The dust has settled on PowerDesigner 16.0, and now Sybase have released 16.1. I didn’t notice any fanfare or an announcement, but here it is. There’s something in it for most users, in a number of areas of the product:
Repository, Local Browser Filter, Enterprise Glossary, Security Enhancements, PowerDesigner Portal, IPv6 Support, Resource Files, Symbol Improvements, DBMS Support for PDM.
Repository
Branches in the repository have been completely re-architected. The key new feature here is the support for branching on a folder-by-folder basis.
Local Browser Filter
The Local tab of the Browser now includes a filter. To filter the Browser tree, start typing the name of an object that you want to find in the Filter box. The filter applies to all open models in the workspace.
Browser before filtering
Browser with filter applied
Enterprise Glossary
The Glossary browser used to have two views; these have been replaced by one single view with another of those built-in filters:
Glossary before applying filter
Glossary after applying filter
There is a new Glossary feature – a “terms list”, which presents terms and their definitions in a list format in the canvas. This list can also be used to enter new terms and their definitions, and to edit terms (it’s like a standard list report, so you have control over which properties and terms are shown in the list).
New List of Terms
You can now create list reports and dependency matrices in the glossary.
Here’s a list report showing synonyms
A dependency matrix is a good way of showing links between terms.
Create a matrix with these properties
An example of the output (filtered)
Here’s an example of this matrix. The matrix has been filtered so that it only shows terms that have related terms specified. The term ‘Address’ is linked to three terms via the ‘Related terms’ property.
There are new model checks on to summarize all the terms in object names that are not in the glossary. Users with the appropriate permissions can merge these missing terms into the glossary:
Merging candidate terms into the Glossary
Security Enhancements
Repository and database security is enhanced as follows:
- A password is now required to connect to the repository, and connection passwords are not saved locally.
- Administrators have granular control over the complexity and lifetime of passwords via a password policy
- All communication between the PowerDesigner client and the repository proxy are encrypted. Communications between the proxy and the repository server or between PowerDesigner and a database via ODBC or JDBC can be encrypted if the driver supports it.
- it is now possible to create an emergency administrator account to regain access.
PowerDesigner Portal
The following enhancements have been made to the PowerDesigner Portal:
- Quick search is now available on all PowerDesigner Portal tabs.
- Rich text editing is now supported directly in the PowerDesigner Portal, including support for creating and editing tables, images, and hyperlinks.
- Support for modifying the new repository password policy.
IPv6 Support
Resource Files
The library now supports pushing DBMS and language definition files, extensions, and other resource files to users. Resource files synchronized through the library are automatically included in resource file lists, the New Model dialog, and anywhere where a resource file can be selected.
You can now specify multiple paths for each type of resource file, and PowerDesigner will search all of these paths and combine the results in order to populate resource file lists.
Symbol Improvements
The three labels that can be displayed at the source, center, and destination of link symbols can now be resized independently.
DBMS Support for PDM
Support for Sybase IQ v15.3 and v15.4 has been added, including reference architecture sizing.
