On Enforcing Database Constraints Using MS VBA Event Driven Procedures and SQL Server

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to provide a rigorous methodology for enforcing database constraints using MS VBA event-driven procedures for software applications built on top of MS SQL Server databases, in the framework of the software engineering Database Constraint-Driven Design and Development. The original contribution is a pseudo-code algorithm for assisting developers in this process. We exemplify the results of using it with some VBA code examples taken from a genealogy database software application designed and developed using this methodology. Consequently, it enforces all the database constraints -be they relational or not- which govern this sub-universe of discourse, thus guaranteeing the highest possible quality of its managed data. We also show that the proposed algorithm works fine not only for other relational database management systems, but even with NoSQL platform backends, and that the modifications needed to adapt it to other similar SQL embedding frontend platforms are minimal.