REVIEW OF COMMON CLOUD TOOLS FOR BUILDING ER-DIAGRAMS FOR STUDYING DATABASES

Abstract

The training of modern informatics teachers and IT specialists must necessarily include subjects related to the improvement of basic knowledge, abilities and skills in the design and development of databases. ER-diagrams, which are based on the concepts of “Entity” and “Relationship”, are used to facilitate the process of designing databases. An “Entity-Relationship” diagram allows you to represent a database in the form of visual graphic objects that define a specific subject area. The article reviews cloud-oriented tools for building ER-diagrams for designing databases. The possibilities of using such cloud services in institutions of higher education during the training of future informatics teachers and IT specialists are considered. The convenience of using cloud services is that it does not require installing, configuring and updating software. From the considered services (Creately, Diagrams.net, Lucidchart, ERDPlus, Dbdesigner.net, QuickDBD, GenMyModel, ToadDataModeler, SQL DBM, Erwin Data Modeler, dbdiagram.io, DrawSQL), those were selected that provide the possibility of constructing ER diagrams in Chen notation, are free, have an intuitive interface and enough functionality for learning. This article examines and analyzes in more detail the possibilities of available cloud services: Creately, Diagrams.net, Lucidchart, ERDPlus, which provide an opportunity to build standard components of ER diagrams, support the construction of strong and weak entities, different types of attributes, and all possible constraints on the strength of ties. In addition, the services Diagrams.net, Lucidchart provide the opportunity to work together on a project in real time, which allows students of higher education to work in pairs and small groups and to form the skills of collective work on educational projects.