Import DDL from file

[plelovsky]

Hello,

is it possible to import a DDL script from text file (which has been created for example by some database exporting tool)?

Thanks

[thomaskilian]

No. Create the tables and read the database.

Edit: Quite some wanted to have this functionality. Maybe time for a feature request?

[jock_the_kiwi]

I would like this feature and used search before hitting the forums with queations.

I can provide my requirements for a feature request if required.

[«Midnight»]

Jock,

I suggest you make the feature request. I'll certainly support this.

We (the forum crowd) bounced this around for a while some time ago, and I suspect (without proof) that Sparx considered it for an unspecified "future version." Since then EA 6 and 7 have come to be, but the ability to create a model via DDL import has yet to see the light of day.

It is high time though, so now it's your turn to ask.

Remember that Sparx isn't likely to devote time to such a feature unless we the users tell them we need it.

David

[jock_the_kiwi]

I have submitted the request. It is as follows:

Presently, EA does not allow me to generate a Data Schema from a DDL, only from an ODBC source. However, I cannot use an ODBC source with a file based database such as Foxpro, CSV, Excel and TXT. On the other hand I can generate a DDL using other tools such as AQT.

Often, my role is to integrate one or more datasources from "Point Solution" applications into a single SQL database. I am often dealing with applications written using a variety of tools that may have datasources such as FoxPro, MS Access, MS Excel, CSV, TXT.

For those of us working with "Fringe" applications that may have been built in house with little data integrity, design, etc, the ability to generate a DDL from a number of sources and then import into EA would be very useful.

[«Midnight»]

Jock,

I might have been unclear.

Did you reference this thread in your feature request to Sparx?

[No bad if you did not, I just want to know if the loop is complete.]

David

[jock_the_kiwi]

No I didnt. How do they feel about supplementary Feature Requests?

[thomaskilian]

Sparx? Hard to tell as we have no insight. But at least they try to react on user requests. From my feeling they were more responsive and successful in meeting user requirements in the beginning. Once it was a nice speed boat. Now EA is behaving more like a liner (with all pros and cons).

[«Midnight»]

No I didnt. How do they feel about supplementary Feature Requests?

Jock,

I'd say just go with things the way they are. But if you want to close the loop, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to put in a second request.

Check your footer setting in your profile. It seems to be broken.

David

[«Midnight»]

...Now EA is behaving more like a liner (with all pros and cons).

Do you mean something like the Love Boat, but filled with streetwalkers and felons? What an interesting metaphor.

[thomaskilian]

Honestly I did not think of the crew complement, but your assumption might prove true (soon?).

[jock_the_kiwi]

Who will be Captain Stubing? And who will be Washington, the token minority, on that wonderful show?

[Thomas Mercer-Hursh]

FWIW, this kind of import has been implemented for the Progress OpenEdge database (see http://www.oehive.org/node/989 ), but of course it doesn't do you a lot of good since the OpenEdge DDL is proprietary.  Also, unfortunately, PSC has yet to release the source for what they have done (I'm arguing for it), so one can't even see how they did it and adapt it to a more standard DDL.  But, the example demonstrates that it is certainly possible to implement independent of Sparx.

[jock_the_kiwi]

I have no concerns regarding Sparx implementing this. They have implemented features to reverse engineer a database via ODBC to produce a Data Model and generate a DDL from that same data model. Generating a Data Model from a DDL is not likely to be that complex.

A Blonde might ask

Cant they just reverse the order the code for Package to DDL to make it work

.

[DavidM]

I noticed this was requested in 2007, do we know if it has been implemented yet?

I find it a real pain having to take DDLs sent to me, download databases, run the DDL, then connect Sparx and import.