database
I'm starting to write a LaTeX-based reference manual, and have realised that a lot of my needs could be solved by writing a database and then producing the reference manual from that. Lots of my pages will be exactly the same, with slightly different information in them.
Is there a way to link LaTeX to a database, in a similar way to Database Report engines do – so that I can, for example, create a page per record in the database, including each field in different locations on the page?
Nelson Beebe gave a talk at TUG 2009 on using SQL databases for bibliographic purposes as a replacement for BibTeX. The program is bibsql and looks very promising, but I haven't used it myself.
You can read more details and examples in his paper in TUGboat 30(2).
Based on the comments and web search, eventually I came up with a working framework for my purpose which might be useful for others.
Export tab, quick export method, format SQL. Click Go. Your schema will be save as a SQL file.sqlt-graph <sql file name>
sqlt-graph (http://search.cpan.org/dist/SQL-Translator/script/sqlt-graph). One specific example command could be,sqlt-graph --show-datatypes -l dot -n record -f MySQL -t png --graphattr center,margin="0.0,0.0",overlap=false,sep=10,size="20.0,14,0",orientation=landscape --nodeattr fontsize=24,fontname=Helvetica --edgeattr weight=0.05,len=2.0 -o output.png input.sql
This produces a .png file which can be used in LaTeX or anywhere else.
When included in LaTeX, the output looks something like this (partially smudged out to preserve confidentiality).
Best Answer
You may try latexdb. It connects LaTeX to a MySQL database.