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Chapter 22. Customizing DBDoc Model Reporting Templates
This document aims to provide an overview of creating and modifying DBDoc Model Reporting templates, as used by MySQL
Workbench.
The MySQL Workbench DBDoc Model Reporting system is based on the Google Template System. This document does not attempt
to explain the Google Template System in detail. The Google document How To Use the Google Template System provides
a useful overview of how the Google Template System works.
The templates employed by the DBDoc Model Reporting system are text files that contain Markers. These text files are processed
by the template system built into MySQL Workbench, and the markers replaced by actual data. The output files are then
generated. It is these output files, typically HTML or text, that are then viewed by the user.
Markers can be of six types:
1. Template Include
2. Comment
3. Set delimiter
4. Pragma
5. Variable
6. Section start and Section end
The last two are the most commonly used in MySQL Workbench templates and these important markers will be briefly described
in the following sections.
1. Variables
The use of variables in the templates is straightforward. Any variables denoted by markers in the template file, will be replaced
by their corresponding data, prior to the output file being generated. The mapping between variables and their corresponding
data is stored by MySQL Workbench in what is known as a Data Dictionary. In the data dictionary the variable name
is the key and the variable's corresponding data is the value. The data dicionaries are built by MySQL Workbench and filled
with the data contained in the model being processed.
By way of example, the following code snippet shows part of a template file:
Total number of Schemata: {{SCHEMA_COUNT}}
In the generated output file the variable {{SCHEMA_COUNT}} will be replaced by the number of schemata in the model:
Total number of Schemata: 2
A variable can appear as many times as required in the template file.
2. Sections
Sections are used to perform iteration in the templates. When MySQL Workbench exchanges the variables in a section for
data it will do so iteratively, using all data in the data dictionary in which the variable is defined. MySQL Workbench builds
the data dictionaries according to the model currently being processed.
Again, this is best illustrated by example:
{{#SCHEMATA}}
Schema: {{SCHEMA_NAME}}
{{/SCHEMATA}}
In the previous code snippet the section start is indicated by the {{#SCHEMATA}} marker. The end of the section is indicated
by the {{/SCHEMATA}} marker. When the template is processed, MySQL Workbench will note the section and iterate the
section until the variable data for {{SCHEMA_NAME}} in the corresponding data dictionary is exhausted. For example, if the
model being processed contains two schemata, the output for the section might resemble the following:
Schema: Airlines
Schema: Airports
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