NAME

DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db - Convert an MS Access database into a MySQL/Postgres/Other database

Synopsis

        use DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db;

        my($obj) = DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db -> new
        (
            access_dsn    => 'in',
            db_username   => ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'root' : 'postgres',
            db_password   => ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'pass' : '',
            db_name       => 'out',
            driver        => ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'mysql' : 'Pg',
            lower_case    => 1,
            null_to_blank => 1,
            verbose       => 1,
        );

        $obj -> do('drop database out');
        $obj -> do('create database out');

        my($table_name) = $obj -> get_access_table_names(['table a', 'table b']);

        $obj -> convert($_) for @$table_name;

Description

DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db is a pure Perl module.

It can convert an MS Access database into one in MySQL/Postgres/Other format.

The conversion is mindless. In particular, this version does not even use the Date::MSAccess module to convert dates.

Hence you are encouraged to not use this module, but rather to visit:

        http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/migrating-from-microsoft.html

In other words, I wrote this module for my own use.

Hopefully, the output database is an exact copy of the input one, apart from perhaps some column truncation.

Things to note:

The module does not create the output database

You do that before using this module.

The module uses DBIx::SQLEngine to achieve a degree of database vendor-independence

The module uses DBD::ODBC to connect via a DSN to MS Access

See below for more on this DSN (Data Source Name). Search down for 'access_dsn'.

All candidate output table names are obtained from the MS Access database

You can have the module ignore input tables or views by passing to get_access_table_names() an array ref of the names of those tables you wish to output.

        my($table_name) = $obj -> get_access_table_names();

returns an array ref of all table names in the MS Access database, so all table names will be passed to convert().

        my($table_name) = $obj -> get_access_table_names(['table a', 'table b']);

returns an array ref of table names to be passed to convert(), with tables called 'table a' and 'table b' being the only ones included in the list.

All output table names can be converted to lower case

Use the option new(lower_case => 1) to activate this action.

All output table names have /\s/ characters in their names replaced by '_'

All output column names are from the MS Access database

All output column names have MySQL/Postgres reserved words prefixed with '_'

That is, $original_column_name is replaced by "_$original_column_name".

The only known case (20-Jan-2004) is any column named 'Order', which will be called '_order' in the output database.

All output column names can be converted to lower case

Use the option new(lower_case => 1) to activate this action.

All output columns are of type varchar(255)

Note: This will cause data to be truncated if input columns are longer than 255 characters.

This module has only been tested under MS Windows and MySQL

It does contain, I believe, all the code required to run under Postgres. However, I have never tried to use a DSN under Unix, so YMMV.

Distributions

This module is available both as a Unix-style distro (*.tgz) and an ActiveState-style distro (*.ppd). The latter is shipped in a *.zip file.

See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules.html for details.

See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules/html/installing-a-module.html for help on unpacking and installing each type of distro.

Constructor and initialization

new(...) returns a DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db object.

This is the class's contructor.

Usage: DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db -> new().

This option takes a set of options.

access_dsn

The DSN (Data Source Name) of the MS Access database.

To start creating a DSN under Win2K, say, go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Admin tools/Data Source (ODBC)/System DSN.

Note: A System DSN is preferred because it is visible to all users, not just the currently logged in user.

This option is mandatory.

db_username

The user name to use to log in to the output database.

This might be something like

        ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'root' : 'postgres'

if you are using MySQL under Windows and Postgres under Unix.

The default is the empty string.

db_password

The password to use to log in to the output database.

This might be something like

        ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'pass' : ''

if you are using MySQL under Windows and Postgres under Unix.

The default is the empty string.

db_name

The output database name.

This option is mandatory.

driver

The output database driver.

This might be something like

        ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'mysql' : 'Pg'

This option is mandatory.

lower_case

An option, either 0 or 1, to activate the conversion of all table names and column names to lower case, in the output database.

The default is 0.

null_to_blank

An option, either 0 or 1, to activate the conversion of all null values to the empty string, in the output database.

The default is 0.

verbose

An option, either 0 or 1, to activate the writing to disk of various bits of information.

The default is 0.

The output disk file name is determined by this code:

        $$self{'_temp'}          = ($^O eq 'MSWin32') ? 'temp' : 'tmp';
        $$self{'_log_file_name'} = "/$$self{'_temp'}/msaccess2db.log";

Method: get_access_table_names([An array ref of table names to output])

Returns an array ref of table name to be passed to convert().

Method: convert($table_name)

Returns nothing.

Converts one table from MS Access format to MySQL/Postgres/Other format.

It's normally called like this:

        my($table_name) = $obj -> get_access_table_names();

        $obj -> convert($_) for @$table_name;

Example code

See the examples/ directory in the distro.

Note: The example uses a module called Error.

Note: Activestate-style distros do not contain this directory :-(.

Author

DBIx::MSAccess::Convert2Db was written by Ron Savage <ron@savage.net.au> in 2004.

Home page: http://savage.net.au/index.html

Copyright

Australian copyright (c) 2004, Ron Savage. All Programs of mine are 'OSI Certified Open Source Software'; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of The Artistic License, a copy of which is available at: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html