How to convert Vertabelo XML file to Propel's schema.xml file

[verjack]

If you are using Vertabelo for creating database models and you access your database with Propel library, you'll find the following instructions useful.

 

Vertabelo is an online, free tool for visual database design. Once you create a model of your database in Vertabelo, you can generate a Propel schema file from it. To do this you'll have to use VertabeloPropel, a PHP script which converts a Vertabelo XML file into Propel's schema.xml file. The script is available on GitHub.

 

Installing

 

VertabeloPropel uses Composer to manage project dependencies.

 

In your project directory create a file composer.json:

 

{

"require": {

"vertabelo/vertabelo-propel": "*"

   }

}

 

Then run Composer install.

 

composer install

 

This will download VertabeloPropel into the vendor directory in your project directory. The script will be in vendor/bin/vertabelo-propel.php file or, for Windows, in vendor\bin\vertabelo-propel.php.bat.

 

Using VertabeloPropel script

 

1. Create a database model with Vertabelo.

 

2. Download the model as an XML file and save it in your project directory (use an option "Export model as XML file" from Vertabelo's tool bar).

 

3. Generate Propel's schema.xml file. If you want to use the default settings (input file model.xml, output file schema.xml, database name test, default id method native), run

 

in Windows

 

vendor\bin\vertabelo-propel.php.bat

 

in Mac/Linux

 

vendor/bin/vertabelo-propel.php

 

If you want to change the defaults, run

 

in Windows

vendor\bin\vertabelo-propel.php.bat -i model.xml -o schema.xml /

   --database-name bookshop ---default-id-method native

 

in Mac/Linux

vendor/bin/vertabelo-propel.php -i model.xml -o schema.xml --database-name bookshop --default-id-method native

 

4. The script generates Propel's schema.xml file.

 

5. Proceed with your normal Propel application development (or see "How to develop a PHP+MySQL application with Propel and Vertabelo").

 

Script options

 

The script options are:

 

• --input-file (shortcut -i) location of Vertabelo XML file (default value "model.xml")
  

• --output-file (shortcut -o) location of output Propel schema.xml file (default value "schema.xml")
  

• --database-name name of the database (default value "test")
  

• --default-id-method database's defaultIdMethod. Allowed values are “native” or “none”, default value is "native".
  

• --help prints the help message
  

 

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The above information was originaly published on Vertabelo's blog.

Edited January 8, 2015 by verjack