120 likes | 220 Views
Document Your Access Database With Visual Basic. Presented by Joseph J. Sarna Jr. JJS Systems, LLC. Documentation Is a Necessary Evil!. Does the client require documentation? What do follow-on developers need to know about your application? What do YOU need to know six months from now?.
E N D
Document Your AccessDatabase With Visual Basic Presented by Joseph J. Sarna Jr. JJS Systems, LLC
Documentation Is a Necessary Evil! • Does the client require documentation? • What do follow-on developers need to know about your application? • What do YOU need to know six months from now?
Types of Documentation • We need to provide: • Database documentation • File format documentation • Registry entry documentation • Project and code documentation
Database Documentation • Tables • Field names, data types, descriptions, valid data ranges, etc. • Views/Queries/Stored Procedures • Definitions and SQL strings
File Formats Documentation • Layouts of any special file types used • XML schema • Ini file formats • Application specific files
Registry Entries Documentation • Locations and purposes of all registry entries • Location and purposes of all Active Directory interactions (additions if users, roles, groups, etc.) • Do not need to include entries made by Setup program
Project & Code Documentation • Directory structures of files • Reporting formats • Technical specifications • Code procedures
Using Visual Basic to Generate Database Documentation • DBDoc.vbp • By Tim Patrick, from Visual Basic Programmers Journal, July 2001 - http://www.vbstyleguide.com/ • This application reads the database structures of tables using ADO and ADOX and then writes the document to an HTML file. • Modified by J. Sarna to include Views/Queries
ADO Object Models • Three object models of ADO provide the functionality found in DAO. • ADO • Microsoft ADO Extensions for DDL and Security (ADOX) • Microsoft Jet and Replication Objects (JRO). mk:@MSITStore:C:\Microsoft Visual Studio\MSDN\2001JUL\1033\techart.chm::/html/daotoado.htm
ADO and ADOX • The ADO model allows access and manipulation of data through any OLE DB provider • The ADOX model contains objects for data definition (such as tables, views, and indexes) and creating and modifying users and groups. • With ADOX, one can control database schema and grant and revoke permissions on objects to users and groups
DBDoc Example Code C:\Visual Basic Projects\DBDoc\DBDoc.vbp • Add a reference to Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.5 Library. • Add a reference to Microsoft ADO Ext. 2.5 for DDL and Security.
Closing • Document your project for your own safety! • Find methods that will automate this documentation