I'm currently developing a webapp to a costumer and I need to import data from their old application.
As far as I can tell, the database is dBase written with FoxPro.
I have the application exe and lots of dbf/dbb/dbi files and I can open the dbf table files thanks to the DBF Commander.
Although I can open each table and see the data, I really could use an EER diagram to understand how the tables connect to each other.
Is there any tool that could reverse engineer the database and draw the EER diagram?
Thank you for time.
Regards,
Hugo
A lot depends on whether it's just a bunch of DBF/CDX/FPT files, or whether they belong to a database container (DBC/DCT/DCX extensions). If there's no database container, i.e. 'free tables', they haven't necessarily been created by FoxPro, it could have been any of the xBase languages, like Clipper and so on.
If they are part of a database container then there may be metadata in it defining rules, triggers, relations.
Even so, you probably really need a copy of Visual FoxPro (do you have an MSDN sub maybe?). It has a built-in tool called GenDBC which will document the structure of a database if it has a database container.
There is also the Stonefield Database Toolkit which would give better tools in this regard.
Or you could use the Upsizing Wizard in Visual FoxPro to get the data into SQL Server, and from there you would have a much better choice of tools.
See whether XCase gives you what you need: http://www.xcase.com/
Related
I'm working with a project which is using mysql as the database. The application is hosted with many clients and we are doing upgrades for the current live systems often.
There are some instances where the client has change the database structure(adding new tables) and causes some unexpected db crashes.
I need to log all the structural changes which were done at that database, so we can find the correct root cause for that. We can't do it 100% correct with diff tool because it will not show the intermediate changes.
I found http://www.liquibase.org/ tool but seems little bit complex.
Is there any well known technique or a tool to track database structural changes only.
well from mysql studio you can generate all object's schema definition and compare them with your standard schema definition and this way you can compare two database schema...
generate scrips of both database (One is client's Database and One is master copy database) and then compare it using file compare tool would be the best practice according to me because this way you can track which collumn was added, which column was deleted, which index was added like wise without any tool download.
Possiable duplication of Compare two MySQL databases ?
Hope this helps.
If you have an application for your clients to manage these schema changes, you can use a mechanism at application level. If you have a Python and Django-based solution, you could probably use South which provides schema change tracking and rollbacks.
I am looking for a tool with that I can create a database ERD for a PostgreSQL Database.
In MySQL I use the tool "MySQL Workbench"
Do you know such a tool with that i can create a ERD. And from the ERD automatical create a sql-skript.
BG
I use DbWrench and Aqua Data Studio most often for these. There are many. See also:
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Community_Guide_to_PostgreSQL_GUI_Tools
DbWrench also has a handy reverse synchronize, which allows you to compare a model with changes made on the server.
If you mean that you want to dump the schema as is, I would definitely use pg_dump --schema rather than going through a GUI.
If you mean that you want to modify the schema, then I most tools will support that.
I have no association with DbWrench or ADS.
RISE is a freeware application that can model ERDs and even propagate it into the database layer.
I currently have a database in MySQL, which I'd like to import in MS Access.
Is it possible to do this while keeping all relationships intact (i.e. without exporting to .csv, or by using ODBC)?
I'm a noob in this area so any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
You need to solve two different problems:
Creating an empty MS Access database with a structure that matches the MySQL database structure.
Extracting the data from MySQL and loading it into MS Access.
This is not easy because different SQL databases offer different structural features, different datatypes, and so on. The more complex your use of MySQL is the more likely you'll run into some show-stopper during the conversion (for instance, Access doesn't support triggers at all). Conversely if you're using MySQL as a simple data store you may find the conversion fairly easy.
To get an MS Access database with the same structure as your MySQL database, your best bet is to find a database definition / diagramming tool that offers reverse engineering and supports both MySQL and MS Access. Use it to reverse engineer your MySQL database into a database diagram, then change the underlying database to MS Access and use the tool to generate a database.
Check out Dezign For Databases which (on paper, anyway) offers the features you would need to do this.
To pump the data across, there are any number of tools. This kind of operation is generically referred to as ETL (Extract, Translate, Load).
Do you mean SQL Server? A good starting point might be to check out SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), which can be used for transferring data around like that.
Google will also be helpful, check out the first result:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237980
By the way, you said ".sql" in your question: a .SQL file is a script file, which could do anything from create a database, insert data, drop table, delete data, or given the right permissions, call system procedures and reboot a machine, format a drive, send an email.. Just for ref, .SQL files aren't the storage format used by SQL Server.
While you can script your database's schema into script files via something like SQLyog, you will find that the syntax varies enough from database to database (MySQL to Access, in your case) that you can't directly apply the scripts.
With much effort a conversion script could be created by editing the script (perhaps automated with a program, depending on the resulting script size). I think you would be better served using ODBC to copy the tables (and data) and then extracting and re-applying the relationships from the generated script by hand. Time consuming, but also a one time operation I would hope.
When both systems are the same database, there are tools that can do the comparison and script generation (TOAD for MySQL and RedGate Compare for Microsoft SQL), but they don't do cross database work (at least not the ones I am aware of).
If you create a ODBC DSN, you can use TransferDatabase to import from your MySQL database. You can do it manually with the GET EXTERNAL DATA command (or whatever it is in A2007/A2010) and see how well it works. It won't get all data types exactly right, but you could do some massaging and likely get it closer to what will work best.
Is there some reason you can't just link to the MySQL tables and use them directly? That is, why do you need to import into Access at all?
Access: run query. Just make sure to adapt the SQL code since every RDMS has its own sintaxis (despite SQL being an ANSI standard).
I want to create a desktop version of my mysql installation without having to setup a server on my machine.
I want to make use of MS Access' query designer so I can produce complicated queries.
I know I can produce an SQL file but I've no idea how to create an MS Access database from it ?
I'm not going to jump on the "Access sucks" bandwagon, though it can be very frustrating at times.
Worst case, You can start with a blank Access database (mdb file, since you specified pre-2007). Open the query designer & go to SQL view. Paste in one complete SQL statement (CREATE TABLE...), and run it. Fix any incompatibility errors, paste in the next (replacing the first), rinse, repeat. Be sure to do this in such order that any dependency "sources" get created before the dependents.
There may be a batch process available, but I don't know what it is offhand.
Moving from MySQL to something like Access is heading in the wrong direction.
If you need a server-less SQL installation or package as part of your distribution (which is a pretty common requirement these days since admins don't like users to install database servers on their machines), consider SQL Server Compact Edition (CE) or SQL Lite. They're both fully SQL compliant (unlike Access) and will cause you far fewer headaches than Access (which sucks). (Did I mention that Access sucks? Big time?)
SQL CE is a .NET assembly that runs in-process with your app, and is very easy to work with. Also, db objects you create will be upwards-compatibile with the full-blown SQL Server. It also works very, very well with Entity Framework if you're into ORMs.
I've heard praise for SQLite, but haven't worked with it. If you're not on .NET, this should be a good way to go.
Links:
SQL CE
SQLite
I don't know if this is a viable option, but if you can set up a DSN to point to your MySQL server, you can then use FILE | GET EXTERNAL DATA | IMPORT to import your MySQL tables into a blank MDB/ACCDB. It's a one-time operation, but I don't know that there's any other option here. You should get the option to import the table schema only and not schema+data. You may have to tweak data types in the resulting tables, since the MySQL data types won't necessarily map directly to Jet/ACE data types.
Then you can carry the MDB/ACCDB file anywhere you want.
After looking at a lot of questions..i found no real answer for this.
I redisigned an Database for our customer.
With Microsoft Access i found a good Tool to get old table Data in my new well formed Database Structure. It is really easy but takes a lot of time (cause handling old Data with a lot of care).
Are there any Open Source Tools that bring that facilities like Microsoft Access?
To clear it up: I "just" want to reorder old Firebird Database Data in a new "best-practise" Way.
Edit:
I would be really nice if i can get a Log File or something similar to have some documentation on the changes.
Update:
After checking some of the Tools of that Wikipedia Site. I found no real Logging Mechanism.
How do you documentate the changes on a Database? Simply by writing it down?
Result:
So i dont got an real answer...i ma still searching for an nice tool. thnak you guys for the hints and your thoughts regarding this question. I want to reward Kenneth Cochran with the Bounty cause he pointed me to ETL. Thank you!
Talend's Open Source ETL supports FireBird. Very cool tool.
http://www.talend.com/download.php?src=DataGovernanceBlog
It sounds like what you're asking for is an ETL(extract, transform, load) tool.
Wikipedia has a list of open source tools that may help with this. I've not used any of them personally.
Well, I used the Pentaho suite for doing ETL using their Kettle tool.
It's quite easy to use and should be more than enough to reach your intent.
And it's open source.
Give a look at it.
I advice you to use a tool like IBExpert or Database Workbench which are the best tools for Firebird.
For migrating Firebird 1.5 to Firebird 2.1 : you just have to make a backup of your database with Firebird 1.5 server and restore your database with Firebird 2.1 server
I've used Excel in the past to document data model changes - each worksheet used the application version in order to sync with our tags in CVS. Every thing was logged in it - columns that were removed as well as minor alterations to datatypes like varchar(10) to varchar(20) etc along with a note describing why the change was made.
Personally, I've only ever scripted things like these as DDL/DML scripts broken into a script that dealt with table creation, constraint dropping, index drops, DML script(s), constraint application, index application, and removing orphaned tables.
If you want a basic ETL tool, that is client based (and cheap at $300), look at Advanced Query Tool. It mainly queries any type of ODBC connection(including Excel files set up that way), but also has some extended features, including moving data. And has a command line interface. http://www.querytool.com/
I've used it instead of Informatica for one-off jobs, but I've also used to extract from Excel to another file for business users, for a few months, scheduled from my desktop.