Creating a Baseline

The first step for comparing two schemas is to establish a baseline for analysis by sampling one of the schemas.

You create a baseline by exporting administrative objects to XML format. You can use any option available for the export command to create the baseline export files. For more information, see MQL Command Reference: export Command.

Use the following guidelines when performing the export.

  • Start MQL using a bootstrap file that points to the database containing the schema for which you want to create the baseline.
  • There are two ways to produce an XML export file: toggle on XML mode and issue a normal export command, or issue a normal export command but include the XML keyword. For example: 
    xml;
export ADMIN_TYPE TYPE_PATTERN into file FILENAME;

    Or the equivalent: 

    export ADMIN_TYPE
TYPE_PATTERN xml into file FILENAME;

  • Create a separate export file for each administrative type and to keep all the objects of a type in one file. For example, export all attributes to file attributes.xml, all relationships to relationship.xml, etc. This keeps the baseline files to a reasonable size, and also lets you compare specific administration types, making it easy to produce separate reports for each administration type. If you need to identify subsets of objects within an export file to focus the analysis, you can do so using the compare command.
  • The compare command requires that the ematrixml.dtd file be in the same directory as the export files. Create the export files in the directory that contains the dtd file or copy the dtd file into the directory that contains the export files. If you do not specify a path for the export file, 3DSpace creates the file in the directory that contains mql.exe file.

This table shows examples of export commands that export different sets of administrative objects. All the examples assume the XML mode is not toggled on and that the ematrixml.dtd file is in the directory d:\Matrix\xml.

Items to Export Command
all attributes export attribute * xml into file d:\enoviaV6R2011\studio\xml\attributes.xml
all attributes that begin with the prefix "Supply" export attribute Supply* xml into file d:\enoviaV6R2011\studio\xml\SupplyAttributes.xml
all administrative objects that begin with the prefix "mx"

(usually better to keep all objects of a type in separate files)

export admin mx* xml into file d:\enoviaV6R2011\studio\xml\mxApp.xml