Design | Prototype | Development | Testing | Staging | Production | Optimization
It is important to test your Omnidex application, just as it is important to test any application. Testing will help validate the indexing strategy and insure performance. Testing will also insure that there are no mistakes with either the application or SQL language interfaces.
Testing strategies vary greatly within organizations. The following six recommendations can be incorporated into the testing strategy for the application to insure that Omnidex is properly integrated and performing well.
The testing of Omnidex applications usually focuses on query syntax, query results and query performance. We recommend that these tests be performed first on the Omnidex server, then on the Omnidex client, and finally in the application itself. This approach to testing makes it easier to isolate the Omnidex aspects of an application from the other layers of the application.
The OdxSQL program is a valuable testing tool. OdxSQL is a console application that allows SQL statements to be executed and results to be displayed. OdxSQL also supports statements that create, administrate and maintain Omnidex databases. Where the Omnidex Administrator program is a Windows-based, interactive application for administrating Omnidex databases, OdxSQL serves the same role as a console application. OdxSQL also can be used within scripts, allowing for more automated testing.
OdxSQL makes it easy to test queries and other statements, first on the server and then through an ODBC or JDBC interface. OdxSQL can process a text file containing SQL statements, allowing a well-crafted suite of SQL statements to verify results and benchmark performance. OdxSQL can also be run as a client tool, allowing these same SQL statements to be run using Omnidex's ODBC or JDBC interface.
Query syntax is tested by creating a text file containing SQL statements and running them through the OdxSQL program. OdxSQL can respond to any errors by halting the tests or continuing on, and it can also log all results in a delimited file for use in spreadsheet or database applications.
Query optimization is tested by configuring OdxSQL to automatically display query plans as SQL statements are run. The query plans will show the exact optimization used when processing the query.
Query optimization can also be tested by configuring OdxSQL to issue an error if queries are not properly optimized or if queries take too long. A wide variety of optimization settings can be used to require Omnidex indexing to be used, and timeouts can be used to issue an error if a query exceeds a set time limit.
Query performance can be tested by running queries through OdxSQL and logging their results in a delimited file for use in a spreadsheet or database application. The log results can be filtered or sorted based on the time required to process the query. This allows poor-performing queries to be quickly identified and remedied.
ODBC and JDBC performance can be tested by running OdxSQL in ODBC or JDBC mode. This causes OdxSQL to act as a client, processing each statement through the ODBC or JDBC interface to the server. Query performance can then be logged and analyzed as was done on the server.
The OdxSQL documentation describes the general use of OdxSQL.
See also: