Welcome to 2012! Is it Spring in the Air?

I'm not sure we've had a winter here, well in the south eastern reaches of the UK at least.  It's true that we're walking the dogs in the dark, which means it's winter, but my hands don't stick to the icy metal railings, instead we're walking in the dark to the tune of the dawn chorus!  Yesterday a severe storm wrenched trees from their roots and blew things about the garden, but we're still in double digit degrees (that's Celcius) and so definitely too mild to really be called winter; or am I finally getting used to the weather in the UK?

Still we're back and at 'em now I hope the break was good, restful and fun.  I'm back in London working with the team preparing for the launch of new software.  To that end I have done a mini series of videos on how to do a number of activities in Microgen DBClarity Developer. Instead of listing each video, I have created a YouTube playlist - the videos include "Creating Database Connection", "Adding files to Projects" and "Deploying Projects". 

Have fun!

DBClarity Developer Beta 2 is Now Out

What a funny old world this is, the more things change, the more they stay the same..., more of that thought another day.  What I can tell you is that Tristan's webinar introducing DBClarity Developer is now available to listen to and watch. This is just over 30 minutes and should show you where DBClarity Developer fits into the scheme of things - specially if you're still thinking it's another SQL Developer or TOAD tool.  Go on try it.
For a tool new to this market, it's interesting to see which companies are looking at DBClarity Developer and why they are - the story is the same - They have loads of developers, building ad hoc reporting queries and they want them to be efficient.  (that's both the developers writing the queries and the queries themselves!)  Now we know we can't all be SQL gurus, so if we can use a tool to produce more efficient SQL Queries then why not? So if you have 100s of developers writing ad hoc SQL reports, have a look at DBClarity Developer.  Today is as good as day as any as we have just released DBClarity Developer Beta 2!

I've spent the last few days recording more demo videos and will publish a few of those in the next few weeks.

First Webinar on DBClarity Developer - Learn More!

Conference season may be over and you may all be into the swing of the end of year activities, but things are still happening here. DBClarity Developer Beta 1 has been out for just under 2 months and we're about to release a second beta.  Before we do that, we thought we'd show you more about the product and give you the opportunity of seeing what it does and to ask questions.  Register for the live Microgen DBClarity Developer Webinar to be run on Thursday 15th December, and because this is a webinar, it's "at a city near you"; just join in, watch, listen, learn, and ask questions.

DBClarity Developer is a standalone product that provides a graphical interface for creating SQL queries, procedures and functions. The beauty of the graphical interface is that you can create the code graphically and let the product build the SQL, once done, you can revisit the diagram.  It's great for maintenance because you don't need to trawl through lines of code, in an attempt to figure out what it's designed to do, and it's great for collaborative work, because the visual aspect helps when you're explaining how the code works. DBClarity Developer generates SQL code for Oracle, Teradata and SQL Server and works alongside your other development tools.

Why not join the webinar, take a look and see what it's all about? Register here:  Microgen DBClarity Developer Webinar.

Working on a few more demos: EDFs and the SQL Editor

I tried adding a new entry to my blog a few times since my last entry. My plan is to highlight a few key areas in DBClarity Developer so that you can learn a little more about what the product does. I have a list of around 10 topics, which morphs and expands as my ideas change. Having shown you how to “Get Started” in my first video, the next step is to write about the SQL Editor, as described in the presentation, Tutorial 1 - Introducing the SQL Editor , which is on the DBClarity website. There’s the rub..., for those of you who know me and my back ground, I can almost hear you say, “SQL Developer does this and more” or even “TOAD has a richer editor than this”, and so what am I up to? Well, that’s the point, this is a different product.


I have created a new video, Microgen DBClarity Developer: SQL Editor, which instead of focusing on the SQL Editor, shows you where it fits in, and then goes on to show you how you can start creating the visual queries, what we call SQL Rules. Take a look.

In the next video I’ll take a look at how to deploy your project.

So What's Different Then? Are you a PL/SQL Developer?

Microgen's tools are new to me, and having worked with Oracle for so many years, I need to see where they fit in and why they may be of interest to you. I'm going to do another video to show you more "How To..." bits, but I thought the screenshot on our website might go a long way to helping you understand. The graphic on the left hand side is what you build, the code on the right hand side is what the product produces. I think it's really neat.  The main idea is that business end of the procedure can be discussed with a business user.

Take a look at Tristan's blog entry today, where he talks about just that "Why Microgen DBClarity Developer?" He's the product manager and has worked with customers and the products for some years.

There is a Free Download of DBClarity Developer (Beta), if you'd like to try it out.

Microgen DBClarity Developer: Getting Started

"Microgen DBClarity Developer enables the graphical definition and implementation of SQL queries and procedures” http://www.microgen.com/dbclarity/

What does that mean? Sometimes it’s difficult to get passed the marketing as you try to develop a real understanding of what a product can do for you. In the case of DBClarity Developer, what do I mean by a “graphical design” when it comes to writing SQL code? Lots of database-related products allow you to create SQL queries using a drag-and-drop approach, so what’s new here? Well, before I get into all that, you should take a look at the product.

It’s always been a bit of a challenge for me to tell the story of a product in 5 minutes! I tend to be overenthusiastic while I attempt to show users every available feature. That may be fine if you’ve used the product in question before, as this approach can help to fill in the gaps, but if you’re new to a product, it’s overwhelming at best. With this in mind, I’ve created a short video (Posted on YouTube) to walk you through the first few minutes of working with DBClarity Developer.
The video is specifically a “Getting Started” demonstration and is designed to help you get up and running, once you have downloaded and installed the product. You can see the various examples we have provided with the product, there is a brief product tour and I show you how to create a database connection and review the SQL queries we have provided. I also show you how to build the tables and set up the demo environment associated with the tutorials. Once you have watched the video, you can start creating your own queries or watch the video on how to create your first query, which you can find on the DBClarity Developer website. http://www.microgen.com/dbclarity/

Updates, News and Beta Software

Those of you who follow my blog, know that I write from time to time. I started blogging back in the day when I was working on modeling and the SQL support offered in Oracle JDeveloper and then in 2006, started this blog with the launch of Oracle SQL Developer and then later to SQL Developer Data Modeler. Recently my blogging dropped right off because, after 19 years at Oracle, I decided to “hang up my boots” and try something new. Although taking photos in Cornwall really appeals, it seems that when we decide to start fresh, perhaps we don’t venture too far from where we’ve been before- well, it is true for me.


After a restful, technology–free 2 month break, I started in a new position at Microgen, a company based in the City of London. (I can see St Paul’s Cathedral from the window!) I’m in the Microgen Aptitude Solutions Division; so still in technology, still working with products that build applications and still talking to databases. My new laptop has SQL Developer on it and I can connect to an Oracle Database!

Microgen DBClarity Developer is Beta

I’ll talk a little about the tools and technology I’m now involved with, in the weeks and months to come; today I want to tell you about a beta program we’re running for Microgen DBClarity Developer. This new product is focussed on people who want to query the database, by writing SQL queries and procedures, but who are not necessarily familiar with SQL syntax. The idea is that through the graphical interface IT and Business users can work together on gathering data. There is an overview on the website: http://www.microgen.com/dbclarity/

Consider writing a SELECT statement for a correlated query; if you’re a DBA, SQL or PL/SQL developer you can do this faster than I type these sentences, but if you’re with someone who knows what information they want from the tables they have access to, more complex SQL Queries may be daunting to them. If you can represent your queries graphically to them, then the whole discussion may become much easier. This tool is not a SQL Developer replacement, so why not download it, take a look and see what you think? I’d love to hear your feedback. I’ll be back soon with tips on how to get started and how to build a few basic queries. The software is shipped with a set of tutorial examples, so you can see what I mean quite quickly. Here’s how:

1. Download the software from here: http://www.microgen.com/dbclarity/

2. Expand “My Projects” and double-click to select the DBClarity Tutorial of your choice. (This opens a new tab set with the project selected.)

3. The tutorial projects are seeded with a number of defined objects. (I prefer to use the Dictionary View. You can switch to this by selecting the view choice icon just above the project. Once you have switched views, you’ll see a list that includes SQL Rules, SQL Expressions etc.)

4. Whether you switch views or not, expand the SQL Rules, select and double-click to open the rule. This displays a visual representation of your SQL Query.

5. To see the SQL Query, select the Show SQL icon.

For more help and information, take a look at the set of tutorial slides related to the examples on the website.

SQL Developer Data Modeler 3.1

As for my history…I see that SQL Developer Data Modeler 3.1 is now beta. Have fun with that!