Getting Started and General Overview

 DbVisualizer Logo
DbVisualizer 4.0.3 (Free and Personal editions)
January 2004 		http://www.dbvis.com
support@dbvis.com

[ Master documentation index ]

Introduction

This document is worth reading for all new users as it explains the installation process, resources and how the application is organized.

Note: All screen shots throughout the users guide refer to the DbVisualizer Personal edition. The screen shots also use the Alloy look and feel and the IconExperience.com icon collection.

Installing

Installing DbVisualizer is a straight forward task. The installation procedure is performed using a graphical application and it is just a matter of answering the questions that are displayed. Follow the instructions at the Minq Software web site how to start the installation specifically for your platform.

Installation structure

The installer and launcher for DbVisualizer is based on the "InstallAnywhere Now!" software from www.zerog.com. The structure of the installation directory contains the following. (The content may differ slightly between platforms):

dbvis
dbvis.lax
DbVisualizer-4.0.2_InstallLog.log
doc/
lax.jar
lib/
README.txt
resources/
UninstallerData/
wrapper/

There is basically nothing in this directory that is of general interest except the dbvis file which is used to start DbVisualizer. The dbvis.lax file contains a lot of properties that are used by the dbvis launcher once it's started. This file controls, in addition to InstallAnywhere specific settings, a few pre-defined properties that are passed to the Java VM. Values for existing properties can be changed and new ones can be added in the following format.

property=value

The above is the same as passing the -Dproperty=value argument to the java executable.

The InstallAnywhere software relies on a range of different properties. For more information sett the LAX Properties section in the InstallAnywhere documentation.

DbVisualizer interprets the following properties in addition to the properties defined by InstallAnywhere. Bold names indicate that a property is in the dbvis.lax file by default and may not be removed.

Property
 Description
dbvis.wrapperdir=DBVIS-HOME/wrapper/classes Specifies the name of the wrapper directory which is used to load classes that will not appear in the lax.class.path setting.
dbvis.prefsdir=user.home Specifies the name of the directory in which the dbvis.lax file will be stored. Setting this to auto.home will cause DbVisualizer to use the home directory as reported from Java. This is the default.
dbvis.grid.encode=true Specifies if encoding of data in result set grids will be performed or not. If set to true then make sure the  dbvis.grid.fromEncode and/or dbvis.grid.toEncode is set too.
dbvis.grid.fromEncode=ISO8859_1 Encoding used when translating text data that is fetched from the database
dbvis.grid.toEncode=GBK Encoding used when translating data that will appear in the result set grid
dbvis.formeditor.unlimitedfields=true Specifies if the Form Editor in DbVisualizer Personal will ignore the column field sizes as reported by the JDBC driver. Default is false.
dbvis.ignoreoracle=true Specifies if the special management in DbVisualizer for Oracle drivers will be ignored. Default is false.
dbvis.usegetobject=true Specifies if the generic ResultSet.getObject() method in JDBC will be used in favor of the data type specific  get methods or not. Default is false.

(DBVIS-HOME is the installation directory for DbVisualizer).

Note: All dbvis. properties may change in future versions of DbVisualizer. Some are also experimental and may be removed or instead introduced in the DbVisualizer GUI.

How to install license for DbVisualizer Personal

If you have a license file for DbVisualizer Personal then copy it to the resources directory as:

resources/dbvis.license

Note: Make sure the date on the machine is correct since the license file contains the activation and expiration dates.

Resources

Resources related to DbVisualizer that are good to know:

Resources
The home of DbVisualizer
The FAQ which is regularly updated with frequently asked questions and known problems
The User Guide
The on line problem report form. This is the recommended channel for product support.
Support by email. Questions, problems, comments or any feedback related directly to the DbVisualizer product. Please use the support form web page in preference to sending emails to this email address directly.

Starting DbVisualizer

The way to start DbVisualizer depends on what platform you are using.

Command line arguments

DbVisualizer supports a range of command line arguments. These are listed in the Help->Usage Information menu choice in DbVisualizer.

Usage: dbvis [-help] [-up <path>] [-sqlfile <path>]
             [-windowtitle <title>]
             [connect options] [remote options]

General Options:
 -help                Display this help
 -up <path>           Use an alternate user preferences file
 -sqlfile <path>      Load file into the SQL Commander editor
 -windowtitle <title> Additional window title

Driver Connect Options:
 -driver              Setup and connect using Driver:
   -alias <name>        Database alias
   -path <path>         Path to driver class
   -class <class>       JDBC Driver class
   -url <url>           Connection URL
   -userid <user>       Userid to connect as
   -password <pw>       Connect password

JNDI Connect Options:
 -jndi                Setup and connect using JNDI:
   -alias <name>        Database alias
   -path <path>         Path to initial context class
   -class <class>       Initial context class
   -url <url>           Provider URL
   -lookup <name>       Lookup name
   -userid <user>       Userid to connect as
   -password <pw>       Connect password

Remote Options:
 -attachremote        Attach to remote DbVisualizer instance
 -enableremote        Enable remote attachment
 -host <host>         Remote host name (default: localhost)
 -port <port>         Remote port (default: 8787)

Application overview

The main window for DbVisualizer as it looks at startup. The interface is organized around three main tabs:

Figure: The DbVisualizer main window

The main window is organized around a standard tool layout based on a menu and tool bar at the top.

(Visit the master documentation index for detailed information about each of the features).

Worth knowing about the GUI

The following section presents some generic topics that are worth knowing about when you using DbVisualizer.

Grid, Graph and Chart

Grid, graph and chart are three terms that are often used in the application and in the documentation. The following explains what they represent.

Term
 Example
Grid
Graph
Chart

Figure: The grid, graph and chart terms

(The reason "grid" is not called "table" is because otherwise it would in many situations be confused with a database table).

Context sensitive controls

All controls in DbVisualizer are context sensitive. This simply means that a control is enabled only if it can be used.

Tool tips

Tooltips are used to explain a graphical control. They are also used to express status information about a control. An example is the grid column header tooltip which lists type data for the column:


Figure: Tooltip example

Grids

Grids are used heavily in DbVisualizer and probably needs a brief introduction.


Figure: Grid overview

The screen shot shows the grid and controls that are available in the Database Objects->Data tab but the differences are minor compared to the standard grid.
Right click menu
The generic right click menu contains the following operations:


Figure: Grid right click menu

Menu Choice
 Description
Select All Cells
 Selects all cells (aka rows and columns) in the grid
Copy Selected Cells
 Copy all selected cells onto the system clipboard. This operation can be tuned in the Tool Properties->Copy category
Export Selection
 Export the selection using the standard export feature
Fit Column Widths
 Automatically fit all column widths according to the widest cell value
Default Column Widths
 Set the column width equally for all columns
Count Number of Bytes
 Counts and presents the total number of bytes for all data in the grid
Browse Row in Form
 Displays all data for the selected row in a form.
Note: this is just a read only form as editing is not allowed.
Show Result Meta Data
 Toggle the display to instead show type information for the columns in the grid.

(The menu in the Data tab adds a few more operations that are used to generate SQL statements based on the current selection).

Problem resolution

There are situations when problems, errors or even bugs appear even though DbVisualizer is extensively tested before every new version. The runtime environment for DbVisualizer is rather complicated when it comes to tracking the source of a potential problem since it's not only DbVisualizer that may cause the problem but also the actual JDBC driver(s).

There are a few things that you can do before reporting problems to Minq Software based on at what stage the problem occurs:
  1. Make sure you are using the latest version of Java 1.4
  2. Make sure you are using at least the version of the JDBC driver that we've tested DbVisualizer with
  3. Read the DbVisualizer FAQ!
  4. Read the DbVisualizer Users Guide!
If you cannot find a solution to resolve the problem then please do the following and email us the debug output:
Use the DbVisualizer problem report form or email support@dbvis.com. We appreciate detailed reports as well as screen shots when appropriate.

Copyright © 2004 Minq Software AB. All rights reserved.