Getting Started and General Overview

• Introduction
• Installing
• Installation structure
  • Special Properties
• Install license key for DbVisualizer Personal
• Uninstalling the license key
• Useful Resources
• Starting DbVisualizer
  • Command line arguments
  • Pure command line interface
• The Main Window and Common Components
  • Standard Components in the User Interface
    • Grid, Graph and Chart
    • Context Sensitive Components
    • Tooltips
    • Grids
      • Sorting
      • Right-click menu
      • Aggregation Data for Selection
      • Column Visibility
      • Auto Resize
      • Quick Filter
• Print
  • Printer Setup
  • Grid, Chart and Plain Text
  • Graph
• Print Preview
• Checking for Updates
• Problem resolution
  • Debugging DbVisualizer
  • How to satisfy the DbVisualizer support team

Introduction

DbVisualizer is a feature rich, intuitive multi-database tool for developers and database administrators, providing a single powerful interface across a wide variety of operating systems. With its easy-to-use and clean interface, DbVisualizer has proven to be one of the most cost effective database tools available, yet to mention that it runs on all major operating systems and supports all major RDBMS that are available. Users only need to learn and master one application. DbVisualizer integrates transparently with the operating system being used.

This document gives a overview, installation tips and general information about the product.

The screenshots throughout the users guide are produced on Windows XP using the Windows Look and Feel, but DbVisualizer lets you choose among other Look and Feels as well.

All documents in the Users Guide are primarily focusing on the DbVisualizer Personal edition. Some of the described features are not available in the Free edition.

Installing

Installing DbVisualizer is no different then installing other modern products. The standard installation procedure is performed using a graphical application, and you just need to click through the questions that are displayed. Follow the instructions at the DbVisualizer web site if you need information on how to start the installation procedure specifically for your platform.

Installation structure

The installer and launcher for DbVisualizer is based on the install4j^TM product (http://www.install4j.com). The structure of the installation directory (referred as DBVIS-HOME throughout the users guide) contains the following. (The exact content may differ between platforms):

.install4j/
doc/
jdbc/
lib/
resources/
wrapper/
dbvis.vmoptions
dbvis.exe
README.txt
uninstall.exe

The dbvis.exe file is used to start DbVisualizer. The remaining files and directories are only of interest if you need to do nonstandard customization. For information on how to increase the memory for the Java process that runs DbVisualizer, and also on how to modify the Java version being used, please read the online FAQ for the latest information. 

Special Properties

DbVisualizer utilizes a few special properties that you can use to modify characteristics of the application. These properties are available in the DBVIS-HOME/resources/dbvis-custom.prefs file.

You rarely need to modify these properties, as the default values are sufficient for most usage.

The following are the properties handled by DbVisualizer:

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

Install license key for DbVisualizer Personal

If you have a license key file for DbVisualizer Personal, then start DbVisualizer and open the Help->License Key window. Enter the name of the license file in the License Key File field, or launch the file chooser by pressing the "..." button to the right of the license file field. Once the file is loaded, press the Install License button.

Uninstalling the license key

If you ever need to uninstall the license key, you can do so by removing (or renaming) the following file:

Useful Resources

Resources related to DbVisualizer that are useful:

1. The home of DbVisualizer
2. The FAQ which is regularly updated with frequently asked questions and known problems
3. The User Guide
4. The Databases and JDBC Drivers online page. This page gives information about supported databases and JDBC drivers
5. The DbVisualizer forums
6. The online problem report form. This is the recommended channel for product support and general questions

Starting DbVisualizer

How to start DbVisualizer depends on the operating system you are using.

• Windows
  Locate the DbVisualizer submenu in the Start menu. Select the DbVisualizer entry in that menu
• Linux/Unix
  Open a shell and change directory to the DbVisualizer installation directory. Execute the dbvis program
• Mac OS X
  Double click on the DbVisualizer application or the DbVisualizer.app application bundle.
  

Command line arguments

You can also start DbVisualizer from a shell on all operating systems. On Windows and Linux/Unix, change the directory to the DbVisualizer installation directory and run the dbvisgui command. On Mac OS X, you can use the open command like this:

open -a DbVisualizer-<Version>.app --args <Arguments>

The command supports a number of command line arguments. These are listed in the Help->About menu choice, under the Command Line tab, in DbVisualizer.

Usage: dbvisgui [<filename>] [-encoding<encoding>]
                [-prefsdir <directory>] [-help] [-version]

General Options:
 <filename>            SQL script file to load into editor
 -encoding <encoding>  Encoding for the SQL script file
 -prefsdir <directory> Use an alternate user preferences directory
 -help                 Display this help
 -version              Show version info

Pure command line interface

In addition to the DbVisualizer GUI tool, there is also a pure command line tool. We recommend that you use this tool for tasks that you schedule via the operating system's scheduling tool, or when you need to include database tasks in a command script for a larger job. It is also the right tool for execution of large scripts, such as a script generated by the DbVisualizer Export Schema feature. Please read more about this interface in the Command Line Interface chanpter.

The Main Window and Common Components

As you can see in the in the screenshot below, the DbVisualizer interface has a navigation area with two tabs (Databases and Scripts) to the left and two tabs (Object View and SQL Commander) to the right.

Databases

Scripts

Object View

SQL Commander

Figure: The DbVisualizer main window

Standard Components in the User Interface

The following sections introduce generic features and components that you find in many parts of 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 screenshots show what they represent.

Figure: The grid, graph and chart terms

The documentation uses the term grid for the user interface component that represents tabular data, rather than table, to avoid confusion with a database table.

Context Sensitive Components

All components in the user interface (e.g., buttons and menu items) are context sensitive. They are enabled only if they can be used in the current scope.

Tooltips

Tooltips are used to provide more details about a component. They are also used to express status information. An example is the grid column header tooltip that shows information about the column. To see a tooltip, let the mouse hover over an area of the user interface, e.g., a button or grid header. If there is a tooltip for the area, it will pop up in about a second.

Figure: Tooltip example

Grids

Grids are used heavily in DbVisualizer and require a brief introduction.

Figure: Grid overview

The screenshot shows the grid and controls that are available for the grid in the Data tab, but the differences are minor compared to grids used in other places.

Grid data appearance and colors are configurable in the Tool Properties->General->Grid category

Sorting

You can sort the grid based on the values in one or more columns. When you click on a column header, the grid is sorted in ascending order on the values in that column, indicated by an up-arrow in the column header. If you click the same column header again, the grid is sorted in descending order, indicated by a down-arrow in the column header. If you click a third time, the data is shown in the order it was received from the database and the sort indicator disappears.

To sort on more than one column, Ctrl-click (keep the Ctrl key pressed when clicking) on additional columns. The grid is then sorted on the values in the first column you clicked on (indicated with a 1 next to the arrow), and then all rows with the same value in the first column are sorted on the values in the second sort column (indicated with a 2 next to the arrow), and so on.

Right-click menu

The generic right-click grid menu contains the following operations:

Figure: Grid right click menu

The menu may contain additional entries based on the current scope, e.g., entries for editing cell values for a read/write grid.

Aggregation Data for Selection

The Aggregation Data for Selection feature presents aggregation data organized per data type on the current selection in a grid. It provides information about cells holding numbers, text, date/time information and more. The following is an example of what it shows:

Figure: The Aggregation Data for Selection dialog

With Auto Update checked, the data is updated automatically when you change the selection in the grid. For very large selections, you may prefer to disable this feature and instead click Update when you want to refresh the data. Click a link (blue underlined text) in the aggregation table to locate and highligh the actual value in the source data grid. Handle Number Values in Text Types as Numbers setting simply treats all valid numbers in text data types as numbers and include them in the Number Count summary.

Column Visibility

The Column Visibility dialog controls which columns you want to appear in a grid. You open the column visibility dialog by clicking the button above the vertical scrollbar in the grid.

Figure: The Column Visibility dialog

The Column Visibility dialog shows all columns that are available in the grid.

The checkmark in front of a column name indicates that the column is visible in the grid, while an unchecked box indicates that it is excluded from the grid. Click the checkmark to change the visibility of a column. You can change the visibility for all columns at once using the two visibility buttons in the dialog.

The order of the columns can also be adjusted in this dialog. Just select a row and use the Up and Down buttons to move it up (left in grid) or down (right in grid).

If you want to revert your changes, you can click on the Default Layout button to reset the grid, i.e., making all column visible and put them in their default locations.

Note 1: Modifications of column visibility, size and order are saved between invocations of DbVisualizer for all grids in the various Object View tabs except for the Data tab.

Note 2: If you modify the column visibility in the Data tab, the changes persists throughout the session. For instance, if you remove the  Name column in the Data tab for the table EMPLOYEE, the Name column remains excluded when you reload the table or come back to the Data tab for that table later in the same session. You must manually make it visible again to bring it back. The changes are, however, reset when you restart the application.

Auto Resize

The column header right-click menu contains a number of options for automatic resizing of column widths.

Figure: Auto Resize menu

Quick Filter

All areas that hold a grid in DbVisualizer also provide a Quick Filter field.

Figure: Grid with Quick Filter

When you type in the Quick Filter field, DbVisualizer matches the value with cell values in the grid and filters out all rows that do not have a match in at least one cell. The Quick Filter pull-down menu (click on the down arrow next to the magnifying glass) lets you choose if the filter should match cells in all columns or just one selected column, case or case insensitive matching, and where in the cell the value must match.

For the Use wild cards option the following characters have special meaning:

"?" - The question mark indicates there is zero or one of the preceding element. For example, colou?r matches both "color" and "colour".
"*" - The asterisk indicates there are zero or more of the preceding element. For example, ab*c matches "ac", "abc", "abbc", "abbbc", and so on.
"+" - The plus sign indicates that there is one or more of the preceding element. For example, ab+c matches "abc", "abbc", "abbbc", and so on, but not "ac".

Print

DbVisualizer supports printing of grids, graphs, charts and plain text, such as the content of an SQL Editor. The print dialog looks somewhat different depending on what is printed. In all cases, you launch the print dialog by clicking on the Print button in the toolbar for the object you want to print, or by choosing Print from the right-click menu.  The right-click menu also contains a Print Preview choice, if you want to see what the printout will look like before you actually print.

Printer Setup

If you want to set the page orientation (e.g., portrait or landscape) and paper size, you must launch the Printer Setup dialog, using the File->Printer Setup main menu option, before you print. Printing varies widely between platforms, so even though the Print dialog (as  opposed to the Printer Setup dialog) on some platforms also lets you choose a page orientation and other options,  they may be ignored if specified in that dialog. The only supported way to specify the page orientation and other options is via the Printer Setup dialog.

Grid, Chart and Plain Text

For a grid, chart and plain text, DbVisualizer launches the platform's native Print dialog, so it looks different on different platforms. The two options available on all platforms are a choice of printer and the page range. On some platforms, the dialog may offer additional options, but they may be ignored by DbVisualizer. Use the Printer Setup dialog to set other options besides which printer to use and the page range, as described above.

Figure: Standard print dialog

The figure above shows how the Print dialog looks on the Windows platform (the appearance and printing capabilities are platform specific so the printing dialog look different in Windows, Linux/UNIX and Mac OS X).

When you print a grid in DbVisualizer, the grid is printed as it is shown on the screen, i.e., with the table headers, sort and primary key indicator, etc. It is printed as a screenshot that may span several pages, depending on the number of rows and columns that are printed. For a grid, the right-click menu contains a Print Selection choice that you can use if you just want to print selected rows and columns.

An alternative to printing a grid as a screenshot is to export the grid to HTML and then use a web browser to print it.

Printing a chart scales the chart to the size of the paper. Plain text is printed as-is and may span multiple pages, both in height and width.

Graph

Printing a graph adds a custom dialog before the native Print dialog is displayed.

Figure: Print options when printing graphs

You can specify the number of rows (pages) and columns (pages) that the complete image will be split into. You can also select whether the view as it appears on the screen or the complete graph should be printed. When you click Ok, the native Print dialog is displayed, where you can select the printer.

Print Preview

Use the File->Print Preview feature to preview what the printout will look like before you actually print it.

Checking for Updates

We frequently release new versions of DbVisualizer to introduce new features and improvements, and to fix problems. To make you aware of new versions, DbVisualizer periodically checks if a newer version than the one you are using is available when you start DbVisualizer. If there is a newer version available, you are presented with a dialog with links to pages on our site where you can read more about it and download the new version.



Figure: Available Updates dialog

The Early Access field tells you if it is an Early Access version (i.e., a preview of an upcoming major version we are currently working on) and the Free Upgrade field is checked if you can upgrade to this version with your current license. The list may also have a Comments field with more information about the version. Click on the links in the Download and Release Notes fields to open a browser with the corresponding page from our web site.

DbVisualizer checks for new versions at start-up on a weekly basis by default. You can change the interval or check manually at any time by launching the Check for Update dialog from the Help menu.



Figure: Check For Updates dialog

You can set the interval to one of Every Start-Up, Weekly, Monthly or Never, or click the Check Now button to see if there are any new versions available right now. If new versions are available, the same dialog as shown above appears, otherwise a message tells you that you are running the latest version.

The dialog also informs you about which version you are currently running and when the last check for updates took place.

Click OK to save the new interval or Cancel to leave it as it was.

If you are accessing the Internet through a proxy, you must enter information about the proxy in the Tool Properties dialog before you check for updates.

Problem resolution

Even though we make our very best to ensure the quality of DbVisualizer, you may run into problems of different kinds. The runtime environment for DbVisualizer is rather complicated when it comes to tracking the source of a problem, since it's not only DbVisualizer that may cause the problem but also the JDBC driver, or even the database engine.

There are a few things that you can try before reporting a problem, depending on the nature of the problem:

1. Make sure you are using the latest version of Java available for your platform (Java 6 or later)
   
2. Make sure you are using a version of the JDBC driver that we've tested DbVisualizer with, or a later, production quality version
   
3. Read the DbVisualizer FAQ
4. Check the online Forums
5. Read the DbVisualizer Users Guide
6. ... the last resort is to post a question via the problem report form or send an email to support@dbvis.com. (Note that we generally love detailed reports as well as screenshots when possible)
   

Debugging DbVisualizer

The Tools->Debug Window is useful to see what is going on in  DbVisualizer and the JDBC driver(s). The checks at the top control what parts of DbVisualizer should be debugged. The Debug JDBC Drivers option will enable debug of the current JDBC driver. Note that the amount of output is determined by the JDBC driver.

Figure: The DbVisualizer Debug Window

The Save and Copy buttons will prepare the log with information about the DbVisualizer version you are using and the connected database connections.

The log is automatically truncated  to preserve memory when the log destination is set to Debug Window. The Console and File destinations have no such limitation.

How to satisfy the DbVisualizer support team

Quite often we get incomplete problem reports and need to follow up for additional information. If you encounter a problem, please follow these steps to include the details we need to help you:

1. Select the Connection tab
2. In the Connection Message area, select the right-click menu
3. In the menu, select Copy
4. This copies the system details to the clipboard. Then paste the details into an email or in the problem report form.
5. In addition, we really appreciate it if you provide us with screenshots. An image says more than ... you know.
   

Figure: The connection message right click menu

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