Database documentation with MySQL Workbench - mysql-workbench

Question

I am using MySQL Workbench 5.2.37 and I find it a great tool for database development.
I did create all the tables, fields and relationships and I also did document (adding a comment for every field with their functionality, same for relationships and tables).
I would like to export just this documentation. I mean, not the SQL scripts but the metadata I did put for the table and its fields.
Something like:
Table: Customers
Comment: Represent the customers of the system
Fields:
id (INTEGER not null, unique): The customer unique identifier
name (VARCHAR[100] not null, unique): The customer name
...
Does anybody know if extracting such a report is possible?

Answer 1

I'm guessing that you have the community edition of MySQL Workbench?
I would think that documenting the database by CREATE statements would be close enough to what you are trying to achieve.
Select all tables in your schema (SQL Editor View), right-click and select 'Send to SQL Editor' -> Create Statement.
You could then save a file which consists of every table in your database.
Example:
CREATE TABLE `country` (
`Code` char(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`Name` char(52) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`Continent` enum('Asia','Europe','North America','Africa','Oceania','Antarctica','South America') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'Asia',
`Region` char(26) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`SurfaceArea` float(10,2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.00',
`IndepYear` smallint(6) DEFAULT NULL,
`Population` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`LifeExpectancy` float(3,1) DEFAULT NULL,
`GNP` float(10,2) DEFAULT NULL,
`GNPOld` float(10,2) DEFAULT NULL,
`LocalName` char(45) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`GovernmentForm` char(45) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`HeadOfState` char(60) DEFAULT NULL,
`Capital` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`Code2` char(2) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
PRIMARY KEY (`Code`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1$$
delimiter $$
CREATE TABLE `countrylanguage` (
`CountryCode` char(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`Language` char(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`IsOfficial` enum('T','F') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'F',
`Percentage` float(4,1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.0',
PRIMARY KEY (`CountryCode`,`Language`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1$$
If you happen to have the standard edition (commercial) there are some features which might be right up your alley :
http://www.mysql.com/products/workbench/features.html

Answer 2

I had the same problem.
I used the information_schema database to extract the metadata from databases that is used.
You can use tables:
TABLES - Metadata about all tables in server.
KEY_COLUMN_USAGE - Metadata about all keys used.
COLUMNS - Metadata about all columns.
You can get a lot a information there, also you can get your comments if you had commented columns and tables.
To get content from base tables from a selected database you can run this query. Notice that i selected some field that satisfied my needs.
To get information about tables from a selected database, you can run this:
SELECT TABLE_NAME, TABLE_COMMENT FROM TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'database_schema' AND TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
To get information about columns from a selected table, you can run this:
SELECT COL.COLUMN_NAME,COL.COLUMN_COMMENT,COL.COLUMN_TYPE,COL.IS_NULLABLE
FROM COLUMNS COL LEFT JOIN KEY_COLUMN_USAGE KCU
ON COL.TABLE_NAME = KCU.TABLE_NAME AND COL.COLUMN_NAME = KCU.COLUMN_NAME
WHERE COL.TABLE_SCHEMA = 'database_schema' AND COL.TABLE_NAME = 'table_name'
ORDER BY COL.TABLE_NAME,COL.ORDINAL_POSITION ,COL.COLUMN_NAME