SQL Advent Calendar 2013 – Day 3 – Organize Before All The New Toys Come In

AdventCalendar03First Post in this series: SQL Advent Calendar 2013-Day 1- Placeholders in SQL Prompt Snippets

As I was hanging our family Advent Calendar up, I thought I would make one for you, my readers. I’ll be sharing my scripts from two of my favorite products as well as tips on how to create your own.

Installing A New Macro

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When I first started working with the provided macros in ER Studio Data Architect by Embarcadero (ER Studio DA), I would keep my modified copies in the same folders as the macros that came with the product. I soon realized that it would be better to create my own folders. This allowed me to leave the provided library intact and it allowed me to put my macros in source control (where all code should be kept).

The default location of the macros for version 9.6 is c:\ProgramData\Embarcadero\ERStudioDA_9.6\Macros. You can create your own folders in this location either through the application or through Explorer. There is a “refresh” menu item in the shortcut menu that you can use to refresh the list of macros. I created sub-folders similar to the ones that were under Sample Macros as well. I stored the Remove Attribute From Selected Tables macro I created under Modeling Productivity Macros subfolder.

Once you have your new macros in ER Studio DA, you can add them to the shortcut menus for various objects. You can have up to 10 macros in the shortcut list at a time.

AdventCalendar2013Day3_Img2To add yesterday’s macro to the shortcut menu for Tables, do the following:

  1. Right -click on any table in any model.
  2. Click on Add/Remove Macro Shortcuts.
  3. Select the macro you added to your library called Remove Attribute From Selected Tables.

Next time you right-click on a table, you’ll have that macro listed under macros. You can have up to 10 macros at any given time. The list will change based on what kind of object you have right-clicked on.

Note: Not all macros can be run in both the Logical and Physical models. I usually provide a warning when I run a macro that won’t work in a particular model so that I know it’s not going to do anything. I’ll discuss this more in future posts this month.

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