Open ModelSphere Guide

How to Reverse Engineer a Microsoft Access File

Author Credits Date Marco Savard Luc Poulin 2012 June 6th

This guide explains how to reverse engineer a Microsoft Access File (.mdb or .accdb file) into Open ModelSphere. This tutorial was tested with Windows 7 and Open ModelSphere 3.2.

1)

Create a new data source

Open the Control Panel, add choose Administration Tools.

Then, open Data Sources (ODBC):

Click the Add.. button.

Select Microsoft Access Driver and press Finish. If you do not see the Microsoft Access Driver and you use a 32-bit Windows, skip to the Work-around section.

Enter the name of the data source (this could be the name of the .mdb or .accdb file), and press Select..:

Select the physical file to associate with the data source:

After that, you should get a new data source with the name of your .mdb or .accdb file.

1.1) Work-around for 32-bits Windows.

If you only see SQL Server driver, you can try to start the 32-bit version of ODBC drivers.

Copy (CTRL-C) c:\windows\syswow64\odbcad32.exe in the clipboard, open the cmd.exe program, and paste it. As cmd.exe do not support CTRL-V, right-click and choose paste.

Type Add..

You should see the Microsoft Access Driver. Return to the previous section and continue.

2)

Connect Open ModelSphere to the data source

Start Open ModelSphere, and select ToolsDatabaseConnect..

Click the New.. button:

Choose a configuration name (tip: give the same name as the Data Source), check ODBC, and enter the Data Source (this must be the same name chosen in the previous section).

It is recommended to press Test to ensure the ODBC driver is found (ODBC driver is automatically provided with the Windows distribution, Linux or Mac users may have to install ODBC driver on their machine to continue).

Press Select to select this driver configuration:

Enter user name and password if applicable. Then press Connect:

If you get this message, Allow access:

You get this message if you have successfully connected to the JDBC-ODBC driver. If you get a Driver not Found error message, consult the next section. Otherwise, go to the Reverse Engineer Database section.

2.1) Problem: Data source not found

If you get this message:

It's probably because you give a wrong name of the data source. Give the same name as you gave in the Create a new Data Source section and this should solve this problem.

3)

Reverse Engineer the database

In Open ModelSphere, and select ToolsDatabaseReverse Engineering..

Create a new project (or an existing one) and click Next..

Choose the physical file in the database field:

Select the latest version of MS Access, and press Next.

Select the tables you want to reverse engineer (most of the time, select all, which is the default setting), and type Proceed.

Show details reveals the tables, columns, etc, that have been reverse engineered:

Once the reverse engineering operation is completed, you should see the imported tables in your diagram.

Congratulations! You have successfully reverse engineered a Microsoft Access Database into Open ModelSphere.

4)

References
Microsoft Data Connectivity Components http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23734