Previous chapters in this book addressed the database updates, table structure changes, and changed/updated indexes. If you are using a Visual FoxPro database container (DBC) you have two basic options. The more difficult way is to track all the changes you made and write a program to make the changes with ALTER TABLE and INDEX ON commands. You can also write your own routine to determine the differences programmatically and generate the code. The second option is to purchase a subscription to the Stonefield Database Toolkit, which has the Update() method that handles this for you. The implementation of this is simple. All you need to do is copy the new database files (DBC, DCX, DCT) and the SDT metadata and programmatically call the Update() method.
SQL databases require a different implementation because there is no equivalent SDT for SQL databases. Each database has its own method to generate script to make changes in production. You need to ensure the users have the ability to run your scripts in the database, or you need to provide your own tool that runs your scripts in the production environment.