width of the object to remain the same. Even so, it may still be useful to enlarge the object automatically – for example, if you change the width and then add another item to the object. This could be a new column in a table, or operation like changing the data type to a nested object, etc.
The Auto expand switch is used for this purpose. If this option is enabled, adding a new column to the table will make the table larger. If it is turned off, the dimension is indeed preserved.
6. Other useful improvements and bug fixes
Other new features, often inspired by your requirements, are:
- Loading of indexes from existing MongoDB databases.
- Added the “Pan” functionality. Use Space+mouse+move to drag the diagram area.
- Fixed problem related to loading of application settings
- Modified styles for HTML reports
- Empty window no longer displayed on Linux
- other minor bug fixes
Version 4.2.1 – the latest changes
- FilePath removed from saved project file.
- Fixed bug in import from SQLite file. Quoted names are now imported correctly.
- Removed “No file chosen” notifications.
- Project name set to connection name (reverse engineering).
- Support for the latest authentication caching (MySQL and MariaDB reverse engineering)
- Empty index options removed from loaded MongoDB projects
- Fixed issue with diagram size. This could affect the exported PDF file dimensions.
- Param specification now correctly enlarges object width.
- Fixed bug in simple line mode (might occur when drawing relations from table1 to table2 and vice versa).
- Added missing FK mark in MongoDB projects (reverse engineering).
- Fixed styles for HTML reports.
- Fixed warning that might appear on first app start on MacOS.
Have a suggestion?
If you have a suggestion, an idea for improvement, or if you find a bug, feel free to email us at info@datensen.com.
Thanks!