Kickstart 1.02

Kickstart is a powerful tool for DBAs and software developers. It lets you write scripts using a simple Basic like language to generate database objects for every table in a Database schema. For example, you might have developed a robust Oracle stored procedure that inserts rows into a particular database as well as handling security, audit trails and locking. If you want to use that stored procedure as a standard template then you can do it manually, cutting, pasting, editing and testing or you can use Kickstart to do the tedious work for you in a few simple steps. Start Kickstart and point it the database you want to work with. Load your source code into the Kickstart script editor and replace actual table and column names by Kickstart script variables and loops. Push a button and in a few seconds you will have cloned your stored procedure for every database in your schema. If you need to enhance or correct your stored procedure, you can simply update the script and push the button again.

You can use the same techniques for SQL Server, DB2, Access and any programming language or web development tool that lets you edit source code as text. Kickstart also simplifies the process of converting schemas from one database to a different database. For example, you could take an Access schema and a script for creating DB2 tables and create the equivalent DB2 schema very easily.

Kickstart also gives you an ERD tool that creates ERD diagrams that you can rearrange and print. Its schema viewing tools gives you different ways to view the structure of your database. Kickstart also lets you maintain information about a schema that is not stored in the schema itself. For example, you can designate columns to be currency or dates or date-times, or look-up display fields so your generated scripts can reflect that knowledge.

Kickstart comes with a comprehensive help file and a set of demonstration scripts. Support is available at www.westfaro.com.