Test Blog
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September 10, 2024
A digital crisis escalated to a total disaster which could have been prevented with a database IDE.
A lone SQL developer named Andrey works in a fast-growing tech company in a bustling city. He’s really good at coding. He knows his stuff when it comes to working in a multi-database environment.
But he likes to work in an old-fashioned way. No fancy IDEs and visual stuff for him.
He got through thick or thin with just the CLI. His favorite text editor and his memory are his not-so-secret weapon.
And that’s the problem.
One day, the company decided to upgrade its entire database system. They tasked Andrey with migrating data from multiple sources, optimizing queries, and ensuring smooth deployment. But the timeline is a bit tight. Andrey, confident in his skills, got to work. But without the modern conveniences of a database IDE, things quickly went off the rails.
Since the schedule is tight, quality has been compromised. To make matters worse, users got frustrated with the moving deadline. So, the outcome is what Andrey didn’t expect. His boss decided to bring in a new team, one that embraced modern database IDEs.
Andrey needs to reconsider his approach. So, he realized that traditional methods had their charm. But modern problems need modern solutions. And that’s where database IDEs will come to play.
Meet dbForge Edge
The new team that Andrey’s boss brought during the crisis used dbForge Edge – a suite of database IDEs for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and Oracle.
dbForge Edge is like a Swiss Army knife for database work. It has a bunch of modern database tools packed into one convenient suite. From design to development to administration and even reporting and analysis, it got you covered. Here’s a breakdown of some of the features that make it appealing to the team:
• The Database Explorer for managing connections, databases, tables, and other database objects.
• Visual Table and Query Designer for designing tables and queries.
• The Data Generator for populating tables with millions of test data.
• Integrated Debugger for troubleshooting SQL scripts.
• Data Import and Export tools.
• Schema and Data Comparison tool that helps in updating databases in production.
• User, Session, and Security Manager for managing database activity and server security.
• Backup and Restore tools.
But in this post, we would like to highlight the following 5 cool features in the next sections:
♦ Visual Database Designer
♦ Database Projects for SQL Database Development
♦ Top-Notch SQL Editor
♦ The Query Profiler for tuning database and query performance.
♦ Automation tools for repetitive database tasks
Using dbForge Edge is like having all these tools for four major database brands in one handy package. It makes database work simpler and more efficient. So, you can focus on building and maintaining great databases without getting overwhelmed.
The 5 Database IDE Perks of dbForge Edge
dbForge Edge takes database design and development to the next level with cutting-edge visual tools. Five of these are detailed below.
So, let’s begin.
1. The Database IDE for Visual Database Design
Visual database design is like drawing a blueprint for your database. Instead of typing many lines of code to create tables and relationships, you use a graphical interface to visually design your database structure. So, it’s easier to understand and manage, even for data experts who are not involved in the initial design.
Andrey could have seen a better view of his target database in MySQL and some of his data sources in SQL Server with the help of a visual database designer.
dbForge Edge helps in visual database design by providing a user-friendly interface where you can drag and drop objects to create your database. Here’s how it works:
Drag and Drop Tables
With dbForge Edge, you can drag and drop existing tables from the Database Explorer onto a canvas. You can also create a new table or other database objects from there.
Connect Tables with Relationships
You can easily connect tables with relationships, like “one-to-many” or “one-to-one”. It’s the same as creating foreign keys through code. This defines how the data in one table relates to the data in another. One example is linking a movie or film to its actors, categories, and long descriptions.
See a sample below:
Define Columns and Constraints
Along with the Table Designer, you can add columns and define their attributes, like data type, defaults, and more. You can also add constraints like primary keys or unique constraints. This ensures data integrity and helps enforce business rules.
Visualize the Entire Structure
As you design your database, you can see the entire structure visually on the canvas. This makes it easy to understand how different tables are related and how data flows through the system. Andrey could have evaded the foreign key violations earlier if he had a graphical view of the database design.
Overall, visual database design with dbForge Edge simplifies database creation and maintenance. It’s a better approach that helps you do this even if you don’t know the exact Data Definition Language (DDL) syntax in SQL.
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2. The Database IDE for Database Projects
If you’re a full-stack developer, you probably use project files to manage your app development. Your apps also have databases linked to them.
So, should you also use database projects?
A database project is like a working area for organizing and managing database-related files and activities. The purpose is the same as app projects and solution files. And dbForge Edge has a project framework to manage all your SQL scripts for tables, stored procedures, functions, and more.
Here are the plus points of using database projects for a database or a full-stack developer:
Organization and Structure
A database project helps you keep all your related files in one place. These include all your scripts, queries, stored procedures, and other database objects. The folder organization makes it easier to manage your work and find what you need quickly.
See a sample below showing tables in a database project:
Version Control Integration
With database projects, you can integrate version control systems like Git. This allows you to track changes, work collaboratively, and roll back if needed. It’s especially helpful for teamwork and maintaining a clear project history.
Below is a sample showing conflicts in a MySQL database project:
Andrey could have managed changes in his scripts more reliably if he used a database IDE like dbForge Edge with Source Control capability for MySQL and SQL Server.
Deployment and Automation
Database projects often include deployment tools. It lets you automate the process of updating or deploying your database changes. This can save time and reduce the risk of manual errors when moving from development to production.
Consistency Across Environments
When you work within a database project, you can be sure of consistency across different environments. Be it in development, testing, and production. This helps you maintain a stable workflow and reduces the risk of unexpected issues during deployment.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Database projects promote teamwork by providing a shared space for all project-related items. This makes it easier for team members to collaborate, share code, and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Documentation and References
You can include documentation, comments, and other references within your database project. This makes it easier to maintain the project over time. It ensures that old and new team members understand the design and structure.
3. The Database IDE with Top-Notch SQL Editor
Andrey loves SQL coding but he does it in a plain text editor. Because of this, he’s missing out on several key productivity boosters that will level up his coding experience. Here are some of the coding power-ups he missed during his project ordeal:
Syntax Highlighting
Syntax highlighting makes your SQL code easier to read by colorizing different elements like keywords, functions, and strings. Without it, your code appears in black and white only or some other color combinations. This makes it hard to spot errors and understand the structure.
Code Suggestions
Code suggestions, also known as code completion or IntelliSense, provide helpful prompts as you type, suggesting keywords, table names, column names, and functions based on context. This reduces coding time because you don’t need to remember the exact syntax.
Known database IDEs have this feature. But dbForge Edge is above the rest in this category in my experience. It not only suggests the next keyword, column, or alias. It also suggests possible joins making it faster to code. Most of the time, it guesses my intended join because of the foreign keys I added. And it always works and does not cause more CPU or RAM usage.
See a sample of what I mean below:
Auto-Completion
Auto-completion automatically completes partially typed words or phrases. It saves you keystrokes and reduces typing errors. It’s like having a virtual assistant that predicts what you’re trying to type and fills it in for you. It reduces the guesswork and syntax errors making you more code productive.
For example, you want to add an INNER JOIN after the FROM clause. Instead of letting you type the whole thing, just type ‘I’. Then, complete the clause by selecting INNER JOIN. Another is typing a few letters of a known function. Below is an example in PostgreSQL to auto-complete the CURRENT_TIMESTAMP function:
Error Highlighting
dbForge Edge will highlight syntax errors and potential issues in your code, so you can catch mistakes as you type. Without this feature, you might miss errors until you run your code. And that is bad because it leads to longer debugging cycles.
Since Andrey only used a plain text editor, the errors emerged after he ran his scripts.
Code Formatting
IDEs often include tools for automatically formatting your code according to predefined standards or your preferences. This ensures consistency and readability across your codebase. It also helps in team database development to have a consistent format that is agreeable to the entire team.
Some IDEs will let you use one or two formatting options. But dbForge Edge has a configurable formatting engine that you can use and change to your liking. See a sample below:
Navigation and Refactoring
dbForge Edge offers features for navigating large codebases, like code outlining and bookmarking. It also provides code refactoring, making it easier to make changes without introducing errors. Refactoring works on variables and table columns. Here’s a sample of an Oracle code refactoring in dbForge Edge:
As a takeaway, upgrading to a feature-rich database IDE can top up your productivity and overall coding experience. Using dbForge Edge will not feel like another IDE with a different face. Instead, it will feel like an upgraded IDE, and you don’t want to come back to your old tool.
4. The Database IDE with Performance Tuning Tools
If you don’t have performance tuning tools like the Query Profiler in dbForge Edge, you’re missing out on speed boosters to optimize your SQL queries. Here’s what you’re missing:
Analyzing Query Execution Plans
One way to examine query execution plans is through EXPLAIN. You have that in MySQL and PostgreSQL. Meanwhile, you can use dbms_xplan for Oracle and SET SHOWPLAN_XML ON in SQL Server. There are also tools from their respective vendors that output a graphical execution plan.
The Query Profiler in dbForge Edge also provides execution plans for your SQL queries. Whether it’s MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or even MariaDB, it got you covered. It also provides the values for session variables that impact performance. This allows you to see which parts of the query are taking the most time and identify opportunities for optimization. There’s more as you read below.
Monitoring Resource Usage
The Query Profiler provides query costs or resource usage, such as CPU, memory, and disk I/O. This helps you understand the impact of your queries on system resources and identify potential issues that could be affecting performance.
Optimizing Indexes
The Query Profiler helps you identify missing indexes, unused indexes, or indexes that could be optimized to speed up query execution. If the database query optimizer used a table scan instead of an index seek, you will know through a graphical execution plan or an EXPLAIN table result.
Below is a graphical execution plan of a SQL Server query with a missing index warning:
Testing Query Modifications and Performance Impact
The dbForge Edge Query Profiler remembers different execution plans so you can compare them as you edit your queries or add/remove indexes. Below is an example of a comparison of different UPDATE approaches. The lower the logical reads and the shorter execution time means it’s the faster query.
In summary, the Query Profiler in dbForge Edge is important to improve database performance. Without this tool, you may struggle to pinpoint performance issues. And you may not be able to achieve optimal performance for your database applications.
5. The Database IDE for Automating Repetitive Database Tasks
dbForge Edge has automation features that will simplify database tasks you do repeatedly. These database tasks include:
Backup and Restore
Having a database backup is one of the best practices in data management. You can use backups in case of corruption and other anomalies. Then, you can restore them and you’re back in business. You can automate the backup process instead of manually doing this routine task.
Below is a sample of the database backup using the Command Line. The output file can be scheduled to run regularly using an external scheduler, like the Windows Task Scheduler.
Import and Export
At times, you may need to import or export data regularly for data integration purposes. When these happen, you can save a command that you can schedule to run routinely.
Below is a sample screenshot of the export wizard when choosing the tables to export:
And below is automating the same thing:
Schema and Data Comparison
Handling database changes is tricky if done manually. Regular checks of database structure ensure the design is intact as you intended it. No unauthorized changes are allowed. Data as system configuration needs the same treatment. Automating all these can prove to be a timesaver.
Below is an example of generating the Command Line Schema Comparison. This will create a batch file that can be scheduled to run.
Automation can streamline database development tasks by up to 50% depending on your team dynamics. So, you can focus on enhancements and high-priority requests instead of repetitive tasks.
Takeaways
While hand-coding every bit of SQL command is still a cool skill to have, the modern landscape needs more. Doing that in a fast-paced working environment won’t cut it to meet your deadlines without sacrificing completeness and quality. The modern features in dbForge Edge will make the design and development of databases meet these demands.
Seeing dbForge Edge for the first time, Andrey realized what he was missing. He now embraces this modern database IDE and planning to fully utilize it in his next database adventure.
How about you?
Did you have the same struggle as Andrey? Why not try dbForge Edge today and see for yourself why many users admire this database IDE. Download a free trial copy on Devart’s website.
