From: Fabian Marin Date: 2010-07-28T10:57:36+09:00 Subject: tool to compare DB schema against DDL file First of all any feedback from you guys will be of tremendous help. I'm looking for a good topic for my thesis (to major in Computer Engineering) and at the same time I'm encountering a problem in my current job. Simply stated: I have a DDL file that describes the entire Data Model of an application. We use 6 different environments (including production) with a DB that must (eventually) match the schema proscribed by the DDL. We delegate the execution of the DDL to a DBA; I work in a highly bureaucratic environment so I can't just go ahead and run DDL myself. Additionally the app itself is currently running Java, though I want to use Ruby to generate the tool I need right now. Such a tool would parse the DDL as an external DSL and then compare it with the current DB schema, to then generate a series of DDL statements that would synchronize the two, a sort of DDL diff, if you will. I've done my share of research, looking for a similar tool to avoid reinventing the wheel. However, I could not reach the author of db_discovery (http://rubyforge.org/projects/db-discovery/), and otherwise I found no other author. It seems like db_discovery did not find a niche even though it seems to be a very good tool. Does anyone know if such a tool already exists and is actively supported??? As a newbie Rubyist I'm trying to exploit the power of this community by querying you guys to make sure such a tool would actually be novel. As for its implementation I have a couple of ideas (e.g. parse DDL as an external DSL using a multiple dispatch library, use ActiveRecord to reflect on a database's schema). However, I want to make sure that such a tool would actually benefit the community. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.