We have updated the Support page with more information aiding users to get the best performance out of Anchor Modeling. There are four key features of a database engine that help produce the best possible performance; table elimination, clustered indexes, foreign keys and statistics.

Read this in order to learn how:

• Indexes and statistics needs to be properly maintained as information is added.
• Adding information may be sped up by temporarily deferring indexes and keys.
• Full table elimination can only be achieved when foreign keys are declared and queries carefully designed.
• Fresh statistics help the query optimizer pick the optimal join order, starting with the smallest intermediate result set and continuing progressively with as few rows as possible through the joins.

The triggers have been rewritten and can now be used both in DW and OLTP environments. In order to show how they are used we made a very simple example showing some inserts, updates, and deletes. Updates are translated to inserts by the triggers. Similar triggers will be available in Bitemporal Anchor Modeling once it is finished, where also the deletes will result in inserts, instead of being actual deletes.

Note that the code above works with our standard example model. Just generate the SQL code from the example model in the tool (version 0.94 if you want the delete trigger) and run it in SQL Server and you will be able to test the code above. Using the triggers is optional and meant to be a way to simplify the way you use an anchor database. You can always use inserts directly to get the same behavior.

The Anchor Modeling event at Ordina in the Netherlands turned out very successful, with about 80 participants and lots of interesting discussions following the presentations. There was a mix of business and technical competences in the audience, both from consulting companies and from the industry. Earlier in the day we also decided to start looking into the possibilities of doing Anchor Modeling training in the Netherlands in 2012. We’ll keep you posted on that!

We also got to meet some of the people involved in the community and posting on our forum. From them we got some valuable feedback on our development of Bitemporal Anchor Modeling, as well as an insight into the development of a complementary tool that migrates other models to anchor models. There was also really exciting news about several projects implementing Anchor Modeling right now, and others currently being planned.

The people behind the modeling tool Graphity are working on adding support for Anchor Modeling, and have gotten quite far in their effort. There is a nice photo showing a comparison of the tools on our Facebook Wall, as well as a video showing some of the editing features. Great work!

Graphity is a generic web-based modeling environment, independent of notation, metamodel and rules. Graphity is developed at HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem, The Netherlands; Competence group Data Architectures & Metadata Management.

For anyone interested in the latest and the greatest, we have put up a test version of the tool here:

http://www.anchormodeling.com/modeler/test/

Do not use it for production work. It is meant to be a way for everyone to see what is coming and give feedback before we make an official release. Right now you can test the new implode/explode-functionality. Next up to be added to the test version is bitemporal modeling. A proof-of-concept showing bitemporal Anchor Modeling using partitioning with a recording period can be found by clicking here.

We have updated the online modeling tool from version 0.91 to version 0.93. This incorporates the changes we made in 0.92 (an intermediate version) as well as rewritten insert and update triggers. These triggers now use pure set based operations, and should therefore be equally well suited both for OLTP and DW environments. We have also added the ability to turn of metadata completely, in case you do not need it.

Please note that once a model has been loaded into 0.92 or later the XML file format will be updated automatically and can no longer be loaded into 0.91. Back up your file from 0.91 before moving to 0.93, just in case you need to go back.

The latest version of the tool is available by clicking the “Online Modeler” menu item on this homepage, or by this direct link:

http://www.anchormodeling.com/modeler/latest/

The older versions are still available through these links:

http://www.anchormodeling.com/modeler/0.91/
http://www.anchormodeling.com/modeler/0.92/

If you want to host the tool yourself, the latest version of the source can be checked out from Google Code. You can also find packages of the released versions on that page, which can be downloaded and uncompressed into a web server folder.

Please note that the date has changed to the 6th of December!

Lars Rönnbäck will be going back to the Netherlands to hold another presentation on Anchor Modeling at Ordina on December 6. Here’s the program for the evening:

16.00 – 16:30 Reception
16.30 – 16:40 Introduction (Vincent Wylenzek)
16:40 – 18:40 Anchor Modeling (Lars Rönnbäck)
18:40 – 19:30 Food, networking
19:30 – 20:30 New modeling techniques and Anchor Modeling in practice (Pim Aarts)
20:30 – 21:00 Drinks

More than 100 have already signed up, will you be one of them? Participation is free of charge. More information can be found by clicking here.

We have created a YouTube channel for Anchor Modeling. It is available here: http://www.youtube.com/user/anchormodeling. Currently all of our video tutorials are watchable on the channel.

If you missed the Anchor Modeling Week at HAN here is your chance to catch up. The presentations from the open day have been published online as videos.

Open guest lecture on Anchor Modeling – Lars Rönnbäck
(2 hours 50 minutes)

Clash of the Supermodels – Martijn Evers
(42 minutes)

Concluding Panel Discussion – Lars Rönnbäck, Martijn Evers, Harm van der Lek
Moderators: Tom Breur and Ronald Damhof
(52 minutes)

I would appreciate if you could start testing version 0.92 of the online modeling tool. This introduces features like 1-1 ties, default values, and capsules. Please note that XML files generated by 0.92 are not readable by version 0.91 or lower. XML files from 0.91 will be converted when loaded into 0.92.

Capsules define the encapsulation of a number of anchor, attributes, knots, and ties. These will appear as groupings using the schema construction in Microsoft SQL Server. The default, unless changed, is still the dbo schema. If the default is changed before loading an old XML file, all objects will get whatever capsule you have specified as a default.

Version 0.92 is available at the following link:
http://www.anchormodeling.com/modeler/0.92/

We will not switch ‘latest’ to point to 0.92 until we know it is stable enough for production use. There are also some more features we want to add to 0.92 before release. Even after the switch version 0.91 will be available by switching 0.92 to 0.91 in the link above.