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DBeaver – open-source database client

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Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#51

Post by silentsea90 »

staticlibs wrote: post #18

DBeaver works surprisingly nicely with less popular DBs. I work with Babelfish for PostgreSQL [1], it supports connections with SQL Server client libs. Most GUI client tools (like SSMS) expect "real" SQL Server on the other end of the wire - depend on various system views for DB introspection, so only partially work with Babelfish. Even if client tool is based on JDBC (like SQuirell SQL), it doesn't guarantee that th…

They do use JDBC and even allow you to customize your choice of driver version for a db. It is a bit clunky when one has to resolve missing dependencies but that's just how it works I guess.

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#52

Post by Aeolun »

worble wrote: post #37
dfee wrote: post #17

I don’t know why it matters to me, but I’ve always been put off by it being ugly and using non-native widgets. That may be the only reason I’ve paid for TablePlus. I’d probably be fine with a great TUI interface, too. So it’s really this intermediate UI that irritates me.

I find it absolutely baffling how often the prettiness of UI comes up as a HN comment. If you asked me objectively "do you think it's pretty?" I'd probably say no, but never once has this even occurred me when using it since I'm usually just trying to get work done, which I find it very useful for. It's a productivity tool, not an art piece I'm hanging on my wall.

At the same time, I find it more pleasant to use other software. DBeaver does everything I need, but it’s hardly ergonomic.

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#53

Post by al_borland »

worble wrote: post #37
dfee wrote: post #17

I don’t know why it matters to me, but I’ve always been put off by it being ugly and using non-native widgets. That may be the only reason I’ve paid for TablePlus. I’d probably be fine with a great TUI interface, too. So it’s really this intermediate UI that irritates me.

I find it absolutely baffling how often the prettiness of UI comes up as a HN comment. If you asked me objectively "do you think it's pretty?" I'd probably say no, but never once has this even occurred me when using it since I'm usually just trying to get work done, which I find it very useful for. It's a productivity tool, not an art piece I'm hanging on my wall.

Some applications are designed so well, it makes me look for excuses to use them. Other times the good UI makes it faster and easier to get the job done. An ugly UI makes me less likely to want to use an application, and a bad/confusing one makes it harder for me to get the job done, especially if it’s used infrequently.

UI and UX does matter, even when talking about productivity software.

There can also be an element of inspiration and influence. If all my tools are well designed, I’m more likely to set a high bar for whatever I’m building. If I’m using ugly and poorly designed tool. The bar for whatever I’m making will likely drop to the environment I’m around.

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#55

Post by deergomoo »

FpUser wrote: post #28
dfee wrote: post #17

I don’t know why it matters to me, but I’ve always been put off by it being ugly and using non-native widgets. That may be the only reason I’ve paid for TablePlus. I’d probably be fine with a great TUI interface, too. So it’s really this intermediate UI that irritates me.

It is free tool with gobbles of functionality. I use it occasionally and it works great. Whatever set of widgets it uses does not concern me at all. It does what I need and is convenient enough. Maybe it would matter more if I was spending all my work time with it but in reality I use it very occasionally. So thank to the developers. I also use another DB admin tool: HeidiSQL. This one is lightning fast. Most likely…

The default DB tool where I work is Heidi and I switched to DBeaver because I found Heidi to be horrendously unstable. Dozens of random exceptions on a daily basis, and because it’s single-threaded a long-running query will just lock up the entire UI to the point where it triggers the “this program is not responding” dialog on Windows.

A free and open source DB management tool is still an impressive feat, but I absolutely would not trust it with anything where blowing up would have consequences.

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#56

Post by zmmmmm »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #10

I use dbeaver extensively at work. I like that you can graphically edit rows and it will start those changes as a transaction, so you can hit ctrl+s to commit the changes

> I like that you can graphically edit rows and it will start those changes as a transaction, so you can hit ctrl+s to commit the changes

One of my favorite features too. I don't doubt this has saved me from some bad mistakes since you can use a methodology of "select rows to change" and manually set their value, then review, then Save, rather than issuing an update that tries to change them with SQL. For small scale ad hoc maintenance it's great.

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#57

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

ptx wrote: post #36
staticlibs wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DBeaver uses SWT toolkit, its widgets are as platform-native as Java can do. Some of them can be much faster with long text editing than default Java Swing widgets.

Yup, SWT is a wrapper for actual native widgets, similar to wxWidgets. Some widgets are custom though, like the horrendously ugly tab widgets, which might be what the other commenter is reacting to. And the spacing and alignment usually doesn't look great in most SWT-based apps I've seen, for some reason.

At least on Apple platforms, I don’t think SWT uses Apple’s layout algorithms and so you end up with Cocoa controls with slightly wrong spacing

Re: DBeaver – open-source database client

#59

Post by zmmmmm »

I know probably 95% of HN will see it as a downside but one of my favorite things about DBeaver is that because it is implemented on Eclipse you can install nearly any Eclipse plugin and they work. So I installed Vrapper to edit in Vi-mode, some git tools I like, PlantUML, etc. Really makes it a step above other tools in terms of the power and flexibility you can have with it.

Apart from that, you can install it inside regular Eclipse as a plugin, so then you can have your database window and your ER diagram next to your code. Again, something that really sets it apart from dedicated tools.

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