Like anyone who builds things, developers need great tools. Back when I first learned the MySQL database, almost everything was done on the command line. There was one GUI tool that I recall, which allowed us to create tables, and some very basic schema stuff, but it was limited. Now, there is a fabulous tool called MySQL Workbench.
The session about this tool consisted mostly of a live demo, which highlighted this tool's great features, and was presented by Sun Microsystems engineer Michael G. Zinner. MySQL Workbench is a cross-platform, visual database design tool developed by MySQL.
MySQL Workbench provides:
- A visual database schema designer tool
- A schema documentation tool
- A schema validation tool
- Automation, sripting, and plug-ins. In addition, you can write your own plug-ins with scripting!
The interface of the MySQL Workbench reminded me a lot of the workspace in the NetBeans IDE. All your drag-and-drop components are in palettes on the right, and they allow you to easily drop tables and other database objects where you want them in the workspace on a 2D canvas. In addition, you can organize your tables with colored layers for easy scanning of database objects and routines, properties, and so forth.
Mousing over any of the tables gives you a short description of the table, including primary keys.
This tool is full of powerful, useful features, but one in particular stuck out at me. You can user User Types to make changes to multiple tables at once. For instance, if you need to change a table from varchar (50) to varchar (30) to 20 different tables, you can do so in one stroke with this feature.
Additionally, this tool allows you to easily define rules, set privileges, and manage users. But MySQL Workbench is full of many more features that I haven't covered, and more are yet to come. MySQL Workbench will also be available for the Linux and Solaris platforms sometime in 2008.
MySQL Workbench is available in two editions. The chart below shows you the differences between the two editions:
MySQL welcomes more developers to contribute to this wonderful tool. If you have an interest in helping identify bugs, make feature requests, or add to code, be sure to check out the MySQL Workbench Developer Central web site.
~Dana Nourie, Sun Microsystems staff writer, java.sun.com