Nothing really changed.

[dbsrgits/SQL-Translator.git] / README

                      SQL::Translator README

The SQLFairy project began with the idea of simplifying the task of
converting one database create syntax to another through the use of
Parsers (which understand the source format) and Producers (which
understand the destination format).  The idea is that any Parser can be
used with any Producer in the conversion process, so, if you wanted
Postgres-to-Oracle, you would use the Postgres parser and the Oracle
producer.  The project has since grown to include parsing structured data
files like Excel spreadsheets and delimited text files and the
production of various documentation aids, such as images, graphs, POD,
and HTML descriptions of the schema, as well as automatic code
generators through the use of Class::DBI.  Presently only the definition
parts of SQL are handled (CREATE, ALTER), not the manipulation of data
(INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE).

As of version 0.02, parsers exist for the following:

    Excel
    MySQL
    Oracle
    PostgreSQL
    Sybase
    xSV (arbitrarily delimited text files)

And the following producers exist:

    ClassDBI: Class::DBI classes
    Diagram: quasi-ER diagrams using libgd
    GraphViz: ER diagrams using GraphViz
    HTML: HTML documentation of schema
    MySQL: MySQL-specific schema
    Oracle: Oracle-specific schema
    POD: Plain Old Documenation of schema
    PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL-specific schema
    SQLite: SQLite-specific schema
    Sybase: Sybase-specific schema
    XML: structure of the schema described in XML

You can, of course, define your own parsers or producers and pair them
with existing parsers or producers as long as they adhere to the API
of the SQL::Translator::Schema object.

Included in this distribution are a few scripts designed to be user
interfaces for the actual SQL::Translator modules.  In the "bin"
directory, you will find:

*   sqlt-diagram.pl
*   sqlt-graph.pl
*   sql_translator.cgi
*   sql_translator.pl

All scripts ending in ".pl" are meant to be run from the command line
with various switches to control the input and output of the scripts,
while the ".cgi" script is a web-form frontend.  The script you'll
probably find most useful is the "sql_translator.pl" script which is
meant to be the main interface for translating from text-to-text.  The
graphic producers, however, have many extra switches, so there are
scripts specific for each of the the GraphViz an ER-diagram producers.
All scripts start with "sql" so it will be easier to identify them on
your system.  All the "*.pl" scripts will be installed in the normal
installation process, but you'll have to put the CGI script into your
web CGI directory to use it.

If you're more interested in using the SQL::Translator modules
directly, then you might be more interested to examine some of the
test scripts in the "t" directory.  While the test suite isn't
currently as thorough as it should be, you will definitely get the
idea of how to parse a file and manipulate the SQL::Translator::Schema
objects.

AUTHORS

Ken Y. Clark, <kclark@cpan.org>, 
darren chamberlain <darren@cpan.org>,
Chris Mungall <cjm@fruitfly.org>, 
Allen Day <allenday@users.sourceforge.net>, 
Sam Angiuoli <angiuoli@users.sourceforge.net>, 
Ying Zhang <zyolive@yahoo.com>, 
Mike Mellilo <mmelillo@users.sourceforge.net>.

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; version 2.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

BUGS

Please use http://rt.cpan.org/ for reporting bugs.