The SchemaBank Blog

Let me share with you how the idea of developing a collaborative web-based database modeling product was born.

Back in 2006…

The pain of traditional database modeling software

When we were doing a project using PostgreSQL, we had spent quite some time to search for a handy tool for database modeling. Most, if not all, of the tools available in the market at the time didn’t meet our simple requirements:

1. We don’t feel like installing anything because we are lazy and tired of any upgrade and patching that could potentially mess up our development machines.
2. We prefer browser-based solutions as we appreciate its cleaniness and portability across different OS platforms.
3. When we send database models for our client’s approval, we want to skip the hassle of persuading them to follow our software choice (on database modeling).
4. We want our database models accessible to our team members and our clients that may come from anywhere in the world.
5. We want the the data (i.e. the database model) served securely and with regular backup.
6. We want the tool to help us collaborate with our team members and our clients as much and easily as possible because database modeling involves team interaction and decision.

With further research, it seems the same happens to other DBMS. We were thinking, ‘Hey, it’s 2006! How come a web 2.0 version of database modeling products is yet to materialize?‘

So after months of development, together with countless espresso and English breakfast tea, here we come SchemaBank.

Challenges are still there

While we are happy to see SchemaBank goes into beta, we also recognize our simple requirements are not easy after all. I’ll share with you more behind-the-scene stories of existing and upcoming features in future postings.

No matter what though, we are determined to bring you the best that web 2.0 can offer to database modeling.

And please let us know how you feel about the beta.

Now getting back to work…

Cheers.

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