# Tool for visualizing schema and associations

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [February 5, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001 "2010-02-05T20:00:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/1 "2010-02-05T20:00:20Z")

</div>

I’m working with other people on a Rails project with a fairly “deep”  
set of interconnected data.

This is the first time I’ve tried to discuss data organization with  
non-database-savvy folks (they know and understand the data we’re  
working with but are not familiar with sql concepts or rails  
associations).

It would be really helpful if I had a tool that I could use to very  
easily create a graphic representation of what we have so far in terms  
of tables and associations.

Anybody have a suggestion for a (hopefully free) tool for generating a  
graphical representation of this sort of info? Table contents would be  
good, but the primary thing is the tables and their associations graphed  
in a visually meaningful way.

thanks,  
jp

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/2 "2010-02-05T21:42:10Z")

</div>

HI Jeff,

On Fri, 2010-02-05 at 20:00 +0100, Jeff P. wrote:

> of tables and associations.
> 
> Anybody have a suggestion for a (hopefully free) tool for generating a  
> graphical representation of this sort of info? Table contents would be  
> good, but the primary thing is the tables and their associations graphed  
> in a visually meaningful way.

I’d recommend you take a look at RailRoad  
([http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/)) as a starting point.

HTH,  
Bill

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/3 "2010-02-05T23:16:12Z")

</div>

bill walton wrote:

> HI Jeff,
> 
> On Fri, 2010-02-05 at 20:00 +0100, Jeff P. wrote:
> 
> > of tables and associations.
> > 
> > Anybody have a suggestion for a (hopefully free) tool for generating a  
> > graphical representation of this sort of info? Table contents would be  
> > good, but the primary thing is the tables and their associations graphed  
> > in a visually meaningful way.
> 
> I’d recommend you take a look at RailRoad  
> ([http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/)) as a starting point.

That’s a good tool if you want to do this from the Rails classes. If  
instead you want to take the DB schema as a starting point, try  
SchemaSpy or Power\*Architect.

> HTH,  
> Bill

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/4 "2010-02-09T22:17:47Z")

</div>

sorry, I’ve overseen, that you already got the proposition for  
railroad.

Roman

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/5 "2010-02-09T22:20:42Z")

</div>

sorry, I’ve overseen, that you already got the proposition for  
railroad.

Roman

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jeffpritchard](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jeffpritchard)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tool-for-visualizing-schema-and-associations/183001/6 "2010-02-09T22:15:26Z")

</div>

Hi Jeff,

have you tried Railroad?

[http://railroad.rubyforge.org/](http://railroad.rubyforge.org/)

Cheers,  
Roman