The MySQL Control Center (also
known as MySQLCC) is a platform-independent GUI administration client for
the MySQL database server. It uses Trolltech’s QT toolkit and
can be compiled to run on a variety of platforms including Windows and
Unix variants.
(Please refer to the MySQL Control Center Returns 1000 Rows article if you are searching for help about
how to change the default behaviour of returning only 1000 records).
Please note that MySQL have ceased development work on the MySQL
Control Center to concentrate on development of the MySQL Administrator
and MySQL Query Browser. I will create a review of these products at some
point in the coming weeks.
I have mainly been using phpMyAdmin to administer databases on
the web and in development on my laptop, but after doing a lot of recent
work with Microsoft SQL Server which has a nice easy to use GUI, was
starting to find a web based interface somewhat cumbersome. After a quick
search on Google I discovered MySQL have actually created their own
cross-platform GUI tool which is very nice to use.
The Control Center makes it easy to administer MySQL when you are
either running MySQL on your local computer or when it can be connected to
remotely on a network (generally a website database won’t have a port open
to the world so you’ll need to use a tool like phpMyAdmin instead, as you most
likely won’t be able to connect to it with the Control Center).
There are many benefits in using the MySQL Control Center over a web
based tool like phpMyAdmin: it supports syntax highlighting, so that table
names, column names and sql keywords are highlighted; it’s a lot faster;
you don’t need a webserver installed; you can save the query you are
currently working on as a text file; you can select one query among
several within the query textbox and just run that. The list of advantages
goes on. I only wish I had started using this tool sooner!
First up (after installing it,
of course), you need to register a server. The screenshot below shows
editing a server’s properties. Note that these screenshots are from the
control center running on my Linux/KDE laptop. You can select from a
variety of themes to make it look just like you want (I chose the liquid
theme, as that’s how my other KDE apps look)
Registering a
server in the MySQL Control Center
You simply enter the MySQL server’s hostname, your login details and
away you go. There are other configuration options available but to get
started that’s really all you need.
The MySQL Control Center
Manager
This screenshot shows the list of databases installed, and when you
open up a database branch you can see all the tables that belong to it.
Selecting a table shows the fields and assocated information in right
pane.
Running a query with the
MySQL Control Center Manager
Clicking a table or running a custom query in the query window will
look similar to the above screenshot. You can hit the
"F2" key to type in your own query which will be syntax
highlighted. The right pane has a list of columns that were returned by
the query; simply tick or untick the column names to add or remove them
from the result set. To sort the result set in a different order, there’s
no need to run the query again specifying the order; simply click the
column header and it will sort the cached data in that order. Note that by
default the MySQL Control Center returns a maximum of 1000 rows at a time,
and that reordering will only reorder the 1000 cached records. (For more
information about how to change this default, or return more than 1000
records in a one-off query, refer to the MySQL Control
Center Returns 1000 Rows article).
Editing a
table’s structure using the MySQL Control Center
It’s easy to modify the structure of a table using the MySQL Control
Center. The screenshot above shows the window for adding and modifying
fields and indexes etc.