[Phpmyadmin-devel] SQL Validator

[Robin Johnson]

Hi List,

A few months ago, after there was an article on slashdot about an SQL
Validator product that you could use freely via the web, I contacted the
company behind it, and suggested that they make a web service version of
the web page they had before, that could be used from within other
applications.

One of their developers that saw my email, and was a great fan of
phpMyAdmin got back to me, and said he'd talk to management about it.
I didn't hear anything for a few months, until a few weeks ago, he
contacted me again, with access to the prototype of the service.

I wrote a small (~15 lines + PHP classes from ActiveState) PHP client that
works wonderfully for the initial version, and we saw his service was
great.

As an optional feature, I would like to include the PHP calls to the
SOAP service in phpMyAdmin. It would get a link in the query box, just
like we currently have for the 'PHP Code' and it would enable you to click
on the link and send the data to Mimer via the SOAP service to be
validated.

In addition to just validating the query, if there is anything wrong with
your query compared to what the standards, it lists each error, along with
possible corrections. Up till yesterday, it was only in a text format, but
as of later today, it will be a parsable XML format that I have had input
on the design of.

I foresee an additional option for it's use. If you type in a query, and
the MySQL server gives you an error message, then run the validator as
well, and it will list possible corrections for each error in the query,
allowing newbie SQL users to debug their SQL queries in record time.

Just a note, DB-config is now officially postponed until 2.3.1, as it
needs some more design work, due to a few things pointed out to me
regarding security.

MySQL parser now passes every one of the tests that are bundled with
MySQL, so I think it is ready :-).

-- 
Robin Hugh Johnson
E-Mail     : robbat2 at orbis-terrarum.net
Home Page  : http://www.orbis-terrarum.net/?l=people.robbat2
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