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<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "-//APACHE//DTD Documentation V2.0//EN" "http://forrest.apache.org/dtd/document-v20.dtd">
<document> 
  <header> 
    <title>Overview</title> 
  </header> 
  <body> 
    <section>
      <title>What is DdlUtils</title>
      <p>
        In short, DdlUtils is both a library and a set of <a href="ext:ant">Ant</a> tasks that allows
        the manipulation of schemas in a database. It allows to create and drop complete databases,
        and the creation, alteration and removal of tables.<br/>
        Additionally, it provides an easy way to insert data that is specified in XML, into a database
        and the reverse, extracting data from a database into an XML file.
      </p>
      <p>
        DdlUtils strives to be database independent. The schemas are specified in the database-agnostic
        Turbine XML format that is for instance also used by <a href="ext:torque">Torque</a> and
        <a href="ext:ojb">OJB</a>.
      </p>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Where to start</title>
      <p>
        There are basically two ways to use  DdlUtils which are explained in these sections:
      </p>
      <ul>
        <li>
          Examples of how to use the <strong>API</strong> are shown
          <a href="site:documentation/api-usage">here</a>. The Javadoc documentation for the API can be
          found <a href="ext:ddlutils/javadoc">here</a>.
        </li>
        <li>
          The <strong>Ant tasks</strong> are explained in detail in
          <a href="ext:ddlutils/antdoc/">this document</a>.
        </li>
      </ul>
    </section>
  </body>
</document>
