107 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
107 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Quickly visualize your Ent schemas with entviz
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author: Rotem Tamir
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authorURL: "https://github.com/rotemtam"
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authorImageURL: "https://s.gravatar.com/avatar/36b3739951a27d2e37251867b7d44b1a?s=80"
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authorTwitter: _rtam
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image: "https://entgo.io/images/assets/entviz-v2.png"
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---
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### TL;DR
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To get a public link to a visualization of your Ent schema, run:
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```
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go run -mod=mod ariga.io/entviz ./path/to/ent/schema
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```
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### Visualizing Ent schemas
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Ent enables developers to build complex application data models
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using [graph semantics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_theory): instead of defining tables, columns, association
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tables and foreign keys, Ent models are simply defined in terms of [Nodes](https://entgo.io/docs/schema-fields)
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and [Edges](https://entgo.io/docs/schema-edges):
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```go
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package schema
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import (
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"entgo.io/ent"
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"entgo.io/ent/schema/edge"
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)
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// User schema.
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type User struct {
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ent.Schema
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}
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// Fields of the user.
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func (User) Fields() []ent.Field {
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return []ent.Field{
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// ...
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}
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}
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// Edges of the user.
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func (User) Edges() []ent.Edge {
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return []ent.Edge{
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edge.To("pets", Pet.Type),
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}
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}
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```
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Modeling data this way has many benefits such as being able to
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easily [traverse](https://entgo.io/docs/traversals) an application's data graph in an intuitive API, automatically
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generating [GraphQL](https://entgo.io/docs/tutorial-todo-gql) servers and more.
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While Ent can use a Graph database as its storage layer, most Ent users use common relational databases such as MySQL,
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PostgreSQL or MariaDB for their applications. In these use-cases, developers often ponder, *what actual database schema
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will Ent create from my application's schema?*
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Whether you're a new Ent user learning the basics of creating Ent schemas or an expert dealing with optimizing the
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resulting database schema for performance reasons, being able to easily visualize your Ent schema's backing database
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schema can be very useful.
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#### Introducing the new `entviz`
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A year and a half ago
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we [shared an Ent extension named entviz](https://entgo.io/blog/2021/08/26/visualizing-your-data-graph-using-entviz),
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that extension enabled users to generate simple, local HTML documents containing entity-relationship diagrams describing
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an application's Ent schema.
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Today, we're happy to share a [super cool tool](https://github.com/ariga/entviz) by the same name created
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by [Pedro Henrique (crossworth)](https://github.com/crossworth) which is a completely fresh take on the same problem.
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With (the new) entviz you run a simple Go command:
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```
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go run -mod=mod ariga.io/entviz ./path/to/ent/schema
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```
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The tool will analyze your Ent schema and create a visualization on the [Atlas Playground](https://gh.atlasgo.cloud) and
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create a shareable, public [link](https://gh.atlasgo.cloud/explore/saved/60129542154) for you:
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```
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Here is a public link to your schema visualization:
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https://gh.atlasgo.cloud/explore/saved/60129542154
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```
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In this link you will be able to see your schema visually as an ERD or textually as either a SQL
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or [Atlas HCL](https://atlasgo.io/atlas-schema/sql-resources) document.
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### Wrapping up
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In this blog post we discussed some scenarios where you might find it useful to quickly get a visualization of your Ent
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application's schema, we then showed how creating such visualizations can be achieved
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using [entviz](https://github.com/ariga/entviz). If you like the idea, we'd be super happy if you tried it today and
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gave us feedback!
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:::note For more Ent news and updates:
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- Subscribe to our [Newsletter](https://entgo.substack.com/)
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- Follow us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/entgo_io)
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- Join us on #ent on the [Gophers Slack](https://entgo.io/docs/slack)
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- Join us on the [Ent Discord Server](https://discord.gg/qZmPgTE6RX)
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:::
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