introdoc

Introdoc (from introspection and document) — a tool for generating .docx documents, containing introspected tables from Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Created for needs of students in Russian colleges, who have to attach tables with structure of databases to their reports for practical works and course projects. Basically, when you have 10+ tables in your database, it's a pain to write them all manually. So, there it is.

Installation

1. Clone this repository with git clone https://github.com/GD-alt/introdoc.
2. Install dependencies with pip install -r requirements.txt. If you're using poetry, you can run poetry install instead.
3. Now you're able to run the script with py -m introdoc. If you're a happy Linux user, you can use python3 -m introdoc instead.

Troubleshooting

This script uses pyodbc to connect to SQL Server. You might need to install ODBC drivers for your system. If you're using Windows, you can download them from Microsoft site. If you're using Linux… well, you're on your own, I don't use it in everyday life. Good luck!

Usage

Introdoc is a command-line tool, which provides hella load of options. Here's a quick overview of them:

Long name	Short name	Description	Default
--output	-o	Output document name	output.docx
--database	-d	Database to introspect	master
--server	-s	Server name	(localdb)\mssqllocaldb
--driver	-D	Driver name	ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server
--tables	-t	Tables to introspect, divided by comma	None
--language	-l	Language to use in tables (ru, en, de)	en
--headers	-h	If to include table headers into table (flag)	False
--inullable	-N	If to include Nullable? column into table (flag)	False
--onatural	-n	If included, Nullable column will contain Yes and Nos	False
--sections	-S	If to separate tables with their names (flag)	False

Examples

• py -m introdoc will introspect all tables from master database on (localdb)\\mssqllocaldb server, and save them into output.docx file. Tables will be in English, without headers, Nullable? column, Yes and No values in Nullable? column, and not separated with their names.
• py -m introdoc -d AdventureWorks -s localhost -D 'ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server' -t HumanResources.Department,HumanResources.Employee -l ru -h -N -n -s will introspect HumanResources.Department and HumanResources.Employee tables from AdventureWorks database on localhost server, using ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver, and save them into output.docx file. Tables will be in Russian, with headers, Nullable? column, Yes and No values in Nullable? column, and separated with their names.
• py -m introdoc -d 10210797 -S (my usecase) will introspect all tables from 10210797 database on (localdb)\\mssqllocaldb server, and save them into output.docx file. Tables will be in English, without headers, Nullable? column, Yes and No values in Nullable? column, and separated with their names.