Introduction
Developers who have experienced large application development know the necessities of framework. In this regard, more experienced developers like Team Lead, Technical Lead and Project Manager up to CTO have high respect for it. They know from their experience that large applications should develop in a very organized way so that newly assigned developers take little time to adopt the development structure behind the application and take less costly man hour form Team Lead or other senior developers. They also know that maintenance will be easy and cost effective after development has been completed for the application.
Background
Apart from this, I will be going through developing a SQL Framework. I will show the necessity of it with demonstration.
Let’s Get Started
- Open SQL Management Studio
I want to start by designing a table structure in SQL Management Studio as shown below:
Figure 1
Say you are working in a large software company for a big project and will take a long time. You have many programmers working under you in this project. Sometimes, programmers are switching from your software company and are replaced by new programmers. So far, this is a big project so underlining database size will be accordingly big. Say, you have assigned a task to a programmer to create a stored procedure for data insertion with proper validation and other necessary command in store procedure.
The below procedure has been created by the programmer as his assigned task.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Customer_Set]
@Name as varchar(50),
@Address as varchar(250),
@Mobile as varchar(50)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
IF @Name IS NULL
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Name cannot be empty.',16,1)
END
IF LEN(@Name)<3
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Name cannot be less than 3 characters.',16,1)
END
BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO [dbo].[Customer]
([Name]
,[Address]
,[Mobile])
VALUES
(@Name
,@Address
,@Mobile)
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
RETURN (0)
END CATCH
RETURN (1)
END
You have also assigned another developer to write a stored procedure for supplier table.
Figure 2
Then write stored procedure like below:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Supplier_Set]
@Name as varchar(50),
@Address as varchar(250),
@Mobile as varchar(50)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
IF @Name IS NULL
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Please enter supplier name.',16,1)
END
IF LEN(@Name)<3
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Supplier name cannot be less than 3 characters.',16,1)
END
BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO [dbo].[Supplier]
([Name]
,[Address]
,[Mobile])
VALUES
(@Name
,@Address
,@Mobile)
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
RETURN (-1)
END CATCH
RETURN (1)
END
While reviewing code for the above two stored procedures written by two programmers, you will find the following difference:
IF @Name IS NULL
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Name cannot be empty.',16,1)
END
IF LEN(@Name)<3
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Name cannot be less than 3 characters.',16,1)
END
BEGIN CATCH
RETURN (0)
END CATCH
RETURN (1)
Another programmer:
IF @Name IS NULL
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Please enter supplier name.',16,1)
END
IF LEN(@Name)<3
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Supplier name cannot be less than 3 characters.',16,1)
END
BEGIN CATCH
RETURN (-1)
END CATCH
RETURN (1)
So one programmer writes:
- Name cannot be empty
- Name cannot be less than 3 characters
- RETURN (0)
Another programmer writes:
- Please enter supplier name
- Supplier name cannot be less than 3 characters
- RETURN (-1)
For the same kind of work, they have not used similar messages and they have also return 0 and -1 which are not understandable. And other developers may write something other than this. So this system is not a generic system or not followed by the same structure.
It will be very tough to manage if you have a large number of stored procedures like the above written by many developers.
System should develop followed by a structure that I called framework and all messages should have a common, return type that should be readable and other things regarding a structure should be common. That will help us to manage system easily and by using less effort.
We can build a framework by writing some additional stored procedures in this case and you can increase as your requirement to build your own.
Let's create a stored procedure to set some constant variables most likely as Enum
in .NET. These constants will actually be used in other regular procedure for different type of operation. These constants are for common system development.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetValidationConstraint]
@EmptyCheck int OUTPUT,
@LenCheck int =NULL OUTPUT,
@NoDataExist int =NULL OUTPUT,
@True bit =NULL OUTPUT,
@False bit =NULL OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
SELECT @EmptyCheck=1
SELECT @LenCheck =2
SELECT @NoDataExist =3
SELECT @True=1
SELECT @False=0
END
Another procedure is for common return message for the whole application.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ReturnMessage]
@Success int OUTPUT,
@Fail int OUTPUT
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
BEGIN
SELECT @Fail=0
SELECT @Success=1
END
The below procedure is for common messages for the application:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[MessageHelper]
@Field varchar(200) =NULL,
@MinLenght int =NULL,
@ValidationConstraint int,
@ValidationMessage varchar(200) OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @EMPTY_MESSAGE varchar(50),
@MINIMUM_LENGHT_MESSAGE varchar(50),
@NO_DATA_EXIST_MESSAGE varchar(50)
DECLARE @EMPTY int,
@LEN int,
@NO_DATA_EXIST int
DECLARE @SUCCESSED int,
@FAILED int
SET @EMPTY_MESSAGE = 'cannot be empty.'
SET @MINIMUM_LENGHT_MESSAGE ='cannot be less than'
SET @NO_DATA_EXIST_MESSAGE = 'No record found.'
EXEC ReturnMessage @SUCCESSED output, @FAILED output
EXEC GetValidationConstraint @EMPTY OUTPUT, @LEN OUTPUT, @NO_DATA_EXIST OUTPUT
IF @ValidationConstraint = @EMPTY
BEGIN
IF LEN(@Field)<=0
BEGIN
RAISERROR('Field name cannot be empty. _
StoreProcedure/MessageHelper',16,1)
RETURN @FAILED
END
SELECT @ValidationMessage = @Field + ' ' + @EMPTY_MESSAGE
END
IF @ValidationConstraint = @LEN
BEGIN
IF @MinLenght IS NULL OR @MinLenght <=0
BEGIN
RAISERROR('Minimum length cannot be empty. _
StoreProcedure/MessageHelper',16,1)
RETURN @FAILED
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SELECT @ValidationMessage = @Field + ' ' + _
@MINIMUM_LENGHT_MESSAGE + ' ' + CONVERT(varchar, @MinLenght)
END
END
IF @ValidationConstraint = @NO_DATA_EXIST
BEGIN
SELECT @ValidationMessage = @NO_DATA_EXIST_MESSAGE
END
END
Write your procedure for insert
data into Customer
table:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Customer_Set]
@Name as varchar(50),
@Address as varchar(250),
@Mobile as varchar(50),
@LASTID bigint OUTPUT,
@MESSAGE varchar(200) =NULL OUTPUT
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON
BEGIN
DECLARE @SUCCESSED int,
@FAILED int
DECLARE @EMPTY int,
@LEN int
BEGIN TRY
EXEC ReturnMessage @SUCCESSED output, @FAILED output
EXEC GetValidationConstraint @EMPTY output, @LEN output
IF LEN(@Name)=0
BEGIN
EXEC MessageHelper 'Name', @EMPTY,@MESSAGE OUTPUT
RETURN @FAILED
END
IF LEN(@Name)<3
BEGIN
EXEC MessageHelper 'Name',3, @LEN,@MESSAGE OUTPUT
RETURN @FAILED
END
INSERT INTO [dbo].[Customer]
([Name]
,[Address]
,[Mobile])
VALUES
(@Name
,@Address
,@Mobile)
SELECT @LASTID=SCOPE_IDENTITY()
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMessage nvarchar(4000);
DECLARE @ErrorSeverity int;
DECLARE @ErrorState int;
SELECT
@ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),
@ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),
@ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();
RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage,@ErrorSeverity,@ErrorState);
RETURN @FAILED
END CATCH
RETURN @SUCCESSED
END
In the above way, all messages in a system will remain common. Now write stored procedure for getting all records from Customer
table.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Customer_Get]
@TOTAL_ROWS bigint OUTPUT,
@MESSAGE varchar(200) =NULL OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @SUCCESSED int,
@FAILED int
DECLARE @EMPTY int,
@LEN int,
@NO_DATA_EXIST int
BEGIN TRY
EXEC ReturnMessage @SUCCESSED OUTPUT, @FAILED OUTPUT
EXEC GetValidationConstraint @EMPTY OUTPUT, _
@LEN OUTPUT,@NO_DATA_EXIST OUTPUT
IF (SELECT COUNT(CustomerId) FROM Customer )<= 0
BEGIN
EXEC MessageHelper '', @NO_DATA_EXIST,@MESSAGE OUTPUT
SELECT @TOTAL_ROWS=0
RETURN @SUCCESSED
END
SELECT [CustomerId]
,[Name]
,[Address]
,[Mobile]
FROM [dbo].[Customer]
SELECT @TOTAL_ROWS=@@ROWCOUNT
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMessage nvarchar(4000);
DECLARE @ErrorSeverity int;
DECLARE @ErrorState int;
SELECT
@ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),
@ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),
@ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();
RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage,@ErrorSeverity,@ErrorState);
RETURN @FAILED
END CATCH
RETURN @SUCCESSED
END
Write procedure for delete
record from Customer
table:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[Customer_DeleteById]
@CustomerId bigint,
@MESSAGE varchar(200) =NULL OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @SUCCESSED int,
@FAILED int
DECLARE @EMPTY int,
@LEN int
BEGIN TRY
EXEC ReturnMessage @SUCCESSED OUTPUT, @FAILED OUTPUT
EXEC GetValidationConstraint @EMPTY OUTPUT, @LEN OUTPUT
IF @@CustomerId <=0
BEGIN
EXEC MessageHelper 'Customer Id', @EMPTY,@MESSAGE OUTPUT
RETURN @FAILED
END
DELETE FROM [dbo].[Customer]
WHERE (CustomerId = @CustomerId)
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMessage nvarchar(4000);
DECLARE @ErrorSeverity int;
DECLARE @ErrorState int;
SELECT
@ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),
@ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),
@ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();
RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage,@ErrorSeverity,@ErrorState);
RETURN @FAILED
END CATCH
RETURN @SUCCESSED
END
So by some additional stored procedures, we can build a common messaging and validation system for web or software applications. By building a common system or framework, we can reduce maintenance time for our software project. And it is easy to understand the whole system.
Conclusion
This demonstration will help you to develop your SQL framework.
Thank You!