Alan McDonald wrote:

>> Database refactoring has been of great interest to me for long time.
>> Largely because I have never been able to foresee requirements far
>> enough ahead to ever get the design right first time.
>>
>> This link is an essay (five minute read) by Martin Fowler on the topic.
>>
>> http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/evodb.html
>>
>> Does anyone in this group know of the availability of scripts/tools
>> described in the essay for Firebird projects?
>>
>> If not, is anyone interested in building some of them?
>>
>> I would be keen to become involved and contribute.
>>
>> Mike
>
> do you mean Tools to Help?
> do you know about IBExpert or Database WorkBench?

Alan

Yes - a little. I'm not fully aware of all their capabilities.

A central concept of database refactoring is to be able to automate the
changes to the schema. During development the design starts out
simple-ish and scripts dump data, change the schema and reload data in
lockstep with changes to the software. The refactoring scripts, master
(development) database and software source is all versioned together as
the design becomes more sophisticated.

The purpose is to permit greater freedom to alter the design in an agile
manner. I believe IBExpert and Database Workbench were designed for a
similar purpose but with the subtle difference that changes to schemas
are a necessary evil. I don't know whether those tools can be used to
automatically update copies of the database in developer sandboxes, but
the refactoring scripts are intended for that.

Maybe IBExpert and Database Workbench are exactly what I want. I'm
hoping someone who understands those products and also gets the Martin
Fowler and Scott Ambler concept of database refactoring can tell me.

Mike

> Alan
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> Visit http://firebird.sourceforge.net and click the Resources item
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> Also search the knowledgebases at http://www.ibphoenix.com
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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