Utah Graphic Artists Forum

Product Review: DBVisualizer 7

I finally got my hands on a copy of the DBVisualizer. I have been ready to try version 7 out for a long time. It has some new features that I am really excited to try out. I have not used the product since version 5; yet, there are some killer things that I wanted to try out. I have been looking for a db tool that has some great Object management, searching and Graphing capabilities.

First, let me talk a little about what has prompted me to get my hands on this great tool. DBVisualizer is a database tool that is written in Java and can run on various platforms; meaning I can run it on windows, linux and mac – and I do. It is fantastic to have a tool that I can run on all three and use it daily for all my database development. I do a lot of database development with a few different databases. As I work on mulitple databases, I find it difficult to move between different tools to perform similar tasks. Currently, I am working with the following databases: Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Sqlite. I do, every once in a while, access MS SQL Server and DB2. It is rare, but the occasion does arise. What I find frustrating is to have tools for each one or running stuff on the command line all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love the command line, yet I do my job is a lot easier when I have one tool to handle all the different databases that I work with on a daily basis. For this reason, I have been eager to give DBVisualizer a spin.

When I first started up DBVisualizer it was great to have database drivers already configured for me. That was one of the issues with previous version that they did not come with some preconfigured drivers that would allow me to get my database connections up and going. It was very easy to get MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite up and running. I did have to get Oracle configured (that might be an issue with Oracle that it does not come pre-configured due to restrictions on the bundling the driver with the product). Either way I got it installed and configured.

One new feature that I throughly enjoy is the concept of profiles for each database type. For example, there is a profile for MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite. This allows me to custom tailer my connections for my database types or I can have it use the auto detection to decide which one to use. I wish I had all the time to go into the other options that can be configured with the connection. There are setting for the type of connection with regards to the type of database I am working with: development, test, or production. I can also configure any JDBC options as well. The connection hooks come in handy for anything that I need to run right when the connection is made and when the connection is going to be disconnected. There are tons of other configuration items; you just have to check it out for yourself.

I really like the additional of folders in the Database Tab. This has allowed me to organize my databases into folders and groups. I like to put all my database types in a specific folder. The Scripts Tab has really been useful for storing all my scripts that I tend to run over and over again. The Favorites Toolbar is a great addition for all my databases that I constantly access throughout the day.
For some the Query Builder might be a one feature that is amazing. For me, I am not a big fan of the Query Builder; it is there for the using and it works great. For some, this might be just the thing that you need for your database development work.

Another great feature that I have come to enjoy is the References Graph that can generate a graph based on the references between your tables. This has really helped me out to see a representation of the database in a nice simple graph, which I can then export or print.

Sometimes as I am designing the database I need to do many different administrative tasks on the databases. DBVisualizer offers various actions that allow me to perform these tasks and they are accessed at different levels depending on the database object type that I am working with. These actions have really saved me time exporting and restoring a database.

Another new feature that I wanted to check out was the Procedure Editor. I tried it out on creating some MySQL procedures and only felt that it lacked in the debugging of a procedure. That is it! It provides a clean and intuitive interface for creating functions and procedures. It is fantastic to use the same tool for creating functions and stored procedures in different databases. Then I was able to execute that code and test it out. I wish that it had line by line debugging of the procedure as that would save me some time and effort of some of the code that I was writing.

Overall, I have been very impressed with DBVisualizer. The product is clean, stable and allows me to accomplish my tasks regardless of the database that I am connected with. There are a few items that I would love to see added to the product. Namely procedure debugging and integration with a content repository system like svn, cvs and or git. I have some projects that are database ones and it would be nice to work with them as a project instead of just opening files up and running the contents. Since this is a java based project and it uses JDBC drives, I would love to see some integration with some of the new cloud databases like CouchDB or some of the new ones coming out. That might already be in the works for the next version; just a thought.

• thebigdog
• 0 responses
•  Reviews

UPHPU Meeting Thursday 7pm | phpFundamentals topic – Cookies & Sessions in PHP | mainTopic – PHP + Business | specialPresentation – Stackable.com

Our meeting will be on thursday, feb 18, 2010 at 7pm. Location and map below.

mainPresentation – Sales 101: The Basics – Daniel Crookston
An overview of a handful of simple sales techniques you can use to schedule more sales calls, win more contracts, and ultimately earn more money. The skills we’ll be focusing on include turning a cold call (whether incoming or outgoing) into an appointment, helping the people you meet with to feel comfortable giving you their business, and negotiating for a better price once they have agreed to purchase your services.

phpFundamentals presentation – Cookies & Sessions in PHP.
For this month’s beginners PHP presentation, the topic will be Cookies & Sessions in PHP. The purpose of Cookies and Sessions and where to implement them into your website. We’ll cover how to use them, as well as some common mistakes that new developers can make.
Presented by Justin Carmony

specialPresentation – Stackable.com
Xmission will be coming out to present to us on what stackable.com is and how it works for you. They will be answering your questions.

Dan Crookston – About the Main Presenter
Dan has been programming since he was very young, and programmed professionally for 7 years in PHP. He realized pretty quickly that sales was going to be a big part of being successful, so he took some sales classes and did a lot of studying.
Recently he took a full time sales position to get more experience in a sales-only environment and to have an opportunity to learn from people who sell full time. They should feel free to contact me. My email address is dcrookston@gmail.com.

Utah PHP Users Group
Meeting Thursday, Feb 18 at 7pm
12393 Gateway Park Place Suite 600
uphpu.org

After hours party at Applebees 8:45pm at Applebees in Draper

• mindjuju
• 0 responses
•  Announcements, Presentations

RTFM and Basic Linux Server Administration

For our January meeting, Justin Carmony will cover PHP fundamentals with a presentation on reading the fabulous manual. For a new person to PHP, reading the documentation can be a daunting task. Even worse when you have legions of other developers screaming the acronym “RTFM!” Hopefully we can shed some light on how to get the most out of PHP Documentation, how to search it, how to understand it, and how to get help if the documentation doesn’t answer your questions. Justin Carmony will be giving the presentation, and will leave time for questions. You’re not alone in learning PHP, let the Utah PHP Usergroup help you.

Justin Carmony has worked in web development professionally for the last
five years. With emphasis on PHP, .NET, and Web Services, he has worked on
projects ranging from simple websites to complex communications between
thousands of remote systems. He currently is working as an independent
contractor & private consultant. If you have any questions, comments, or
curiosities you can contact him (justin AT justincarmony DOT com) or read
about his latest endeavors at his blog.

Trevor Sharpe will then follow with Basic Linux Server Administration, covering the advanced topic. Many programmers are finding themselves needing to understand and administer linux servers. This presentation is focused on learning how to effectively use the server through scripts, etc. Q & A session on admining to follow.

Trevor Sharpe is a Systems Administrator for a company in SLC and is also a board member for Utah Open Source.

• wade
• 3 responses
•  Presentations

A new year, a new start, and a new way to do things

Being in my seat, I’ve heard from many people over the course of this past year who have lost / changed employment. I know there is concern by many who are employed as to what will happen long term. The reality of the matter is this, though. Recession or no, change happens and the best way to be ready for it is to have a great skill set. To that end, we are
restructuring the way our meetings will be.

New Meeting Structure

We will be splitting our PHP meetings into 2 parts. First part is basic skills / best practices training. This is for you new guys who want to learn, but don’t know where to start. This section is called PHP fundamentals and will be hosted by Justin Carmony. He and I are working on some printed materials and are ramping this up as we speak. We also have several very senior and tenured members who are VERY friendly to questions. The second portion of our meeting will be a more advanced topic that will be of benefit to intermediate / advanced members, but will still be of great benefit to those who are new.

Still Social!

For those interested in the social aspect of our meeting, we still have the famous UPHPU Afterhours party.

Resources

As far as learning resources, Ray Hunter and I are working on having books available at our meetings. While we will have some fun / zany way of handing out the books, there is an understood condition of receiving the book. You MUST write a review of the book and post it online. If you don’t want to write a review, don’t take the book. I will be breaking arms on this!

Online Resources

I know that our recordings have been sporadic. i’m working on allocating more time to this.

• mindjuju
• 0 responses
•  Announcements

Read boolean HTML attributes with jQuery

After much testing, I have concluded that in order to use jQuery with boolean attributes (and have it work in the big four browsers), the following markup must be used: checked=”checked”.

While browsers except any of the following…

checked
checked=""
checked="true"
checked="1"
checked="checked"

…only the last option works with jQuery in all browsers.

• wade
• 1 response
•  Code

Display 12, read/write 24 TimePicker jQuery plugin

Jason Huck’s jQuery TimePicker plugin didn’t work for me as-is since it reads and writes in 12-hour format. While most people (strangely) prefer 12 hour format for interacting with, database time fields are 24 hour. I could have converted the format with scripting on the back-end but decided I would prefer to have the picker display 12-hour but read/write 24-hour. So, I took Jason’s great design and rewrote it to suite my needs.

Other changes I made were adding a colon between the hour and the minute select lists, adding a space between the minute and the am/pm list, and changed the hours and minutes arrays such that the hours no longer have leading zeros and the minutes are every five instead of every fifteen.

I have intergrated tomsalfield (issue 3) and jasonalanharris’ (issue 5) changes as well.

My version of the script can be found in the issue tracker on the Google Code project for the plugin. Here’s a screenshot of it in use next to a date field:

• wade
• 0 responses
•  Code

40% off PHP titles through Wiley Publishing

Spreading a little Christmas cheer, Wiley Publishing has offered our group 40% on the following PHP titles. Please use promo code PHPH1. Offer valid from December 15th, 2009-January 31st, 2010. read more »

• wade
• 1 response
•  Announcements

Methods for Mockups: A Geek’s Guide to Design

For our November meeting, Velda Harper Christensen will present on fundamental concepts that won’t replace your designer, but will help bridge the gap between logic and aesthetics. Velda is a designer, blogger, mother, geek, and full-time student. As usually, after hours party to follow!

We are also running a tech book drive to assist those who are just starting to learn web programming! You and I both know you’re not using those HTML books anymore! bring them in and let somebody else benefit from something collecting dust on your shelf! Bring in what you can, HTML, JavaScript, etc, I promise it’ll go to good use.

• mindjuju
• 2 responses
•  Announcements, Presentations

Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL, and Apache by Julie Melonie

As you can guess from the title, this book is a primer geared towards beginning AMP developers. I’ve probably read half a dozen books like this over the last year, and this is one of the best I’ve seen.

Melonie is the Technical Director at i2i Interactive in Los Altos, Callifornia, and has written 8 books on web development topics, mostly centered around PHP and MySQL. This book assumes no previous knowledge of PHP or MySQL. The only real requirement is a working knowledge of HTML. Melonie explains the material in a clear, non-intimidating fashion which makes it truly accessible to anyone. She does a good job of explaining concepts that are often difficult for new programmers (such as objects), and gives plenty of examples to illustrate.

One thing that’s missing from a lot of other introductory books is the Apache piece. I like that this book dedicates some time to Apache besides just the usual cursory overview of how to install it. Melonie explains what you need to know about the Apache configuration file, and covers some useful topics like implementing virtual hosting and setting up a secure web server.

Final word: I can definitely recommend this book as a good starter for anyone wanting to get their feet wet in AMP development. It could probably even serve as a refresher for more experienced developers, or a reference for anyone.

• brawlins
• 0 responses
•  Reviews

Post to group through Google Wave

I have created a Google Group for us so that you may “wave” to everyone in the group via Google Wave. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a pretty URL or email address because they were already used and Google has a lame rule that they can only be used once, even if the previous instance has been deleted (which was by me, which makes it even more lame).

Visit the Google Group home page for more information. Join the group and then add the address “utahphp@googlegroups.com” to your Google Contacts list. You can then add the group address to new waves and everyone will have access to it.

Note that Wave will bark that that user does not have a valid Wave account when you try to add it. Ignore that and simply strike the return key and the address will be added to your contact list.

• wade
• 0 responses
•  Announcements