Model Xtractor has been developed by Cristian Scutaru, a freelance software engineer living in Vancouver/Canada. Over 20 years I designed and implemented systems in .NET, Java, ActionScript, PHP, JavaScript, C++ and many other programming languages. I’ve been part of the teams that developed Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft SQL-Server 7.

Software development techniques may get better, but any new platform or library comes with thousands of new classes we need to learn about. I always used to draw class diagrams on paper, to better understand how classes from a new API are connected. And I always wondered why there is no application on the market today to make our life easier. No diagramming tool comes with ready-to-use diagrams. And to get to the core of a software product, you need to pass the tremendous process of properly importing huge amounts of metadata. I’ve been a fan of ER, UML and Rational Rose since the beginning, but it looks like, in terms of modeling, we need more flexible concepts and less formalism.

Model Xtractor is the implementation of what I’ve dreamed of for over ten years and worked on for the last two:

• You have ready to use preloaded metadata, for dozens of popular frameworks, APIs, components and libraries. From different platforms and programming languages (.NET, ActionScript, PHP, IDL, VBScript), databases (MySQL, SQL-Server, Oracle, Access), IDL. I’m working on getting Java, Ruby, Objective-C, XML and way more under the same roof.
• You have hundreds of ready to use class diagrams, for so many areas of a product or library. Each diagram can be visualized with its contextual documentation or can be cloned and customized to answer your specific needs.
• You have a generic and universal model, evolved from UML and ER, that offers more flexibility. And you can simply “navigate” though the result of each method or function with simple drag and drops of shape items. The model is object-oriented and supports most programming languages, data models and XML. It’s easy to move from a platform to another, because the model uses similar notation, concepts, conventions and techniques.
• Everything is online. No need to download, import, convert or install anything on your own computer. And everything is built with pure HTML and JavaScript on the client side. You can easily publish any unprotected diagram to your own blog or site!

And this is just the beginning! I hope you’ll enjoy…