Are there tools that make the job easier? If command-line only tools exist, then can anyone speculate if there is a market for a GUI tool? For example, you can create a relational database by modeling visually. Should the same notion exist for LDAP?
Apache Directory Studio includes an ldif-Editor. It is still a text editor but with syntax highlighting, autocompletion and group collapsing for ldif files:
http://directory.apache.org/studio/
I don't know if there are any tools but it isn't that hard to create them by hand.
If you are using IPlanet LDAP then they had a nice interface for creating and modifying schemas though. :)
I don't know if you would consider that to be by hand otherwise that is one tool to use.
I've done some LDIF handling using Perl and the Net::LDAP::LDIF module and it made scripting custom LDAP conversions very easy.
Have you looked at the command-line tool, LDIFDE.exe? Should be on your domain controller.
Business people give me Excel spreadsheets with inconsistent formatting of user and group data and want it loaded right away (then they come back with a new version and tell me they've only added some new users, but some are missing, some data is now invalid, there's a missing column etc.) They want unique passwords assigned, group memberships set up based on department id fields, and so forth.
Then they come back two weeks later and want to know about the differences between that spreadsheet and one from six months ago. Sigh.
I generally just do it all with a few hand-crafted Python scripts.
A lot of times you may be copying objects from one tree to another. Or backing them up. In that case, most LDAP tools have some way of exporting as LDIF. Then you can easily modify the files as needed.
Or copy examples to reuse.
I have seen a number of tools that will do tasks and output the results as LDIF, which can be handy, but they are basically point usage tools.
Related
The firm I work in has a lot of data sources entering the firm database using the Informatica ETL tool, stored in maplets and other data models (sorry If I'm not using the exact terminology).
The problem is that all the business logic is stored in the 'graphical interface' and nowhere else - Every time I want to see what field goes into the target field I have to trace the inputs through the maplet and that takes a very long time.
The Question is: Is there a tool that can takes all the relationships in the Informatica maplet and somehow export them to a excel table (so I can see it all without tracing)? that way I could try to make proper documentation....
Thanks in Advance.
It's possible to export mappings or whole workflows to XML. Next, you can use this tool - it will create tables with source to target dependency for every mapping.
Keep in mind it will only map input to output, it won't extract the full logic and transformations done along the way - that would've been to complex for simple visualization.
Informatica supports exporting mapping information to Excel - just search the documentation which tells you how to do it.
However, for anything other than the simplest of mappings, what ends up in Excel is not that easy to understand. If your Informatica installation supports it, then using the lineage capabilities is a much better bet.
I work on Labware LIMS, which has both configuration, and customization via its own programming language and internal code editor, and stores this customization code in database records. (Note, not the source code of the actual application itself, just the customization code a.k.a. LIMS Basic.) Almost everything in LIMS is stored in the database.
We want to investigate the possibility of using source control to protect this code but we don't know much more than the theory of using something like Git. (I have worked as a junior QA and used git but not as a dev and my knowledge is limited!)
Of particular use would be the merging tools, as currently we have to manually merge code in a text editor, if we even notice there is a conflict (checking content between dev and live is time consuming and involves using multiple tools, some of which are 3rd party tools we have developed ourselves, which are hit and miss. I personally find it easiest to cut and paste into a text file and then use Beyond Compare.
There is no notification that the code is different when moving it from dev to live (no deployment as such, you just import an xml file) so we often have things going live that someone was working on unbeknownst to each other. I.e. dev 1 is working on the code in object 1, dev 2 gets a ticket to make a change to object 1, does so and puts their change Live, whatever dev 1 was doing is now also Live in whatever state it was in. (Because we don't always have time to thoroughly check what state each object is in between up to 3 different databases.)
Is it possible to use source control just on the code within the database, but not necessarily the database itself? (We have backups and such for that but its easy for some aspects of the system to get overwritten by multiple devs working on overlapping areas at the same time.)
If anyone reading this has any specific knowledge of LW LIMS, we are referring to the Subroutines mostly, we have versioned Analyses which stands in for source control for the moment and is somewhat effective but no way to control who is doing what on the subroutines other than a comment log at the top. I have tried to find any information on how other teams source control their code in LIMS but to no avail.
The structure of one of these tables can range from as simple as the code just existing in one field as a straight text dump with a few other fields such as changed_on, changed_by and name (Subroutines), or more complex with code relating to one record being sprinkled around in multiple rows on another table entirely (Analyses) but even if it could just deal with the simple scenario to start with that would be great!
TL;DR: Could the contents of the Code field in a database record be treated like a regular code object in other dev environments somehow and source controlled using Git? (And is anyone willing to explain it simply for me to follow?)
As you need to version control table fields of subroutine, but LW LIMS doesn’t have the IDE for version control (such as git, svn etc). So the direct answer is no.
If you really want to do version control for the codes in database, you can create a git repository and only put the codes in git repository. when a file has updated, you can commit & push the changes. And it’s easy to compare the difference between versions.
More detail about git, you can refer git book.
LabWare LIMS has a number of options for version control. You COULD version the Subroutine table by adding a SUBROUTINE.VERSION field to the table, this works the same way as other versioned tables in LabWare where it asks you if you would like to create a new version of the object before saving. There are a few customers I work with that have done this.
Alternatively, (and possibly our more recommended method prior to LEM) there is the Snapshot capability where the system automatically takes a "snapshot" of objects as they are saved - when viewing these you have the ability to view them side by side in a comparison dialogue - it will show < or > for lines which are different.
Another approach is, if you have auditing turned on you are able to view the audit history for changes to specific objects - this includes subroutines.
One other approach is to use configuration packages - this has the ability to record version AND build numbers. Though individual subroutines is probably a bit too granular for it's intended design.
Lastly, since this question was originally posted we have developed a product called LabWare Environment Manager (LEM) which has some good change control functionality built-in.
For more information on the suggestions above, please have a look at the LabWare Technical manual for the version you are on. We also have a mailing list for questions like this to be posted. You might find an answer there. If you have access to our Support webpage you're able to search previous questions that have been asked. I'd also suggest that you get in touch with your Account Manager at LabWare who can help you answer some of your questions.
HTH
I'm after a DB Comparison tool for SQL Server that allows me to do the following:
Schedule a comparison to happen on a recurring schedule
Email me the results (in a nice readable format and not the generated script)
Allow me to exclude/include certain object names (for example exclude table names containing %test%. That's not a real example but there is a good reason why that would come in useful.)
As well as the obvious:
Have the usual options for ignoring things like comments, identity seeds etc
Options for selecting different types of objects
If it was free or at least didn't cost a forture that would be an extra bonus of course.
I have tried out RedGate's SQL Compare and also the built-in DB Comparison in Visual Studio but neither seem able to do the first 3 points above. I also looked at other tools recommended in various threads on here but again they don't mention in their features the 3 points above.
One option I found is RedGate's SQL Comparison SDK with which I think I could write something to do what I want.
I just wanted to investigate tools that might do all of the above out of the box.
Thank you!
SQL Compare Pro comes with a command line, which will be easier to set up than the SDK. If you call this via the Windows Scheduler or in an Agent Job you can achieve what you're looking for.
An example of how to invoke the command line from Powershell it can be found here:
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/auditing-ddl-changes-in-sql-server-databases/
This article also covers how to send an email in Powershell. SQL Compare can also be passed a filter using the /filter switch to exclude objects based on various rules.
http://www.red-gate.com/supportcenter/Content/SQL_Compare/help/10.0/sc_cl_Switches_in_the_cl
Do please email support#red-gate.com should you have trouble getting this working.
I don't think any tool would do all of this out of the box. Have you had a chance to look at
sp_CompareDB. I had a similar requirement and ended up writing my own routine based on the same.
http://www.sql-server-performance.com/2001/database-comparison-sp/
Is there any way to add a SQL Server Database Diagram to source control? I can't seem to find a way to script it out of the database. If so, is there a way to get that diagram into a Visual Studio Database Project for easy deployment?
to script it to a file try:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/ScriptDiagram2005.aspx
I would not do this.
I've been allowed to publish my variation on a set of scripts that do just that, providing easy two-way import/export between files and diagrams stored in a database.
https://github.com/timabell/database-diagram-scm
Just run the batch file, pointing at your database of choice and you'll get a set of files, one for each diagram. Unfortunately the data is still binary, but it's a start.
It builds on what others have already done, definitely a shoulders of giants job. :-)
I don't know what the advantage of storing the diagram in source control would be. The database diagrams put an illustration to your database relationships which should be defined elsewhere. So long as you put the creation scripts for your DB in source safe, the diagram should render just fine when you create it and add your tables to it.
There isn't really an easy way of doing this. I typically do one of a few things for this.
Simply print the document to PDF using something like CutePDF
Use Visio and the Reverse Engineering option to generate the document, then save the visio file
Use Enterprise Architect or similar tool for the process.
I personally use option 3, due to the lifecycle that I take my applications through. But the real thing is what are you looking to store, if it is a static version of the database diagram, any of the above are valid.
I was wondering if there's a way to export package information from Cognos 8 from a regular user level or from the framework level.
For instance, I want the field names that cognos is pointing to on the database, i want the datatype, the description cognos uses when you right click a data element, etc..
Any suggestions?
(Unfortunately I'm not at my work computer right now) but Cognos saves everything in .xml files. I have an xml pretty printer that I use on model.xml before and after edits, so that I can use windiff to see what exactly changes in the model. I have also used an xml editor on model.xml on several occasions for global search and replace.
Having said that, I'm not sure how much of the database schema you can infer directly from model.xml, but I suspect if you had a script that could read and walk model.xml, and connect to the database to describe the objects, you could get what you need.
The answer appears to be yes, to anything that supports CWM (the Common Warehouse Model) but as for how...
One suggestion: ask IBM.
It appears that Powerdesigner 15 imports from xmi models.