After a year of use, a few requests

[elliotonehouse]

I’ve been using SQLyog for a little over a year now, and there are a few things that I still would like to see. Surely some of these are planned for your release of SQLyog Max (that mythical creature). Apologies if these are redundant suggestions:

1. The ability to open multiple connections in the same window, separated by a tabbed interface

2. The ability to click on a table or column name in the db browser and drag it to the sql editor – while kind of a small thing, this would be a huge typing time saver

3. I’d like to see record row numbers in the results window. Again, a small thing, but it really helps when trying to eye-ball the number of results.

4. Integrated, searchable sql functions reference, like phped has for the php language – while all of the php documentation is available online, I’ve really found this to be a very useful feature in phped.

5. It would be really useful to be able to easily control the order of table fields with the alter table interface, maybe by just adding “move field up” and “move field down” buttons at the bottom.

6. Although I’ve mentioned this before on this message board, I’ll bring it up again: I would love to see a forms generation and management toolset added to SQLyog. I use the “Insert/Update Data…” interface quit a bit, and while it provides basic functionality for data entry and editing, there really is something to be said for a nicely organized gui form with fields like select menus populated with data from other tables. It would be a huge timesaver to have this in SQLyog. (This is the only thing I miss from my Access days.)

7. I’d like more control over the format of the HTML generated by the export feature. I find myself doing a lot of quick database reports in this fashion for my clients. Right now, I have a chunk of CSS that I throw into the file before emailing off the resulting HTML. But it occurred to me that it would be handy to be able to create a template or two, which I could select as a part of the export options.

8. Finally, I’d like to have more control over the SQL color coding in the editor window.

[CalEvans]

I agree with 1 & 2. Those would be great features.

I'm confused by #3 as MySQL does not have the concept of Row Numbers. (Like Access or FoxPro do) The only thing I can think that would be analogous to what you are asking is if they put the row number of the grid that is displaying. If they do that I hope they make it an option as it's not something I particularly want to see.

#4. MySQL has a Windows help file you can download. (It's not nearly as good or complete as the PHP one but it's a start)

=C=

[elliotonehouse]

Hi CalEvans,

About #3:

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I think you get what I mean. Currently, when I want to view the row numbers for a recordset, I do something like the following:

SET @rowNum = 0;

SELECT @rowNum := @rowNum+1 as “#”, colOne, colTwo FROM myTable;

While I don't find the readout of the rownum useful all the time, it does come in handy frequently, and it is something I like about other database gui's. It doesn't take up very much space in the results screen. Do your misgivings about this feature involve screen real estate, or something else?

In any case, perhaps this would be good as an option, as you suggest, which you could activate by clicking a checkbox in the preferences panel.

About #4:

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I know. And you can also just go to the MySQL website and use their wonderful search feature to find what your looking for in their extensive documentation. At face value this feature doesn't sound terribly necessary. That's what I thought about the php functional reference in phped, but, as it turns out, I find that I use it all of the time. There is something really useful about having the information available in the same active window. At least it has helped my workflow quite a bit.

[Ritesh]

I have forwarded all your suggestions to my development team.

#2 and #3 is actually planned for v4.1. #5 can be done using Table->Reorder Columns…. As of now we dont have any plans to implement #6 before SQLyog Max.

Can you explain #7 a little more? An example will be great.

About #4

Have you tried Edit->Insert Templates…?

[Shadow]

If you have MySql 4.1, then #4 is pretty much solved: just type “HELP ” in the SQL command window and MySql will return a short explanation.

[elliotonehouse]

About # 7: HTML export templates

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I currently have three clients that I do quick database reports like this for with some regularity. Ideally, I would like to be able to set up a template for each of these clients. Nothing too terribly fancy, just some basic color scheming, the client’s logo (images, of course, would be referenced absolutely to a live server on the net), a place for a page header, and a place for the current date. In practice, this could work much like a SMARTY template file, with the html template containing certain “place content here” variables in the appropriate places. (e.g. {$date}, {$heading}, {$records}, etc.). Once the template is complete and placed in the appropriate directory, SQLyog will offer it up as a template option during the export as html process. Once the template is chosen, and the export button clicked, SQLyog will take the HTML produced by MySQL and parse it into the chosen template file.

About # 6: Forms Toolset

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Fair enough. However, just as a thought: It occurred to me that this might be a good feature to offer as a separately sold plug in, maybe offered in the $30-50 price point. I’d certainly pay as high as $50 to have an integrated forms toolset.

About # 5: Ordering Table Columns

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Right on! Thanks, Ritesh. I didn't realize this feature existed.

About # 4: Functional Reference

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Thanks, Shadow! I didn’t know MySQL 4.1 offered that feature. That will help. However, I often find myself in a situation where I am looking to format or operate on field, and while I assume there is a function or set of functions that can help me out, I don’t know their names. So, if I am trying to work on a string value, I go to the MySQL ref manual online and do a search for “string”. Usually this does the trick, and I am able to find what I am looking for. But, the cool thing about the functional reference in PHPed is that the functions are organized into categories in a functional browser with headings like “string”, “integer”, etc. So, if I don’t know the name of the function, I can just click on “string” and read all of the possibilities.

[Shadow]

HELP “string functions” or “numeric functions” will do the trick… You can do various category searches, these two were only examples. I tend to refer to this help more and more often!

[elliotonehouse]

Hey, that's a huge help! Sweet. Thanks again for the info, Shadow.

[Shadow]

😀

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