Invoking Power Designer from the command line

[ellenosis]

Is there a way to invoke the Power Designer tool from a
batch file and cause it generate a database script? This
way, we could incorporate the database generation into our
system build process.
Thanks!

[Matt Creason]

This is currently not an available feature. But you could automate this
by using OLE automation to open a PDM, generate the database creation
script in a file and execute the file.

To open a PDM and generate the database creation script in a file using
VBScript, you could use something like this:
Dim PDApp
Set PDApp = CreateObject("PowerDesigner.Application.11.0")

Dim PDM
Set PDM = PDApp.OpenModel("c:\My Documents\MyModel.pdm",
omf_DontOpenView)

If Not (PDM Is Nothing) Then
' Write the create database batch file
Dim ForWriting, system, file, fileName
ForWriting = 2 ' Open a file for writing.
Set system = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' Write the create database script
fileName = "d:\temp\CreateDatabase.sql"
Set file = system.OpenTextFile(fileName, ForWriting, true)
' Use the GetPreview function to get the database creation
script
file.Write PDM.GetPreview("SQL")
file.Close
End If

In this example, we use the model options saved the PDM.
To modify the options, you could also use VBScript to modify the package
option object.
You could adapt the VBScript to other language (VB, C++, Java, .NET).
--
Matt Creason
Sr. System Consultant
NA PowerDesigner Team

[Matt Creason]

This feature will be available in the next major release of PowerDesigner
due out Q405. Otherwise see my last post for a current workaround.

[Ellen]

Can you tell me what I need to add? I just get this message
in the generated file:
-- The preview is empty because of the setting.
-- Check the generation option.

[Matt Creason]

You need to check the database generation options and make sure the objects
you want to build DDL for have been selected in that dialog.