topic Re: Alfresco Database Schema in Alfresco Archive

Alfresco Database Schema

borledge — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:16:58 GMT

Is there a ERD diagram to describe the Alfresco database schema? I'd like to get this information to understand the inner-workings of Alfresco and without this it is very difficult.THanks.

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

borledge — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:18:33 GMT

Wow! I can't believe that this is a difficult question. Is it so strange to request the underlying schema structure (or ER diagram)?

Please help.

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

mark_smithson — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:24:25 GMT

Alfresco uses hibernate which is an ORM layer.

I would guess that the design is more focussed on a data object model, rather than a schema for the database.

The object model can be gleaned from the JavaDocs, but it would be good to have an overview UML diagram. Does anyone know if one exists on the wiki?

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

vycitalr — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 09:07:13 GMT

I found the diagram describing DB model (part of) here http://wiki.alfresco.com/w/images/7/71/Alfresco-Core-DB-Tables.jpg

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

boscoferrao — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:37:06 GMT

I need the ERD for Alfreco AVM. Please can anyone help?

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

n_pancholi87 — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 06:26:50 GMT

Hey, I have a query regarding schemas.
Can Alfresco communicate with 2 schemas simultaneously?
Like for instance I have a custom schema that contains some selected important tables that I want to store and an Alfresco Schema that is there by default. Can Alfresco read and update both the schemas in one go?

Or otherwise is it possible to change the default location where alfresco stores all the data (in the filesystem) to database of choice?

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

raghavendra_pra — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:59:29 GMT

Hi there,
For data model analysis, if you are using MySQL, use MySQL work bench to reverse engineer the tables and you get ERD.

Regarding a separate schema for your customization (I understood this way). I would rather suggest you develop another .war with another schema and expose as web services.
Downside of having your custom tables in the same schema is to manage your upgrades as Alfresco new releases come…

rgds/RP.

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

n_pancholi87 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:29:54 GMT

hey thnx!

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

brianh — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:35:58 GMT

Hi there,
For data model analysis, if you are using MySQL, use MySQL work bench to reverse engineer the tables and you get ERD.

Regarding a separate schema for your customization (I understood this way). I would rather suggest you develop another .war with another schema and expose as web services.
Downside of having your custom tables in the same schema is to manage your upgrades as Alfresco new releases come…

rgds/RP.

Yes.

I've also received this task this morning, and have had the same idea too. There is a drawback however. Reversing from low level up will be minimal on the 'business descriptions' for each entity and field, and so will not really produce the ERD / UML style presentation which I'm being asked to provide.

I'm still searching if something is available directly by Alfresco on this.

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

mrogers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:23:52 GMT

No we don't publish the database scema since a) its considered private implementation details b) it changes frequently.

We recommend that users should use one of the public APIs and not access the database directly.

That said the schema is fairly simple.

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

brianh — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:18:26 GMT

No we don't publish the database scema since a) its considered private implementation details b) it changes frequently.

We recommend that users should use one of the public APIs and not access the database directly.

That said the schema is fairly simple.

Thank you Mr Rogers. I've subsequently seen that you've said as such earlier this year on another thread, but now you've confirmed it's still that case.

Since my end customer has required us to produce a presentation of the Alfresco Data Model and one for the customization for our project - for whatever reasons they internal have (won't be development) - would you have a recommendation as to how one would go about this?

At the moment, I'm assuming I can access the DB it via MySQL and reverse engineer to extrapolate a Schema (though I'm still new to Alfresco, so am not sure this will be practical).

Re: Alfresco Database Schema

mrogers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:20:54 GMT

Yes you can use one of the DB tools to reverse engineer the DB. I think there's some models on the wiki already, however I'd question how up to date or useful they are.

Another issue is that the DB contains a fairly generic model, the content types within alfresco should be of more interest than the low level database persistence implementation.