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Flexible Data Dictionary

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trawson

Programmer
Mar 7, 2003
1
US
Hi Folks ...

I'm new to mysql, not to databases nor to programming.

I am developing a web-based app using php and mysql.

I want to drive the app off of metadata, a set of mysql databases which contain the list of database field names and both their database and screen attributes. I would then process that data (with PHP code) to generate CREATE TABLE statements to build the real databases, and also use it in my PHP-driven web pages to generate the screens. This approach requires more work up front of course, but it offers enormous flexibility, and the ability to change all the screen characteristics simply by modifying the metadata. With some additional work it could be used to generate ALTER TABLE code as well.

This is a classic data dictionary arrangement (with the screen info added) and I'm curious if anyone has either done it before, or knows of a commercial, shareware, or GPL app that does it. I have DeZign and it does part of this, but is not flexible enough to do the whole job. If I have to code it myself I will, but it would be nicer to use something off the shelf if it is not too expensive.

Thanks for any help ...
 
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