When working with APEX, you also need a number of tools to improve the efficiency of your work. It isn’t enough to just have the APEX IDE at your disposal. Besides the APEX IDE for the application development, you may use a bunch of other tools. This is what I mean by the APEX ECO-System.
For the PL/SQL development and creation of the objects, such as tables, views, synonyms, sequences, … you may use SQL Developer. The DML scripts with the code for creating those objects may be generated by SQL Datamodeler. This tool is used to design the data model, which offers a graphical representation of the relationships between tables and offers the possibility to generate database objects automatically on our database. Both tools are part of the Oracle Database Development tools, just like APEX.
Once the objects are modeled and generated on the database, you can start with the development of the application in APEX. After some time, when a first version of the application is ready, it can be deployed on a test environment. Without the aid of an external tool, it’s necessary to make a script of each package, trigger, sequence, synonym, table, view,… in order to create them on the test environment. And when you start with change requests and enhancements, it becomes even more complex!
After the end-user has tested the application and given his feedback, you normally will have to change your packages, tables,… or you will have to add some new functionalities, or you’ll have to change the existing ones. Without the aid of an external tool, you’ll have to make a script of each change you make, in order to deploy the changes on test as well. This is very time consuming and the risk of making mistakes is very big.
In the past, in my personal experience, it took me lots of hours to make a script for each column definition, table, relationship, package, trigger, view,… which has changed during the development cycle. It was very annoying and especially when you forgot one… It’s very time-consuming to find differences between the development and test environment.
But, since I got in touch with Red Gate, all those problems are gone!
Red Gate’s Deployment Suite for Oracle contains a tool that allows you to deploy schema objects and compare schema’s (Schema Compare for Oracle). But that’s not all. Unlike other tools such as SQL Developer, which only gives the possibility to compare schema’s in a limited way, the Red Gate Deployment Suite allows you to deploy Data from one schema to another as well (Data Compare for Oracle). And last but not least, since the 12th of March, Red Gate extended their product portfolio. They also provide a tool for Source Control (=Version Control) of your database code! This is done by Source Control for Oracle!
A small overview…
Schema Compare for Oracle, allows you to make a full installation script of your database objects. This is very useful because you don’t have to worry about the question if all modifications are scripted, neither about the possible dependencies between the different objects. You are sure that everything on your development environment is scripted in a good way and, when you choose to deploy everything on the test environment, you are sure that it is executed in the right sequence. Everything which has to do with the deployment of the schema objects is handled with the Red Gate Schema Compare tool, which is included in the Deployment Suite.
While Schema Compare for Oracle is used for objects, Data Compare for Oracle will take care of all your data. This is very useful when you have a test environment with a lot of reference data, which is entered by the Business. Don’t you recognize the situation where your end users have entered data while testing the application in a test environment assuming that this data would also be available in the production environment? This tool allows you to compare data on different schemas, and to deploy changes from the one to the other.
Very recently, Red Gate added an extra tool to his portfolio: Source control for Oracle. It all started with a live lab at KScope12 where every attendee could contribute to the first prototypes. Read more about it here. Less than a year later, a first version is downloadable. Since it is completely new, there is not yet that much experience with it.
Since iAdvise is an official partner of Red Gate, we’ve had the opportunity to test the tool before its official release. After a few months of testing, we can tell you that this is the first mature tool which really helps developers to manage their database code!
The whole idea is to give developers a tool to put schema objects on an SVN repository from the database and to pull those objects from the SVN repository, back to another database. If you ever tried doing this manually, you know that this can take up a lot of your valuable time. Source Control for Oracle will take the manual labor out of the picture and put the files on the SVN for you. While doing this, Source Control for Oracle will notice if an object already exists on SVN and the tool will ask the user what he needs to do with it. This will decrease the chances of anyone overwriting your work. You can also add a comment when you push something to the SVN. You can always read back and see what was changed, why it was changed, when it was changed, and by whom it was changed. In this way, Source Control for Oracle provides a whole version control system for database code.
One of the nice features of the tool is that when you define all your schemas in a SVN repository, Source control for Oracle will compare your schemas in the database automatically with the definitions in SVN, when you start the tool.
As you can read, the Deployment Suite for Oracle isn’t just the first database tool you meet; it’s a lot more than that! At iAdvise, we’re convinced about the added value and we believe this tool will help a lot of people in their needs. If you aren’t yet convinced about the tools, then take a minute to look at the website of Red Gate and check out the videos and testimonials of other users, I’m sure you’ll change of thoughts!
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