Migration of EXCEL-based metadata to an interface in a PostgreSQL database
Brief description
The technical logic for filling an interface with approx. 2000 fields has so far been managed in an EXCEL sheet. The spreadsheet also contains dependencies (realised as formulas) of business processes in the area of life insurance/retirement provision and various target platforms (client/server or host). In addition to the complexity and poor maintainability, exacerbated by the lack of versioning, this requires the transition of data storage to a database. The implementation is realised with complex SQL scripts, both for the transfer of the data and for an export back to EXCEL, which is used, among other things, but not only for testing purposes.
Supplement
The data model has already been realised for the most part, with some adjustments leading to its refinement. The visualisation and processing of the data can be carried out with little effort via an already existing, customer-internal application. For the technical description of the transfer logic, several discussions have to be held with the specialist department, in which the database team also participates to ensure the technical feasibility. The migration is carried out separately for each department. The transfer always takes place on a test database first. The technical department randomly checks the field assignments visually, but also by comparing the original with the Excelexport from the database, until a status that meets all requirements is achieved. Very helpful and effective in this task is the knowledge from other projects in which the affected interface is explicitly populated/called.
Subject description
The metadata for the fields of the interface are used to handle business processes, and the type and scope usually change twice a year. New fields are usually added, but the logic of filling existing fields can also change. After migration, all changes are only made in the client's internal application. The export scripts are also integrated there, as the Excel representation is also used for other purposes.