Section 3.9. SchemaView-Plus

3.9 SchemaView-Plus

SchemaView-Plus is another helpful Perl/Tk tool for Oracle DBAs that allows you to examine different database schemas and save them for future reference. It also provides insight into the world of Perl and XML data parsing. SchemaView-Plus was written by Milan Sorm, who also developed the dbMan application (see http://dbman.linux.cz), also written in Perl/Tk. (The SchemaView-Plus tool also uses the Perl DBIx extension, DBIx::SystemCatalog .)

3.9.1 Installing SchemaView-Plus on Unix

In addition to downloading SchemaView-Plus itself, you'll need to obtain several additional modules. Table 3-5 lists the locations for the software you'll need to install.

Table 3-5. Description and downloads for SchemaView-Plus

C library/Perl module	Description/download address
expat	XML parser C library http:// sourceforge .net/projects/expat
XML::Parser	Parses XML http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/C/CO/COOPERCL
XML::Dumper	Dumps Perl data to structured XML http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/E/EI/EISEN
SchemaView-Plus	Examines different database schemas http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/M/MI/MILSO

Appendix D, describes how to install expat and its dependent XML::Parser Perl module, along with other XML modules; expat and XML::Parser must be installed prior to using SchemaView-Plus. In addition, we need to install XML::Dumper as follows :

 $ gzip -d XML-Dumper-0.4.tar.gz $ tar xvf XML-Dumper-0.4.tar $ cd XML-Dumper-0.4 $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test $ make install 

Now let's install SchemaView-Plus itself:

1. With the XML system set up, we can now get to SchemaView-Plus:

    $ gzip -d SchemaView-Plus-0.10.tar.gz $ tar xvf SchemaView-Plus-0.10.tar $ cd SchemaView-Plus-0.10 $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test $ make install 

2. Make sure we can find the svplus program and set ORACLE_HOME :

    $ export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH $ export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.5 $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib $ svplus 

Many different schema- related options are available via SchemaView-Plus, and walking through them when the program is installed is the best way to discover them. To give you a flavor of the program, we've included two screenshots in Figure 3-15, one for Unix and one for Win32.

Figure 3-15. SchemaView-Plus examining table relationships

3.9.2 Installing SchemaView-Plus on Win32

To install SchemaView-Plus on Win32, do the following:

1. Obtain the XML::Dumper package from over the Internet at ActiveState ( XML::Parser comes preloaded with ActivePerl):

    C:\>ppm PPM> install  XML-Dumper  Install package 'XML-Dumper?' (y/N): y Installing package 'XML-Dumper'... ... Writing C:\Perl\site\lib\auto\XML\Dumper\.packlist PPM> quit 

2. Next, download and extract SchemaView-Plus to a suitable directory.

3. Run the program like this:

    C:\SchemaView-Plus-0.10>perl bin/svplus