ERD's and DFD's..??

I am a new zenner, and am using Zen-Cart in my final project for my degree.
I am required to demonstrate the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) and a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) for my system model. And this of course includes Zen.

Now Zen-Cart is a big system, and generates over 93 tables in its database, so I cannot possibly guess what the ERD would be for this big database, and likewise the DFD for the whole system. Could anyone supply this to me, or even a cut down version.?
I have posted before and have found others on this forum have been excellent.
No...I do not wish to try and reproduce Zen...I have enough work thankyou.
But you can see that the system is too big for older student like myself, to try and guess the structure and its interconnecting tables.
If I am asking too much, I will understand, but this would really help me with the presentation of the 'Analysis phase' of my development cycle for this system.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
Thanks Guys.

You might try obtaining a copy of "DB Designer" and having it generate some schema diagrams for you.

Thank you DrByte,

Yes.... a database schema would be good.
I am not familiar with DB Designer. Would this tool be able to draw a schema from a database that is already installed.? While I have created a few db's, I have not used this tool.

Remember, that it is not I... that populates the database, it is Zen (on the install) that loads all the tables. I only create the initial database on the server.
So the database structure (schema) has already been pre-defined by Zen. Now I need to find out what it looks like.
If 'DB Designer' can READ the existing DB (after install) and draw a schema ....Then I'm Keen.

However this will only give me the db model.(which is great.! Don't get me wrong)

I will also need a DFD for all the script and interface stuff. (or at least an overview)

Any thoughts.?

The best I can give you are these documents related to Zen Cart v1.2:

http://www.zen-cart.com/archived_contributions/documentation/zencart_1.21b_erds.pdf
http://www.zen-cart.com/archived_contributions/documentation/zencartprogramflow.zip

Lots has changed since v1.2, but those may be a start for you.

It's been awhile since I used db designer, and thus I can't comment on exactly how it's used. Worst case you could tell it to read the SQL from the zc_install/mysql_zencart.sql file.

Once again, a very big 'thank you' for going to going to all this trouble for me DrByte.
I have only just looked at your email...too busy studying.

The ERD link may be a bit old, but it is still very helpful. At least it identifies the key tables and fields. However it does not seem to be all of the tables, unless V1.3.2 substantially increased the number of tables in the DB. But still, a big thankyou, it gives me a start. I can make up some of this.

The DFD link unfortunately shows only the program module execution, (as it starts). A proper DFD should show how the data moves through the system via processes, utilising stores, etc... So this one is not too much help.

However, I certainly appreciate the effort good sir, and once again this support forum proves its worth.

I have downloaded DB Designer 2 (just a trial version) which I hope will interrogate the Zen DB and draw up a diagram...so thanks for that tip.!

Just as an aside, my client has decided that they do not want to pay for the cost of a payment portal (it is only a small business) so I'm hoping that Zen will allow a simple 'purchase order' and billing (or invoice ) procedure.....like in a standard business. Do you know if it will do this.?
I'm hoping that the system will generate transaction details, (via email) both to the owner, and the customer, and the owner can then invoice manually later.
I mention this because most checkout's go straight to a credit card payment module.....can we bypass this.?

Many Thanks DrByte

Hazza

Hazza:

Just as an aside, my client has decided that they do not want to pay for the cost of a payment portal (it is only a small business) so I'm hoping that Zen will allow a simple 'purchase order' and billing (or invoice ) procedure.....like in a standard business. Do you know if it will do this.?
I'm hoping that the system will generate transaction details, (via email) both to the owner, and the customer, and the owner can then invoice manually later.
I mention this because most checkout's go straight to a credit card payment module.....can we bypass this.?Installing the software will show you that there are many payment options available already built-in. There are many additional options available as contributions that can be used to extend the capabilities as desired.