Robert,

> One big problem with views is that you can not alter a view if there
> are other views dependent on it.
> You have to drop all dependent views (and views that are dependent on
> the dependent views, etc), then alter the main view and create all
> dependent views again.
>
> Is there a tool to do this automatically?

There are two ways to do this -

1) drop all dependent views, drop your view and recreate everything

2) re-route the dependencies, drop your view, re-establish the dependencies

Method (2) requires some system-table updating and isn't officially
supported.

In co-op with Arno, who does a fair bit of Firebird work ;-), I researched
this method and it seems to work fine, as long as you don't remove any
column that other views depend on. This method is used by Database
Workbench, a tool I developed. Download your trial at www.upscene.com

> Or even better: are there plans to support the alteration of views
> with dependecies?
> I have already seen a Request for Enhancement/Feature for this in the
> tracker (#807979), but it seems very old and forgotten.
>
> In most cases the dependencies after the alteration of the view are
> the same as before the alteration (f.e. in case I only change the
> where clause or add fields to the select clause). So maybe it is
> hopefully:) not too difficult to change Firebird to support this
> cases.
>

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com