Using Entity Modeler

Entity Modeler is the WOLips counterpart to the EOModeler tool from Apple.  It does not have all the GUI niceness and drag and drop, but it also does not have all the long standing bugs.  It has some pretty cool features too.  Entity Model came to be through the incredible hard work of Mike Schrag around the time of WWDC 2006.  Mike, thank you!

Create a Model

To use Entity Modeler, you will need an EOModel.  If you don't already have one in your project, create one from the File - New menu, or use the New wizard.  Here is what the creation dialog will look like.  Give the model a name, select JDBC for the Adaptor Type (assuming you are targeting a JDBC database), and leave Create EOGenerator File? checked.

First Look

Once the model is created, you will see the initial Entity Modeler perspective:

Outline View

The Outline view takes the place of the main hierarchal display in EOModeler.  This is where you will see the list of entities, SQL configurations (only Default shown so far), etc.  This view is very important to Entity Modeler.  The Package Explorer and Navigator are much less important.  If you manage to close this view, you will need to go to Window - View and open it again before you can do much.

Properties View

The Properties view takes the place of the Inspector dialogs in EOModeler.  This is were you will edit the detail of entities, attributes, relationships etc.  It is blank when nothing is selected.

EOModel View

This view should be fairly familiar to users of EOModeler. There are two tabs to this display (only one of which is shown at present).  One tab shows the overview of the whole model.  The other tab shows a single entity.

Creating a new Entity

Click the EOModel icon in the Outline view to activate the icons and click the New Entity one:

The newly created entity appears in the GUI:

Note that the new entity is shown in the Outline view and that the EOModel now has a second tab showing the details of the entity. Use these tabs to switch between the whole model and single entity views.  The Properties tab shows the details of the entity organized into tabs that match the display of EOModeler.

From here on, the functionality is much the same as EOModeler.