Are there any thick-client alternatives to Pulse / Gfsh to query the regions of Gemfire? Though pulse is good, it's not usable as a sqldeveloper/toad for testing/querying.
Unfortunately, none that I know of, sorry.
However, an alternative approach would be to use Spring Data GemFire Repositories (additional details here) to write/express your (OQL) queries, and then write automated [JUnit] tests to test your queries defined in your application Repository interface.
For example, I can define an interface extension of either the SDC's [Crud]Repository or SDG's GemfireRepository interface and declare my application queries following certain conventions (a specification of the query criteria defined by the interface method signature). I.e. I do not need to write the actual queries.
Then, it is a relatively simple matter to define tests to exercise your application's queries.
You can even express more complex queries (like Equi-Joins on 2 or more collocated PRs). However, beware of the query limitations involving PRs in particular, as well as in general.
More information on querying PRs can be found here, and specifically involving Equi-Join Queries on PRs.
I have hard time imagining any tool successfully enabling this sort of practical querying since querying 2 collocated PRs (or a PR with any other Region type, e.g. REPLICATE or LOCAL) in an Equi-Join (OQL) Query must be performed inside a GemFire Function.
Anyway, I know this was not exactly what you were looking for since you probably just need something quick to test the validity of your query results in addition to analyzing the perf (like Explain Plan), but, this at least increases your test coverage in an automated, repeatable fashion.
Of course, this is all moot point if you are just looking to perform analysis on the data outside an application.
Cheers,
John
In HTML+CSS+JS world, http://jsfiddle.net/ is very helpful tool for asking / making example about web development. And I also saw several browser(javascript)-based programming language compilers and REPLs. But I can't find online / web-based test environment for database operations( especially for RDBMS ).
Is there any open/free database service with web-based interfaces for testing queries?
Added: This tool will be good for this situation; If I'm troubling with complex queries, then create a sample table via web interface and ask it on stackoverflow with the 'sample table URL'. Anyone can access to the URL and test their queries on web site. (Yes, queries are running on 'real' database system) And also the query results can be tracked, then we can even make 'ranking' for it :)
Try SQL Fiddle.
You can try your SQL query and execute/test it.
There are free "disposable" database servers like db4free and even MonoQL.
As far as the web-based interfaces and short URLs go, I don't think you'll have much luck.
To manage your data you have to stick to what is provided (usually phpMyAdmin or similar) and there is no short-URL to query mapping. One other caveat of such system is that (without the appropriate user permissions) one user could easily destroy all your test data -- and remember that (relational) database versioning is much more expensive than plain text versioning, so that's pretty much out of the question.
For non-RDBMS, I can think of try.mongodb.org -- but it suffers from the same problems.
Almost forgot, the Stack Exchange Data Explorer, lets you practice T-SQL queries (with permalinks).
PS: As a personal side-note, I think it's a cool idea and I would love to see something like that implemented, perhaps even mashed-up with SchemaBank or similar - that would be just awesome.
You can't really test a query without the right underlying dbms, schemas (or databases), tables, constraints, stored procedures, and permissions, which tend to be highly application specific. (That is, not readily reusable among multiple users.)
Instead, the database world has grown up into database management systems that you can freely download and install locally. Then you can build and populate your own tables, and test your queries however you like.
Most of these come with both a command line interface and some kind of graphical interface. It's not clear to me what a web-based interface would give you that doesn't already exist in one form or another.
I think that, to do what you want, would require commercial licenses for Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, and Sybase. That's a pretty high barrier to entry for a free web site.
Trouble with a web based query analyser is that you'd need to let it 'tunnel' on to your box to run the queries and for many making a development/test box open to the internet is not a possibility.
For a non web based tool you could look at LinqPad http://www.linqpad.net/ - it does Linq & Sql and other stuff too - very handy tool indeed
I have read many strong views (both for and against) SPs or DS.
I am writing a query engine in C++ (mySQL backend for now, though I may decide to go with a C++ ORM). I cant decide whether to write a SP, or to dynamically creat the SQL and send the query to the db engine.#
Any tips on how to decide?
Here's the simple answer:
If your programmers do both database and coding work, keep the SQL with the app. It's easier to maintain that way. Otherwise, let the DB guys handle it in SPs.
You have more control over the mechanisms outside the database. The biggest win for taking care of this outside the database is simply maintenance (in my mind). It'd be slightly hard to version control the SP vs the code you generate outside the database. One more thing to keep track of.
While we're on the topic, it's similar to handling data/schema migrations. It's annoyingly complex to version/handle schema migrations, if you don't already have a mechanism for this, you will have yet another thing you'll need to manage. It comes down to simply being easier to manage/version these things outside the database.
Consider the scenario where you have a bug in your SP. Now it needs to be changed, but then you hop over to another developers database/sandbox. What version is the sandbox and the SP? Now you have to track multiple versions.
One of the main differentiators is whether you are writing the "one true front end" or whether the database is the central piece of your application.
If you are going to have multiple front ends stored procedures make a lot of sense because you reduce your maintenance overhead. If you are writing only one interface, stored procedures are a pain, because you lose a lot of flexibility in changing your data set as your front end needs change, plus you now have to do code maintenance, version control, etc. in two places. Databases are a real pain to keep in sync with code repositories.
Finally, if you are coding for multiple databases (Oracle and SQL compatible code, for example), I'd avoid stored procedures completely.
You may in certain rare circumstances, after profiling, determine that some limited stored procedures are useful to you. This situation comes up way less than people think it does.
The main scenarios when you MUST have the SP is:
1) When you have very complex set of queries with heavy compile overhead and data drift low enough that recompiling is not needed on a regular basis.
2) When the "Only True" logic for accessing the specific data set is VERY complicated, needs to be accessed from several different codebases on different platforms (so writing multiple APIs in code is much more expensive).
Any other scenario, it's debatable, and can be decided one way or another.
I must also say that the other posters' arguments about versioning are not really such a big deal in my experience - having your SPs in version control is as easy as creating a "sql/db_name" directory structure and having easy basic "database release" script which releases the SP code from the version control location to the database. Every company I worked for had some kind of setup like this, central one run by DBAs or departmental one run by developers.
The one thing you want to avoid is to have your business logic spread across multiple tiers of your application. Database DDL and DML are difficult enough to keep in sync with an application code base as it is.
My recommendation is to create a good relational schema, but all your constraints and triggers so that the data retains integrity even if somebody goes to the database and tries to do something through some command line SQL.
Put all your business logic in an application or service that calls (static/dynamic) SQL then wraps the business functionality you are are trying to expose.
Stored-procedures have two purposes that I can think of.
An aid to simplifying data access.
The Stored Procedure does not have
any business logic in it, it just
knows about the structure of the
data and exposes an interface to
isolate accessing three tables and a
view just to get a single piece of
information.
Mapping the Domain Model to the Data
Model, Stored Procedures can assist
in making the Data Model look like a
given Domain Model.
After the program has been completed and has been profiled there are often performance issues with the pre 1.0 release. Stored procedures do offer batching of SQL without traffic needing to go back and forth between the DBMS and the Application. That being said in rare and extreme cases due to performance a few business rules might need to be migrated to the Stored-Procedure side. Make sure to document any exceptions to the architectural philosophy in multiple prominent places.
Stored Procedures are ideal for:
Creating reusable abstractions over complex queries;
Enforcing specific types of insertions/updates to tables (if you also deny permissions to the table);
Performing privileged operations that the logged-in user wouldn't normally be allowed to do;
Guaranteeing a consistent execution plan;
Extending the capabilities of an ORM (batch updates, hierarchy queries, etc.)
Dynamic SQL is ideal for:
Variable search arguments or output columns:
Optional search conditions
Pivot tables
IN clauses with user-specified values
ORM implementations (most can use SPs, but can't be built entirely on them);
DDL and administrative scripts.
They solve different problems, really. Use whichever one is more appropriate to the task at hand, and don't restrict yourself to just one or the other. After you work on database code for a while you'll start to get a more intuitive feel for these things; you'll find yourself banging together some rat's nest of strings for a query and think, "this should really go in a stored procedure."
Final note: Because this question implies a certain level of inexperience with SQL, I feel obliged to say, don't forget that you still need to parameterize your queries when you write dynamic SQL. Parameters aren't just for stored procedures.
DS is more flexible. SP approach makes your system more manageable.
When should I be using stored procedures instead of just writing the logic directly in my application? I'd like to reap the benefits of stored procedures, but I'd also like to not have my application logic spread out over the database and the application.
Are there any rules of thumb that you can think of in reference to this?
Wow... I'm going to swim directly against the current here and say, "almost always". There are a laundry list of reasons - some/many of which I'm sure others would argue. But I've developed apps both with and without the use of stored procs as a data access layer, and it has been my experience that well written stored procedures make it so much easier to write your application. Then there's the well-documented performance and security benefits.
This depends entirely on your environment. The answer to the question really isn't a coding problem, or even an analysis issue, but a business decision.
If your database supports just one application, and is reasonably tightly integrated with it, then it's better, for reasons of flexibility, to place your logic inside your application program. Under these circumstances handling the database simply as a plain data repository using common functionality looses you little and gains flexibility - with vendors, implementation, deployment and much else - and many of the purist arguments that the 'databases are for data' crowd make are demonstratively true.
On the other hand if your are handling a corporate database, which can generally be identified by having multiple access paths into it, then it is highly advisable to screw down the security as far as you can. At the very least all appropriate constraints should enabled, and if possible access to the data should be through views and procedures only. Whining programmers should be ignored in these cases as...
With a corporate database the asset is valuable and invalid data or actions can have business-threatening consequences. Your primary concern is safeguarding the business, not how convenient access is for your coders.
Such databases are by definition accessed by more than one application. You need to use the abstraction that stored procedures offer so the database can be changed when application A is upgraded and you don't have the resource to upgrade application B.
Similarly the encapsulation of business logic in SPs rather than in application code allows changes to such logic to be implemented across the business more easily and reliably than if such logic is embedded in application code. For example if a tax calculation changes it's less work, and more robust, if the calculation has to be changed in one SP than multiple applications. The rule of thumb here is that the business rule should be implemented at the closest point to the data where it is unique - so if you have a specialist application then the logic for that app can be implemented in that app, but logic more widely applicable to the business should be implemented in SPs.
Coders who dive into religious wars over the use or not of SPs generally have worked in only one environment or the other so they extrapolate their limited experience into a cast-iron position - which indeed will be perfectly defensible and correct in the context from which they come but misses the big picture. As always, you should make you decision on the needs of the business/customers/users and not on the which type of coding methodology you prefer.
I tend to avoid stored procedures. The debugging tools tend to be more primitive. Error reporting can be harder (vs your server's log file) and, to me at least, it just seems to add another language for no real gain.
There are cases where it can be useful, particularly when processing large amounts of data on the server and of course for database triggers that you can't do in code.
Other than that though, I tend to do everything in code and treat the database as a big dump of data rather than something I run code on.
Consider Who Needs Stored Procedures, Anyways?:
For modern databases and real world
usage scenarios, I believe a Stored
Procedure architecture has serious
downsides and little practical
benefit. Stored Procedures should be
considered database assembly language:
for use in only the most performance
critical situations.
and Why I do not use Stored Procedures:
The absolute worst thing you can do,
and it's horrifyingly common in the
Microsoft development world, is to
split related functionality between
sproc's and middle tier code.
Grrrrrrrr. You just make the code
brittle and you increase the
intellectual overhead of understanding
a system.
I said this in a comment, but I'm going to say it again here.
Security, Security, SECURITY.
When sql code is embedded in your application, you have to expose the underlying tables to direct access. This might sound okay at first. Until you get hit with some sql injection that scrambles all the varchar fields in your database.
Some people might say that they get around this by using magic quotes or some other way of properly escaping their embedded sql. The problem, though, is the one query a dev didn't escape correctly. Or, the dev that forgot to not allow code to be uploaded. Or, the web server that was cracked which allowed the attacker to upload code. Or,... you get the point. It's hard to cover all your bases.
My point is, all modern databases have security built in. You can simply deny direct table access (select, insert, update, and deletes) and force everything to go through your s'procs. By doing so generic attacks will no longer work. Instead the attacker would have to take the time to learn the intimate details of your system. This increases their "cost" in terms of time spent and stops drive by and worm attacks.
I know we can't secure ourselves against everything, but if you take the time to architect your apps so that the cost to crack it far outweighs the benefits then you are going to serious reduce your potential of data loss. That means taking advantage of all the security tools available to you.
Finally, as to the idea of not using s'procs because you might have to port to a different rdbms: First, most apps don't change database servers. Second, in the event that it's a real possibility, you have to code using ANSI sql anyway; which you can do in your procs. Third, you would have to reevaluate all of your sql code no matter what and it's a whole lot easier when that code is in one place. Fourth, all modern databases now support s'procs. Fifth, when using s'proc's you can custom tune your sql for the database it's running under to take advantage of that particular database's sql extensions.
Basically when you have to perform operations involving data that do not need to get out of the database. For example, you want to update one table with data from another, it makes little sense to get the data out and then back in if you can do it all in one single shot to the db.
Another situation where it may be acceptable to use stored procedures is when you are 100% sure you will never deploy your application to another database vendor. If you are an Oracle shop and you have lots of applications talking to the same database it may make sense to have stored procedures to make sure all of them talk to the db in a consistent manner.
Complicated database queries for me tend to end up as stored procs. Another thought to consider is that your database might be completely separate and distinct from the application. Lets say you run an Oracle DB and you essentially are building an API for other application developers at your organization to call into. You can hide the complicated stuff from them and provide a stored proc in its place.
A very simple example:
registerUser(username, password)
might end up running a few different queries (check if it exists, create entries in a preference table, etc) and you might want to encapsulate them.
Of course, different people will have different perspectives (a DBA versus a Programmer).
I used stored procs in 1 of 3 scenarios:
Speed
When speed is of the utmost importance, stored procedures provide an excellent method
Complexity
When I'm updating several tables and the code logic might change down the road, I can update the stored proc and avoid a recompile. Stored procedures are an excellent black box method for updating lots of data in a single stroke.
Transactions
When I'm working an insert, delete or update that spans multiple tables. I wrap the whole thing in a transaction. If there is an error, it's very easy to roll back the transaction and throw an error to avoid data corruption.
The bottom 2 are very do-able in code. However, stored procedures provide an black-box method of working when complex and transaction level operations are important. Otherwise, stick with code level database operations.
Security used to be one of the reasons. However, with LINQ and other ORMs out there, code level DAL operations are much more secure than they've been in the past. Stored procs ARE secure but so are ORMs like LINQ.
We use stored procedures for all of our reporting needs. They can usually retrieve the data faster and in a way that the report can just spit out directly instead of having to do any kind of calculations or similar.
We also will use stored procedures for complex or complicated queries we need to do that would be difficult to read if they were otherwise inside of our codebase.
It can also be very useful as a matter of encapsulation and in the philosophy of DRY. For instance I use stored functions for calculations inside a table that I need for several queries inside the code. This way I use the better performance as well as the ensuring that the calculation is always done the same way.
I would not use it for higher functionality or logic the should be in the business logic layer of an architecture, but focused on the model layer, where the functionality is clearly focused on the database design and possible flexibility of changing the database design without breaking the API to the other layers.
I tend to always use stored procedures. Personally, I find it makes everything easier to maintain. Then there is the security and performance considerations.
Just make sure you write clean, well laid out and well documented stored procedures.
When all the code is in a stored proc, it is far easier to refactor the database when needed. Changes to logic are far easier to push as well. It is also far far easier to performance tune and sooner or later performance tuning becomes necessary for most database applications.
From my experience, stored procedures can be very useful for building reporting databases/pipelines, however, I'd argue that you should avoid using stored procedures within applications as they can impede a team's velocity and any security risks of building queries within an application can be mitigated by the use of modern tooling/frameworks.
Why might we avoid it?
To avoid tight-coupling between applications and databases. If we use stored procedures, we won't be able to easily change our underlying database in the future because we'd have to either:
Migrate stored procedures from one database (e.g. DB2) to another (e.g. SQL Server) which could be painstakingly time-consuming or...
Migrate all the queries to the applications themselves (or potentially in a shared library)
Because code-first is a thing. There a several ORMs which can enable us to target any database and even manage the table schemas without ever needing to touch the database. ORMs such as Entity Framework or Dapper allow developers to focus on building features instead of writing stored procedures and wiring them up in the application.
It's yet another thing that developers need to learn in order to be productive. Instead, they can write the queries as part of the applications which makes the queries far simpler to understand, maintain, and modify by the developers who are building new features and/or fixing bugs.
Ultimately, it depends on what developers are most comfortable with.
If a developer has a heavy SQL background, they might go with Stored Procs.
If a developer has lots of app development experience, they might prefer queries in code. Personally, I think having queries in code can enable developers to move much faster and security concerns can be mitigated by ensuring teams are following best practices (e.g. parameterized queries, ORM). Stored procs aren't a "silver bullet" for system security.
Does the use of procedures still make sense in 202X?
Maybe in low level and rare scenarios or if we write code for a legacy companies with unfounded restrictions, stored procedure should be an option.
If entire logic is in the database, should I need a dba to change it?
No. In modern platforms, the requirement of a DBA to change the business logic is not an option.
Hot modification of stored procedures without dev or staging phases, area a crazy idea.
How easy is to maintain a procedure with dozens of lines, cursors and other low level database features vs a OOP objects in any modern language in which a junior developer is able to maintain?
This answers itself
Hide tables from my development team for security reasons sounds very crazy for me, in these times in which agility and well documentation are everything.
Modern development team with a modern database, should not worry about security. What's more, they need access to sandbox version of database to reduce the time of its deliverables.
With modern ORMs, ESBs, ETLs and the constant increase of cpu power, stored procedures are not an option anymore. Should I invest time and money in these tools, to create at final: one big stored procedure?
Of course, not.
On top of the speed and security considerations, I tend to stick as much in Stored Procedures as possible for ease of maintenance and alterations. If you put the logic in your application, and find later that sql logic has an error or needs to work differently in some manner, you have to recompile and redeploy the whole app in many cases (especially if it's a client side app such as WPF, Win-Forms, etc). If you keep the logic in the stored proc, all you have to do is update the proc and you never have to touch the application.
I agree that they should be used often and well.
The use case I think is extremely compelling and extremely useful is if you are taking in a lot of raw information that should be separated out into several tables, where the some of the data may have records that already exist and need to be connected by foreign key id, then you can just IF EXISTS checks and insert if it doesn't or return key if it does, which makes everything more uniform, succinct, and maintainable in the long run.
The only case where I would suggest against using them is if you are doing a lot of logic or number crunching between queries which is best done in the app server OR if you are working for a company where keeping all of the logic in the code is important for maintainability/understanding what is happening. If you have a git repository full of everything anyone would need and is easily understandable, that can be very valuable.
The stored procedures are a method of collecting operations that should be done together on database side, while still keeping them on database side.
This includes:
Populating several tables from one rowsource
Checking several tables against different business rules
Performing operations that cannot be efficiently performed using set-based approach
etc.
The main problem with stored procedures is that they are hard to maintain.
You, therefore, should make stored procedures as easy to maintain as all your other code.
I have an article on this in my blog:
Schema junk
I've had some very bad experiences with this.
I'm not opposed to stored procedures in their place, but gratuitous use of stored procedures can be very expensive.
First, stored procedures run on the database server. That means that if you have a multi-server environment with 50 webservers and one database server, instead of spreading workloads over 50 cheap machines, you load up one expensive one (since the database server is commonly built as a heavyweight server). And you're risking creating a single-point-of-failure.
Secondly, it's not very easy to write an application solely in stored procedures, although I ran into one that made a superhuman effort to try to. So you end up with something that's expensive to maintain: It's implemented in 2 different programming languages, and the source code is often not all in one place either, since stored procedures are definitively stored in the DBMS and not in a source archive. Assuming that someone ever managed/bothered o pull them out of the database server and source-archive them at all.
So aside from a fairly messy app architecture, you also limit the set of qualified chimpanzees who can maintain it, as multiple skills are required.
On the other hand, stored procedures are extremely useful, IF:
You need to maintain some sort of data integrity across multiple systems. That is, the stored logic doesn't belong to any single app, but you need consistent behavior from all participating apps. A certain amount of this is almost inevitable in modern-day apps in the form of foreign keys and triggers, but occasionally, major editing and validation may be warranted as well.
You need performance that can only be achieved by running logic on the database server itself and not as a client. But, as I said, when you do that, you're eating into the total system resources of the DBMS server. So it behooves you to ensure that if there are significant bits of the offending operation that CAN be offloaded onto clients, you can separate them out and leave the most critical stuff for the DBMS server.
A particular scenario you're likely to benefit involves the situation around the "(n+1)" scalability problem. Any kind of multidimensional/hierarchical situation is likely to involve this scenario.
Another scenario would involve use cases where it does some protocol when handling the tables (hint: defined steps which transactions are likely to be involved), this could benefit from locality of reference: Being in the server, queries might benefit. OTOH, you could supply a batch of statements directly into the server. Specially when you're on a XA environment and you have to access federated databases.
If you are talking business logic rather than just "Should I use sprocs in general" I would say you should put business logic in sprocs when you are carrying out large set based operations or any other time executing the logic would require a large number of calls to the db from the app.
It also depends on your audience. Is ease of installation and portability across DBMSs important to you?
If your program should be easy to install and easy to run on different database systems then you should stay away from stored procedures and also look out for non-portable SQL in your code.
When developing whether its Web or Desktop at which point should a developer switch from SQLite, MySQL, MS SQL, etc
It depends on what you are doing. You might switch if:
You need more scalability or better performance - say from SQLite to SQL Server or Oracle.
You need access to more specific datatypes.
You need to support a customer that only runs a particular database.
You need better DBA tools.
Your application is using a different platform where your database no longer runs, or it's libraries do not run.
You have the ability/time/budget to actually make the change. Depending on the situation, the migration could be a bigger project than everything in the project up to that point. Migrations like these are great places to introduce inconsistencies, or to lose data, so a lot of care is required.
There are many more reasons for switching and it all depends on your requirements and the attributes of the databases.
You should switch databases at milestone 2.3433, 3ps prior to the left branch of dendrite 8,151,215.
You should switch databases when you have a reason to do so, would be my advice. If your existing database is performing to your expectations, supports the load that is being placed on it by your production systems, has the features you require in your applications and you aren't bored with it, why change? However, if you find your application isn't scaling, or you are designing an application that has high load or scalability requirements and your research tells you your current database platform is weak in that area, or, as was already mentioned, you need some spatial analysis or feature that a particular database has, well there you go.
Another consideration might be taking up the use of a database agnostic ORM tool that can allow you to experiment freely with different database platforms with a simple configuration setting. That was the trigger for us to consider trying out something new in the DB department. If our application can handle any DB the ORM can handle, why pay licensing fees on a commercial database when an open source DB works just as well for the levels of performance we require?
The bottom line, though, is that with databases or any other technology, I think there are no "business rules" that will tell you when it is time to switch - your scenario will tell you it is time to switch because something in your solution won't be quite right, and if you aren't at that point, no need to change.
BrianLy hit the nail on the head, but I'd also add that you may end up using different databases at different levels of development. It's not uncommon for developers to use SQLite on their workstation when they're coding against their personal development server, and then have the staging and/or production sites using a different database tool.
Of course, if you're using extensions or capabilities specific to a certain database tool (say, PostGIS in PostGreSQL), then obviously that wouldn't work.