MySQL Workbench helps to visualize your database
I first looked at this tool a number of months ago when it was still in alpha stage. The alpha version didn’t work too well…actually not at all for me. Recently I noticed they were up to release candidate 1 so I decided to give it another try. I had high hopes as I have always found the ability to visualize a database design with all relationships a huge bonus. There are other tools to do this but I was excited to see what MySQL’s official rendition would be like.
I’ve only used it briefly but in my first run through I was impressed. I had an existing MySQL database structure that someone else had built but I was now working on. I knew the basic structure of the site but was having trouble understanding the different relationships between the tables.
At this point I should mention that MySQL Workbench has 2 versions. The first is the open source version which can be freely downloaded and used within GPL restrictions. The 2nd is a commercial version which brings some added functionality for a yearly subscription fee. Unless you’re dealing with enterprise level database design, the open source version should suffice.
I first had to export my database with the MySQL Administrator GUI tool’s backup function. This gave me a single script describing my entire database. Then I fed that file into the “Reverse Engineer MySQL create script” import feature of MySQL Workbench. After trying the “Autoplace object in new diagram” function once I determined it wasn’t really that useful as it just created a huge blob of tables.
Diagrams seem to be the most useful for me. You can create any number of diagrams in a project with different layouts of any of the tables. I decided to create a diagram that specifically showed the relationship of users and their associated data.
MySQL workbench just recently went into GA (General Availability) as a full release. This tool is essential for anyone does any level of database design with MySQL. Two thumbs up!
Subscribe to: