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ER/Studio Repository

ER/Studio Repository provides organizations using the award-winning ER/Studio data modeling application with a scalable, server-based, model management system. It is designed to enable real-time concurrent access to data models between team members, implement security to protect models and components from unwanted access and change, facilitate component sharing and re-use across projects and offer extensive model version management. ER/Studio Repository integrates seamlessly with the current workflow of ER/Studio, providing out-of-box efficiency to achieve higher modeling quality through the promotion of standards and ultimately through dramatic productivity gains by allowing work to progress concurrently and safely amongst modeling team members.

ER/Studio Repository is designed to work the way modeling teams need to in order to deliver higher quality applications faster and more cost-effectively. As the scope of data modeling projects grow, so typically does the complexity and overhead needed for coordination and quality control of projects. ER/Studio Repository offers sophisticated means to help ‘stabilize’ this potential management nightmare giving modeling teams and managers complete control of their ongoing projects straight out of the box, while allowing modelers to work naturally and seamlessly with each other.

• Concurrent Model and Object Access: ER/Studio Repository allows real-time collaboration between modelers working on data models down to the model object level. Specifically, more than one modeler can be working on elements of the same object, like an attribute of an entity, at exactly the same time. Offering this ‘deep’ level of concurrent access eliminates the diagram-level lockout barrier faced by users of non-repository based products or modeling repositories incapable of this level of productive collaboration.
• Real-time Object Status Notification: Modelers working concurrently with other team members always have a heads up view to recognize the current accessibility-state of an object directly through ER/Studio’s modeling interface. ER/Studio Repository makes use of unique diagram symbols that display the state of a diagram or objects usage in the Repository. Users can see at any time which named user or users are currently accessing a particular model or object in the Repository in addition to seeing live status changes as they are modeling.
• Reviewing Changes and Resolving User Conflict: As on-going collaboration between data modelers progresses, so will come the eventuality of resolving conflicting data submitted to the Repository from modelers working collaboratively. ER/Studio Repository offers simple and intelligent interfaces to walk users through the discovery of differences identified between a specific user’s model and changes that have occurred simultaneously to the model by others connected to the Repository.Conflict resolution allows for selective, bi-directional control over updating between a users model and its Repository-based version. In addition, Repository Administrators can visualize, accept and/or reject the granular changes required to be promoted to the ER/Studio Repository-managed version of the data model.
• Component Sharing and Reuse: ER/Studio Repository’s Enterprise Data Dictionary introduces productivity capabilities stressing the elimination of data redundancy and enforcement of data element standards. Modeling project managers can create and implement pre-defined data dictionaries that can be re-used and globally updated throughout any diagrams they are distributed to in the Repository. This approach lessens the likelihood of modelers ’rebuilding the wheel’ and defining their own attributes and datatypes across models in addition to dramatic productivity gains in updating these elements in one place no matter where they have been distributed to within models.
• “Detached” Collaboration: Users who wish to work collaboratively with others do not necessarily need to be connected/tethered to the server. ER/Studio Repository extends its "check out" capabilities to allow for complete detachment from the Repository server. The product maintains and traces the complicated referential integrity issues of a users check-out and will provide them with a thoughtful UI to review changes having occurred while detached from the Repository.
• Project Creation: ER/Studio Repository allows users to organize collections of diagrams into named ‘Projects’. Projects group diagrams together for the purpose of allowing teams to organize Repository’s contents in a meaningful way and allow security to be wrapped around the diagram collections by Roles assigned through Repository’s security layer.

ER/Studio Repository provides rich support for model version management, designed to allow organizations to easily manage all successive states of models and model meta data. These capabilities allow teams to model with confidence and will facilitate the team’s ability to track changes of models and individual model objects, set named releases of models and the ability to review and retrieve (’rollback’) prior model and object versions at any time.

Version Management: ER/Studio Repository manages the individual histories of models and model objects to ensure incremental comparison between, and rollback to, desired diagrams and diagram elements.
Named Releases: “Freezing” code is a common practice of application developers and is no different with respect to managing the succession of data models. ER/Studio Repository allows users to incrementally set Named Releases of models to allow for the capturing of diagram snapshots to incrementally freeze project milestones.

Repository-based collaborative modeling provides modeling teams significant advantages in controlling the state and safety of models and objects through the ability to apply user-defined layers of security. These capabilities help to protect work from being altered or even seen by those who do not have the required access to view, modify, edit, add or delete. ER/Studio Repository makes this process extremely easy through an entire Security user interface.

The ER/Studio Repository Security Center:

• Manage Repository Security: Repository Security is a simple to use visual interface where ER/Repository administrators can visually bind and associate Users to diagrams, objects and dictionaries with specific Roles they will play against those diagrams.
• Manage Repository Users: Manage Users is made simple. A visual interface allows for the creating, updating, deleting, and deactivating/reactivating (e.g. 'hibernation') of all Users. It is here that Administrators can visualize who is logged in and further who may still have objects checked out in the ER/Repository, which is especially helpful at project conclusion time.
• Manage Repository Roles: Administrators can create and administer entire ‘teams’ through the Role system quickly and efficiently. Roles are the set of permissions that are created for purpose-specific needs to prevent unwanted access or modification to various elements managed in the ER/Repository.

Embarcadero's commitment to rapid installation and immediate out-of-box productivity continues with ER/Studio Repository. The product can be installed in minutes through an intuitive, guided wizard that walks the user through installation and start up of all server-side Repository Services as well as the Repository Database itself.

Open Architecture through industry-leading DBMS Installation

ER/Studio Repository installs on a variety of industry-leading Relational Database Management Systems and network platforms. This allows users to manage and query data from ER/Studio Repository as comfortably as they would any other production database. The RDBMS types supported through ER/Studio Repository’s installation wizard are:

• Oracle 8-9i Server
• IBM DB2 UDB 7.x (for NT or UNIX server)
• Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.x
• Microsoft SQL Server 7 & 2000

The ER/Studio Repository database component can be located on Windows NT and UNIX network platforms.

System Requirements

The following minimum system requirements are recommended for ER/Studio Repository

• Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Server version recommended)
• Minimum Pentium IV-class processor or higher
• Minimum 40MB hard disk storage for installation required
• Native Client DBMS Utilities for DBMSs indicated above.
• Suggested 512 MB RAM