#436 Refactor GUIs for creation and modifying tables and columns

[Anonymous]

Originally created by: a...@anse.de
Originally owned by: a...@anse.de

Reported as bug #1692725 by themarty@sf on 2007-04-02 01:44

I'm a huge fan of mysqlfront 2.5 and have been using it for many years.
During those years i've also tried other GUIs (including the 3.x versions),
but none could match the experience of 2.5 for me.
One thing i don't like too much about 2.5 though (and Heidi has not
improved it), is the interface of creating a new table. Especially having
to switch between the mouse and the keyboard before and after adding the
field name (i know this can be done with tabs, but it requires a lot of
them) annoys me a lot.
Also, the small square box that displays the columns is too small and it is
annoying that when you click the name of a column in a big list (having a
scrollbar on the right), it automatically pushes that column to the bottom
of what is visible in the scrollpane.

It would be much more comfortable to me, if adding columns worked like
adding a row in a table; that way it's easier to add a new column (arrow
down), and walk / skip through the properties of the columns.
Navicat does it in a similar way: maybe you could have a look at it.
Also, an extra option in the bottom that lets you select the default type
would be nice. For example, sometimes you already know that you're going to
add a lot of VARCHAR(255) fields. It would save time and energy if you
didn't have to change the TINYINT(3) with every new column.

Really, i've been using mysqlfront for many years, and almost daily, and to
me this would be a major improvement in GUI comfort.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: rosenfie...@gmail.com

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Labels: -priority-default Severity-Default

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Labels: -migrated

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Paste similar ideas from issue 439:

Reported as bug #1719683 by nobody@sf on 2007-05-15 15:50

Love your program.

I agree with an earlier post on the dropdown for column type.  In the
create table view, I would like to see a matrix of available field types as
radiobuttons.  Its maddening to keep having to click the down button, then
click on scollbar once or twice to get to VARCHAR. 

There are 25 items in this dropdown.  If you could at least set the number
of displayable items to at least 13 so that we wouldn't have to scroll so
much.  It gets very tedious.

Also, maybe a duplicate/clone column, so that we can take an existing
column and replicate it with only changing the column title.

darink@asicomp.com

Summary: Refactor GUIs for creation and modifying tables and fields

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Idea moved from issue 642:

The idea is support Multiline comments (on "* Field Dialog").
Motive: more freedom to write. I per example, write ENUM parameters in
comments. Example:
ENUM: R, Y, N
[R]ead Only
[Y]es
[N]o

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: rosenfie...@gmail.com

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Summary: Refactor GUIs for creation and modifying tables and columns

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Table designer in Navicat: http://mysql.navicat.com/product_popup/win_editTable.html

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Issue 1056 has been merged into this issue.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Related: issue #1062

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

My idea is to create one new dialog which overtakes the jobs of / replaces
- Create table dialog
- Alter table dialog
- Edit/Add field / Index editor
- Table tab on main window

The new dialog will therefore be used to create new tables as well as to alter
existing tables. It also provides easy column editing, index editing, advanced table
options (e.g. row format, union tables etc.) and probably foreign key editing. For a
first impression see the attached image. Feel free to pick some critic here.

Why remove the table tab? The column list you see there is a legacy feature from
older days where MySQL supported tables but no views, routines or whatever. Now that
HeidiSQL has support for views and routines, these new objects don't have their own
tab, but there is one for tables - this is getting inconsistent. If you select a
* stored routine and see the "Sorry no editing possible here"
* view and try to edit (readonly!) column properties
you'll know what I mean.

So we move table creation into a new, dialog - a kind of universal solution for all
different objects.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: rosenfie...@gmail.com

Looks very nice!

Comments:
- 'unsigned' belongs together with (next to) 'data type'
- 'length' is irrelevant for integer columns, mysqld ignores it
- 'auto_increment' is a form of default value, merge into 'default'
- the table 'collation' should be 'default collation', and likely live in 'Options'

For future consideration:
- missing a 'row format' setting for each column
- missing a 'dependencies' tab for foreign keys
- 'allow null' is a constraint; there can be more than one constraint on a column
so this should be placed (duplicated) on a 'Constraints' tab
- (foreign key references with integrity checks enabled should also be duplicated
on 'Constraints'.)
- (indexes with the unique flag enabled, including the primary key, should also be
duplicated on 'Constraints'.)
- (CHECK constraints, if part of the CREATE TABLE statement, should be placed on
the 'Constraints' tab.  MySQLd parses stuff like "CHECK (id > 5)" in CREATE TABLE,
but MyISAM ignores it - not sure if it's saved in the table definition or not.)
- missing a 'storage' tab for advanced engine options (partitioning)

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

Issue 1081 has been merged into this issue.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

First step done in [r2410]

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by: a...@anse.de

(No comment was entered for this change.)

Status: Fixed