While reading the latest on the very cool Trac-Fu project, by Russ Johnson, I was reminded about a tool I use to generate database scripts.
I am a fan of most all Database platforms. I have used MSSQL 7/2000/2005, UDB, Oracle 8/9i/10g, MySql 4/5 and PostgreSQL 7.3/8.1 in production. When working in multiple database platforms, there inevitably comes the need to port a database from one platform to another.
Rather than spend my days mapping and transforming a database schema, I use SQL Script Builder. SQL Script Builder is a free tool that generates SQL scripts of a database and the data for 5 officially supported platforms:
- MySql
- MS SQL
- Oracle
- Pervasive
- PostgreSQL
I have also used SQL Script Builder to port a non-trivial MS Access database to PostgreSQL, a job that would normally be very manual and annoying.
This tool will produce SQL Scripts that can be executed on a local or remote server. Very handy indeed when working with remote hosts.
The support is also very good. I personally asked for PostgreSQL support on February 24 2007. Support for the PostgreSQL database was added and the documentation updated on March 06 2007.
Depending on your database structure, there are some tasks you will have to do manually such as column constraints and Foreign Key relationships, but this is a small price to pay for the level of automation provided by SQL Script Builder.
A big Thank You goes to Dave and the rest of the team at SQL Script Builder for providing and supporting this great tool.
To read more about SQL Script Builder:
Update:
Dave wrote in to say that SQL Script Builder now has support for values that are NULL contained in INSERT statements. Thanks Dave!