Discover Chiner: A Modern Open‑Source Database Design Tool

When starting a project, designing many tables is common; using a database design tool can be efficient. Here we recommend an open‑source Chinese database design tool called chiner , which has a beautiful interface and powerful features.

Chat About PowerDesigner

Previously the

mall

project used PowerDesigner for database design, but its interface felt outdated and heavy. Below is a glimpse of the database design results from PowerDesigner.

The

mall

project is a SpringBoot + Vue + uni‑app e‑commerce system (GitHub ★60K), containerized with Docker, supporting multi‑module and microservice architecture, covering product, order, cart, permission, coupon, member, payment, and more.

Chiner Overview

Chiner is a database relationship model design tool independent of specific databases, supporting multiple DBMSs. It is built with React, Electron, and Java.

The project’s development history is documented prominently in its README, highlighting the challenges of creating a useful open‑source tool.

Installation

Chiner is a cross‑platform tool supporting Windows, macOS, and Linux. Follow these steps to install it.

Download the installer (right‑click →

Save link as

) from https://gitee.com/robergroup/chiner/releases/v3.5.5.

After download, unzip to a directory and double‑click the

exe

to launch.

The interface provides an

Operation Manual

and

Reference Templates

for quick start.

Basic Usage

Using the official e‑commerce reference template, we explore Chiner’s core functions.

Fundamental Concepts

Chiner introduces a

Data Type

concept to map types to various databases and generated code, e.g., the

String

type.

Setting a

Data Field

automatically determines type and length, eliminating manual length specifications.

The

Data Field

must be bound to a

Data Type

.

Chiner also offers a data dictionary for enumerations, such as user status

0→Frozen

and

1→Normal

.

Table Management

Common fields like

CreatedTime

,

CreatedBy

,

UpdatedTime

, and

UpdatedBy

can be auto‑generated via

Settings → New Table Default Fields

.

When adding a test table, these default fields appear automatically.

Field names can be toggled between uppercase and lowercase with the

Case

button.

Selecting a

Data Field

automatically sets appropriate data type and length for primary keys, names, strings, etc.

The

Data Dictionary

can also be accessed directly.

Relationship Diagram Management

Create a new relationship diagram, choose

Field

as the connection object, then drag tables onto the canvas.

Connect related fields to create lines; right‑click a line to edit the relationship.

Unlike PowerDesigner, Chiner does not generate diagrams from foreign keys, aligning with Alibaba’s Java development guidelines that discourage foreign‑key usage.

Import & Export

Chiner supports reverse engineering, PowerDesigner file import, DDL script export, and Word document generation.

Configure database connection details before importing.

Select tables to import.

PowerDesigner files can also be imported.

Export DDL to synchronize tables with a database.

Export Word documentation for database specifications without manual writing.

Conclusion

Chiner is a visually appealing, feature‑rich database design tool. Compared with PowerDesigner, it is lighter and more modern, though it lacks foreign‑key‑based diagram generation, which may be inconvenient for projects that rely on foreign keys.

References

Project repository: https://gitee.com/robergroup/chiner

User manual: https://www.yuque.com/chiner/docs/manual