MDB to SQL Converter

This is a Docker environment for converting Microsoft Access MDB files to Postgres SQL.

When deployed, any MDB files supplied will be converted into a Postgres database, and will then be accessible from either within the Docker container through psql, port 5432 is exposed, as such the Docker container can be used as a data source for other applications.

This project makes use of MDB-Tools.

Prerequisites

The following must be available on your system prior to building and running the Docker environment:

• Docker

• GNU Make

Building & Deployment

Navigate to /docker and run the following command to build the image:

make build

When complete, the Docker image should be available, which can be confirmed using:

docker images

You should see an image named mdb_to_sql.

To run this image, run the below command from the same /docker folder:

make deploy

This will create a docker container named mdb_to_sql_converter, which you should be able to see if you run the command:

docker ps -a

Converting Files

Before converting any files, make sure to add them to the /input_files folder. As this folder is treated as a volume, you may add additional files later and convert them as you go.

To convert a file, the command make convert is used, with a file name supplied (you do not have to add the .mdb extension). An example is shown below for a file named sample.mdb:

make convert file=sample

You will see a number of log entries in the terminal while the conversion is running, but the final two are the most important:

Completed populating all tables
Finished processing sample.mdb

Which will let you know that the process has completed.

Within the mdb_to_sql_converter container you will now have a Postgres database named sample with all your tables and data.

Running Unit Tests

Testing for this project utilises BATS(Bash Automated Testing System) and contains two defined testing streams included, one for testing that a valid mdb file is processed correctly, and another for testing a broken mdb file to ensure it is handled as expected.

The tests can be run from the /docker folder using the following commands:

• Testing a valid file:

test_pass

• Testing an invalid file:

test_errors

make test_pass

• Testing an invalid file:

make test_errors

Removing Container and Images

To remove the project container run the command:

make destroy

To remove the project images:

make remove

Copyright Waterford Institute of Technology 2019-2020, Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG), Author Darren Leniston dleniston@tssg.org

This work is supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 774613, project SOGNO (Service Oriented Grid for the Network of the Future)