Toad Edge 1.1 - User Guide

About Schema Compare

With Toad Edge, you can compare database objects of two databases/schemas. Based on the result, you can generate an HTML report or change scripts for both the source and the target to deploy changes immediately.

To quickly compare two databases/schemas

• Select any two databases in Object Explorer, right-click and select Compare Schemas
  

To configure comparison settings before performing Schema Compare

1. Click the Compare button on main toolbar and select New
2. Specify the Source and Target schemas and select the desired Object Types and Comparison Rules
3. Click Compare
   

This comparison process may take a while depending on the number of objects in both databases. Once it is completed, you can see all the differences between the source and the target and perform various actions.

Schema Compare consists of three parts:

• Overview Grid - Displays differences between databases. The differences can be resolved and marked as read/unread, important or excluded
• Comparison Area - Shows the specific differences in SQL code between the source/target database objects
• Outline View - Contains settings that determine which types of differences should be considered or ignored

Overview Grid

The main purpose of the grid is to resolve differences between database objects as a part of Schema Compare. You can also use other tools to filter the differences or mark them via context menu as:

• Read/Unread / - signifies whether you have already reviewed the difference or not
• Important / - simply marks the difference as important, has no influence on the result of the comparison
• Excluded - the difference is ignored and removed from the grid unless you enable the Show Excluded Items option

There are two main types of differences:

• Only in source/target - objects that are found only in one of the two compared databases
• Different - objects that are linked (same name or linked by user) but their SQL code is different

In case you want to compare an unlinked object in source with an unlinked object in target, you will have to map them.

To map an unlinked object to any other unlinked object

1. In the grid, find an object that is not linked yet by looking in the Only in source/target nodes
2. Notice the [map] text in the other database column. It is a drop down menu from which you can select the object that should be mapped to your original object
   
   
3. After selecting the object, the two objects are now linked. You can unlink them again by clicking the unlink icon

Once you link objects as you wish, you can go through the differences and decide on how to resolve them.

To resolve differences between two database objects

1. In the Overview Grid, locate any row that marks a difference between two objects
2. Click on the arrow in the cell between the object names to specify how the difference is going to be resolved.

The following table lists all possible resolution actions and their meanings:

Action	Action description	Resolution description
	Change target	The generated change script will change target so it matches source
	Change source	The generated change script will change source so it matches target
	Change both	(Different objects only) All differences between the two objects are marked as ignored. You can go through the specific differences one by one and resolve them in the Comparison Area
	Ignore	The differences between the two objects are ignored and not included in the generated change script

Overview Grid Toolbar

UI Element	Option	Description
	Recompare All	Compares the source and the target again
	Save As	Saves the comparison as a .compare file that can be loaded and displayed at any time
	Previous Unread Change	Switches to the previous difference marked as unread ()
	Next Unread Change	Switches to the next difference marked as unread ()
	Export Report	Exports an HTML report detailing the detected differences
	Generate Script for Source	Generates a change script for the source schema/database according to the resolution actions you have set. The script can be generated to clipboard, a worksheet or a file
	Generate Script for Target	Generates a change script for the target schema/database according to the resolution actions you have set. The script can be generated to clipboard, a worksheet or a file
	Update Objects in Database	(Repository only) Updates objects in database according to the resolution actions you have set. The drop down menu allows you to only generate a change script instead. The script can be generated to clipboard, a worksheet or a file
	Overwrite Files on File system	(Repository only) Updates objects in file system repository according to the resolution actions you have set. The drop down menu allows you to only generate a change script instead. The script can be generated to clipboard, a worksheet or a file
	Filter by Action	Displays only the differences that you have resolved by the selected action(s)
	Group by	Groups the differences by the selected criteria
	Filter	Filters the differences according to the input. It is possible to use wildcards (? and *) and regular expressions as well as filter by multiple comma separated values
	Show/Hide Excluded Items	Shows/Hides differences marked as Excluded
	Hide Empty Nodes	Hides object type nodes with no detected differences
	Export Settings	Exports the Schema Compare settings and Detailed Settings which can be configured in the Outline View

Comparison Area

This part of Schema Compare displays specific differences between the SQL code of two given database objects. It also allows you to export the SQL code of any of the two objects in various ways and you can also deploy changes based on the actions that you have used to resolve the differences.

Comparison Area has the following tabs:

• Script Definition - displays the SQL code of both objects and the differences between them
• Change Script - displays the change script SQL code that will be generated in order to resolve the differences

In the Script Definition tab, differences can be resolved one by one with different actions.

To resolve differences between two objects in Script Definition

1. In Overview Grid, select a row with two different objects
2. You should now see the specific differences displayed in the Comparison Area | Script Definition tab
3. Select a specific difference by simply clicking on it. A border should appear to signal that the difference is currently selected
4. Right-click and select the action that you would like to use to resolve the difference
   
   

Once you resolve all the differences, you will probably want to deploy the changes. This can be done in two scopes:

• Deploy changes of all objects - in this case, you generate and execute a change script for all objects that are resolved/not excluded in the Overview Grid
• Deploy changes of a single object - this method uses the Change Script tab

To deploy changes of a single object

1. Resolve all differences as described in the walkthrough above
2. When you are done, switch to the Change Script tab
3. You should see a generated change script that is based on the resolution actions you have used. To deploy the changes, simply click the Deploy button /. If you just want to generate the script rather than deploy it immediately, use one of the three buttons to the right of the Deploy button

Comparison Area Toolbar

Button	Option	Description
	Deploy	Executes the generated change script in the source/target to address the differences
	Export/Copy/Open SQL Worksheet	Exports the generated change script for source/target to a file/clipboard/Worksheet
	Set Action	Resolves all differences between the two objects using the selected action

Continuous Integration and Delivery