MySQL Bugs: #39100: Add drawing tool for relations without foreign key constraint

Bug #39100	Add drawing tool for relations without foreign key constraint
Submitted:	28 Aug 2008 15:22	Modified:	30 Jul 2009 23:15
Reporter:	Bogdan Bezuz	Email Updates:
Status:	Won't fix	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Workbench	Severity:	S4 (Feature request)
Version:	5.0.29 OSS	OS:	Any
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
Add a tool for drawing relations without the creation of any fk constraints 

How to repeat:
create a relation -> all relations create fk constraints

Suggested fix:
grouping the tables with color region (but is less obvious and lacks details )

unable to draw list_fiends -> list_friends_history relations without fk

Attachment: test.png (image/png, text), 12.90 KiB.

At this time I do not want to implement foreign key constraints becuase this database was orginally migrated from 4.x mySQL where foreign key constraints wehre not available and I am not in a position to shut down our company for the weeks it would take to test and implement these contraints, but I do need to use the EER Diagram capability for documentation purposes.  Because the diagramming tool is forcing foreign key constraints, each time I need to build a portion or all of my 300+ tables, I have to manually remove the foreign key constraints.  This is a significant design limitation.

Many thanks for pointing this out.

Which storage engine are you using?

I'm using InnoDB

Many thanks for writing a feature request.

I think a checkbox would make sense here. A checkbox during SQL export for including/excluding constraints.

Adding a new drawing tool for relationships with no foreign key requires substantial redesign, so it will probably not be implemented anytime soon.

However, Workbench 5.1.17 will have the option to export a database with no FOREIGN KEYS.
So you can still use the normal relationship tool and use that option to obtain the effect you need.