Nowadays it's very common the use of UML2 for designing new databases.

The use of UML Case Tools that allow the schema generation could be a big help for database administrators. However, there isn't a good support for geospatial databases yet. Geospatial databases are a special design case not covered by most popular UML design tools.

Modelling Software KIT (MOSKitt) is a free Case Tool, built on Eclipse which is being developed by the Valencian Regional Ministry of Infraestructure and Transport (for the purpose of this document referred to as CIT) to support the gvMétrica methodology (adapting Métrica III to its specific needs). gvMetrica uses techniques based on the UML modeling language.

MOSKitt's plugging architecture makes it not only a Case Tool but also a free modelling platform to develop this kind of tools.

MOSKitt is being developed within the gvCASE project framework. This is one of the projects integrated in gvPontis, the CIT’s global project for the migration of its entire technological environment to free Software.

Prodevelop is the main development leader of the project, with a high-skilled team of software engineers specialized on modelling tools and projects on top of eclipse frameworks. Prodevelop is also company with years of experience developing Geospatial solutions mainly in the open-source arena.

From the sinergy of combining the modelling and geospatial realms, we started the development of a new Moskitt plugging which will add geometry support for spatial databases.

The goal was to allow the design from UML class diagrams. Now it's available a new primitive type named Geometry. This special primitive type can be configured for the selected spatial database adding restrictions as the following ones:

• Geometry Type.
• Coordinate Dimension.
• Reference System (using EPSG codes).
• Spatial Indexes.
• Oracle Coordinate Tolerance.
• Oracle Coordinate Bounding Box.

Once the UML diagram has been finished with the structure of the database, the next step is to apply and automatic transformation to generate a database diagram, and check the database design with the new Geometry types included as columns inside the generated tables.

Finally, the last step is to generate an spatial database DDL (Data Description Language). Oracle Locator 10g and PostGIS extension for PostgreSQL are supported.

Moskitt-GEO also adds geospatial databases support for the reverse engineering process, generating a datase model out from an existing geospatial database, including geometries and its restrictions. So good news for spatial databases designers.

Finally, the next video shows how to create an spatial database using Moskitt-GEO from UML Diagram with geometry data, doing the right spatial transformations until generate a DDL.

The second video explains how to get a database schema diagram from existing database.

For everyone that is not aware, last summer MOSKitt 1.0.0 was quietly published. It was quietly done because that way (peaceful) is how we have achieved this first big milestone: little by little, with short sound steps and without any important fright. Therefore, when we look back over our shoulders, we can assert that this version is like it had to be.

When the project started in 2007, The main MOSKitt (then called gvCASE) goal was to provide the suitable tools to the computing systems analysts in the Conselleria de Infraestructuras y Transporte (CIT) of Generalitat Valencia in oder to carry out their work applying the gvMetrica method. It was not the only objective, since the different pieces of this wide tool-set had to be be generic enough to be applied in organizations with different software development methods. Now that we have achieved the 1.0.0 version, MOSKitt provides a wide spectrum modeling tools for specifying software systems, model transformations to increase the agility when developing software and different extension and configuration mechanisms which enable adapting the tool to any organization needs.

Para todo aquel que no se haya enterado, este pasado verano se publicó sin mucho ruido la versión 1.0.0 de MOSKitt. Y se hizo sin mucho ruido porque así es cómo hemos llegado a este primer gran hito del proyecto: poco a poco, dando pequeños pasos firmes y sin grandes sobresaltos. De manera que cuando mira atrás no puede sino confirmar que esta versión no podía haber sido de otra manera.

Cuando empezó el proyecto en 2007, el objetivo de MOSKitt (entonces gvCASE) era proporcionar las herramientas necesarias para que los analistas de sistemas informáticos de la Conselleria de Infraestructras y Transportes (CIT) de la Generalitat Valenciana pudieran realizar su trabajo aplicando el método gvMétrica. Pero no sólo eso, sino que las distintas piezas de esta gran herramienta debían ser suficientemente genéricas para poder ser utilizadas en organizaciones con métodos de producción de software distintos. Llegados a la versión 1.0.0, MOSKitt cuenta con un amplio abanico de herramientas para el modelado de sistemas software, transformaciones entre modelos para agilizar la ejecución de los proyectos de desarrollo y diferentes mecanismos de extensión y configuración que facilitan su adaptación a cualquier organización.