Musings from The Software Underground

This is the second in a series of previews of SQLGrinder 2. This time, we're previewing the new schema browser. The two biggest changes from the first version of SQLGrinder are 1) the method of browsing, and 2) the addition of many new tools for manipulating your schemas.

Browsing - The new schema browser will use a combination of an outline view hierarchy on the left and a table of elements on the right, rather than the old browser widget from the previous version. This speeds browsing, and allows you to focus on what's important, the main schema elements, like tables, procedures, etc.

Additionally, the schema browser also will feature a search field in the toolbar for searching elements, allowing you to quickly find elements from a large list, the same way you can in many other Mac applications.

Other Toolbar Tools - The new schema browser will have new tools that allow you to build, drop, truncate and alter tables easily. Want to drop a table? Select the table and just press the "Drop Table" tool. Pretty easy. There will also be new tools for importing and exporting table data as well.

The "New Table" tool will bring up a table builder that will help create new tables and views, letting you easily define the columns and indexes.

The Data Table - The old data table has also been redone. It will no longer load when you switch tabs, but will load and refresh on demand instead. It will also use real SQL to edit and delete rows of tables with primary keys, rather than going through JDBC, which will make things much faster and more compatible.

Like the elements of the table, you will also be able to search the data in the table, using the data table search field.

So there you have it, a sneak preview of another one of the features redesigned for SQLGrinder 2, the new schema browser. Stay tuned, hopefully next week I'll be able to post a sneak preview of the new SQL editor.