pk software dev blog

I had an email the other day from someone having trouble with the connection editor in Mini SQL Query. It turns out that the way I had the refresh of the connection list setup, whatever the currently selected connection was before choosing a new one caused a bit of a loop if that connection failed. You can get around it by closing the editor and re-opening it etc but that is not real user friendly (hot tip!)

That bug has been there for years and I am pretty sure he was not the only one who experienced it! Thing is with software, if you have an issue you can be sure that it's happening for many more than just that one person.

If you are an open source software consumer, make sure you notify the authors of issues as their development environment may not reflect what you see. Don't expect every comment to get fixed, in fact I never even expect a reply simply because I know how busy things can get.

Anyway, there is a new release up on CodePlex: http://minisqlquery.codeplex.com/releases/view/90478

PK :-)

I have finally had a chance to put together a simple "Quick Start" document for Mini SQL Query. It's the main reason I have never made a formal "version 1" release!

Here is a link to the document: Mini SQL Query Quick Start [http://pksoftware.net/Content/MiniSqlQuery/Help/MiniSqlQueryQuickStart.docx]

I also "upgraded" the projects to version 3.5 of the framework as the version 2 requirement is all but gone. That was more around my usage on Windows Server 2003 etc.

PK :-D

All,

I uploaded RC1 today: http://minisqlquery.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=33994

Lots of goodies including the new generic schema engine and text templating including access to the data.

One of the regular questions I get is if there is a plug-in that will convert “database A” to “database B”… answer… no – BUT – you can actually write a script connected to database A that writes out the schema for database b. Then you would run the generated SQL against database b. You could for example even create a db layout using Excel (one table per sheet etc), connect to it with Mini SQL Query and write a script that is a “create script” for the destination database. You can also get the data out with the template tool.

What’s Missing?

• Schema wise the main thing missing is procedures/functions. Not all languages support them but it would be good to have for v1.
• Another schema addition is foreign key information for other databases. This is not provided properly by the ADO.NET schema functions and so I manually provide it for the respective database driver.

PK  :-)

I have finally got around to mapping through the Primary Key (for all DB’s) and Foreign Key info (for MSSQL and SQL Compact Edition)

MSSQL:

And for SQL Compact Edition…

The tooltips have extra info too.

Go see http://www.pksoftware.net/MiniSqlQuery/Download.aspx the latest download…

PK  :-)

Just a quick note on some recent changes.

The other day I checked in some “breaking changes” around the gathering of database schema information. I used to rely on the very bland combined DataTable information. I took the plunge and converted it to populate a tree of classes:

• DbModelInstance
  • Tables
    • Columns
  • Views
    • Columns

The columns contain some pretty rich data type information and have remained pretty generic.

There are primary key and non key collection filters etc. The main outstanding requirements that you simply cannot get out of the connection schema is foreign key relationships. This will need to be specific per connection which is a bit lame, some data sources will miss out simply due to the number of databases out there.

The other big change is that I am not trying to coerce all the schema gathering into the one area (my original hope) but now use a base schema collector with derivatives as required. Another advantage of this change is that I can actually provide schema information for databases that don not implement the “Get Schema” methods, for example, I have implemented an MS SQL Compact Edition (3.5) provider enabling Mini SQL Query to work nicely with SQLCE databases even though the provider throws a not implemented exception on a GetSchema call. I did this with a little help from Erik Ejlskov Jensen (http://erikej.blogspot.com). I am also looking at wrapping up his SQLCE Export tool as a plugin – see http://sqlcecmd.codeplex.com/.

Anyway, for now browse the code if you want to know more, I think its time for another release!