How to quickly document your MySQL database

Do you need to create documentation for your MySQL database? While it's possible to create database documentation manually, a time saving alternative is a little utility called the MySQL Documentation Tool. This handy little database documentor application will connect to a MySQL database server and quickly document all of the databases found in that database.

The MySQL Documentation Tool automatically builds useful database documentation in a number of formats:

• HTML format is useful for placing a handy database documentation reference on your company's or your client's Intranet.
• HTML Help format is the standard Microsoft Windows help file format, and allows the database documentation to be contained within a single file. HTML Help database documentation produced by the MySQL Documentation Tool also has a nice index of database entities, and has its own integrated search facility.
• Microsoft Word/RTF format database documentation is great for printing and showing senior managers to prove that the database has been fully documented!
• Text format documentation can form the basis of other documentation that you might be told to compile for a MySQL database.

MySQL is a widely used relational database management system (RDMS). There are various versions and it's available for a wide range of operating systems. A lot of cheap web hosting companies offer MySQL database hosting with their Unix or Linux based PHP hosting plans. MySQL is especially popular for constructing database backends for websites that have been built using the open source PHP web scripting language.

Obviously the first thing to document in a MySQL database are the Tables. Documentation at the very least should state the table name. It's also a good idea to list the table's columns. Columns can have a number of properties but when creating database documentation it's especially useful to include the table column datatypes, and the length of the data allowed if the column is a text field such as a varchar or char field.

As well as MySQL database tables, it is also a good idea to document the database's Views. As with tables, the views in a MySQL database have columns which can be detailed in the documentation. Often it is useful to show the SQL statement associated with the view (i.e. the Create View statement).

Many MySQL databases make use of stored procedures and functions, so it is useful to document these as well. Developers who are used to big industry standard databases like SQL Server and Oracle will usually like to write a lot of stored procedures and functions.

If that all sounds hard work, well it's because it is hard work! Thankfully there are tools that will completely automate the process of documenting you MySQL databases. The MySQL Documentation Tool documents all versions of MySQL, and makes boring technical writing projects fun again.

So if you want to save your valuable time then give the MySQL Documentation Tool a go (a free trial version is available). There's also a similar database documentor for Microsoft SQL Server.