Skipper is a visualization tool and code/schema generator for PHP ORM frameworks like Doctrine2,

Doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

Propel Propel or propelling may refer to: * Propulsion, to push forward or drive an object forward * Samsung A767 Propel, a mobile phone ** Samsung i627 Propel Pro * Propel Fitness Water, a drink from the makers of Gatorade * Propel (PHP), an object-rela ...

, and

CakePHP CakePHP is an open-source web framework. It follows the model–view–controller (MVC) approach and is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License. CakePHP uses well-known software engineer ...

, which are used to create

database abstraction layer A database abstraction layer (DBAL or DAL) is an application programming interface which unifies the communication between a computer application and databases such as SQL Server, IBM Db2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle or SQLite. Traditionally, al ...

. Skipper is developed by Czech company Inventic, s.r.o. based in Brno, and was known as ORM Designer prior to rebranding in 2014.

Overview

* Generates visual model from the schema definition files * Repetitive import/export of schema definitions in supported formats (XML, YML, PHP annotations) * Schema definition files are automatically generated from the visual model * Visual representation uses ER diagram extended by concepts of

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...

and

many-to-many Many-to-many communication occurs when information is shared between groups. Members of a group receive information from multiple senders. Wikis are a type of many-to-many communication, where multiple editors collaborate to create content that ...

* Supports customization using .xml configuration files and JavaScript * Does not support direct connections to the database * Crude and simplistic visual representation and menus

Architecture

Skipper was built on the

Qt framework Qt (pronounced "cute") is cross-platform software for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems wit ...

. Import/export of the schema definitions uses XSL transformations powered by

LibXslt libxslt is the XSLT C library developed for the GNOME project. It provides an implementation of XSLT 1.0, plus most of the EXSLT set of processor-portable extensions functions and some of Saxon's evaluate and expressions extensions. libxslt i ...

library. Imported source files are first converted to XML format: no conversion for XML, simple conversion for YML, creating the

Abstract Syntax Tree In computer science, an abstract syntax tree (AST), or just syntax tree, is a tree representation of the abstract syntactic structure of text (often source code) written in a formal language. Each node of the tree denotes a construct occurr ...

and its subsequent conversion to XML for PHP annotations. The import/export scripts are configured in JavaScript and can be freely customized.

Supported ORM frameworks

Frameworks supported for visual model and schema files generation: * Doctrine2 *

History

Skipper was created as an internal tool for the web applications developed by Inventic. It was first published as a commercial tool under the name ORM Designer in 2009.goaleurope.com/ORM-Designer-raises-funding-from-angel-investor
/ref> Application was reworked and optimized in January 2013, and released as ORM Designer 2. In May 2013 ORM Designer became part of the South Moravian Innovation Center Incubator program (support program for innovative technological startups). In June 2014, ORM Designer version 3 was released and rebranded under the name of Skipper

References

External links