Database Comparer VCL - DB Comparer Description

	DB Comparer Description

Features | Detailed Description

The DBComparer component is the key component which performs most of the work comparing Master and Target databases and produces final update SQL script.

The final update SQL script will be applied to Target database and contains all necessary SQL operators and statements required to make Target database structure identical to Master database structure. You can execute the final update SQL script using standard SQL console for your database or by using TxxxSQLExec component (where xxx will be different for different databases).

To extract database structure definitions (metadata) DBC VCL uses set of classes called metadata extractors. There are two different metadata extractors, one to extract metadata from SQL scripts (TxxxScriptExtract classes) and another to extract metadata using live database connection (TxxxDBExtract classes). Each database has own TxxxScriptExtract and TxxxDBExtract classes which knows how to work with this specific database. For example for MS SQL there is a TMSSQLScriptExtract and TMSSQLDBExtract clasess, TIBSctiptExtract and TIBDBExtract for Interbase and so on.

Metadata extractor saves all information about underlying database structure in to a special storage class TDBStructure. This class is unified for all types of databases. Such approach makes possible to compare and synchronize databases structure of different types of databases. For example you can compare and synchronize Oracle and MS SQL databases, MS SQL and dBases databases and so on.

When comparing databases the TDBComparer component uses two TDBStructure storages to store Master and Targets database metadata. To customize the process as much as possible the component has set of properties and options to control various aspects of comparison process. In most cases you will call to ExtractAndCompareDatabases method of TDBComparer component.

Please see the Demos code (DBComparerDemoFib, DBComparerDemoIbo, DBComparerDemoIbx, DBComparerDemoMSSQL, ScriptComparer) and also the indexed Help documentation provided with the Database Comparer VCL installation for more details about using this component.

Property List

Name	Description
CompareObjects	Is a set of database objects to be compared.
DBStructureMaster	Master database structure used for comparing.
DBStructureTarget	Target database structure.
ExtractorMaster	Master database metadata extractor.
ExtractorTarget	Target database metadata extractor.
MsgManager	Messages list manager.
ShowFullLog	Generate detailed log when comparing databases.
SQLExec	Stores the resulting SQL script.

Method List

Name	Description
CompareDatabases	Starts the database comparing process.
ConvertDatabases	Converts the Target database structure types into corresponding Master database structure types.
ExtractAndCompareDatabases	Extracts and compares databases metadata.
ExtractDatabases	Extracts metadata from Target and Master databases.

Event List

Name	Description
OnAfterCompare	Occurs after databases comparison completed.
OnAfterExtract	Occurs after databases metadata extraction completed.
OnBeforeCompare	Occurs before databases comparison started.
OnBeforeExtract	Occurs before databases metadata extraction started.
OnErrorMessage	Occurs when an error is generated during extracting, comparing, or updating the database.
OnLogNextLine	Occurs when a new line has been generated and needs to be saved to log.
OnProgressUpdate	Occurs when the progress has changed.