Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The rest of this topic covers topics concerning the additional parts of
the Integrate button: continuous testing, inspection, deployment, and
feedback. This section covers some specific issues concerning these
practices when it comes to database integration.
Testing
Just as with source code, you'll want to test your database. We cover
testing in detail in Chapter 6. There are tools you can use for database-
specific testing such as PL/Unit, OUnit for Oracle, and SQLUnit. Your
database may contain behavior in stored procedures or functions that
needs to be tested and executed as a part of the build script, just like
the behavior of your other source code. You may also want to test the
interactions of constraints, triggers, and transactional boundaries by
performing application security data tests.
Inspection
As with your other source code, you should be running inspections on
your data source. This includes not just your DDL, but reference and
testing data as well. There are tools you can incorporate and run in
your automated build process so that you do not need to run these
inspections manually. Here are a few ideas for inspections on your
database.
• Ensure efficient data performance by running
set explain
against your project's rules to target optimizations for your SQL
queries.
• Analyze data to ensure data integrity.
• Use a SQL recorder tool to determine which queries are being
run the most. These queries might be candidates for stored pro-
cedures.
• Ensure adherence to data naming conventions and standards.
