intro
Introducing the most eye-catching update of DbVisualizer this year. Version 24.2 comes with a refined UI, extended support for Azure Synapse Analytics, more powerful exporting capabilities, and much more. Let’s break it down.
REFINED GUI
Updated UI
The UI has been refined to create a balanced work environment for the user in both dark and light mode. And it’s more than just an adjustment to colors - you’ll also see new icons, button placements, and an improved overall balance.
Darker darks and clearer lights
In this update, the dark theme has become darker, and the light is more balanced. There are also small improvements to margins around elements, line heights in lists, and more to create a well-balanced UI. You will also find a new setting for themes allowing DbVisualizer to match the dark or light setting of your OS automatically.
New scalable icons
To further increase compatibility across different screens and settings, DbVisualizer is now shipped with modern and scalable SVG icons. Together with the new colors in the UI, we also think they look stunning.
Streamlined button layout
In an effort to enhance usability and free up space for what matters the most, we’ve adjusted the placements of some buttons. All while making sure to keep the organization of UI elements intact, so that you still feel familiar with the UI. Previously available on Windows and Linux, it is now possible to further optimize screen real estate by merging the main toolbar into the header of the application window on macOS.
New database support
Extended support for Azure Synapse Analytics
This release introduces extended support for dedicated and serverless SQL pools in Azure Synapse Analytics. DbVisualizer now includes support for database-scoped credentials, external file formats and data sources, external tables, and more. For more information, see our pages on Azure Synapse Dedicated and Azure Synapse Serverless.
New object support
Improved support for arrays
DbVisualizer is now more capable of understanding the content and structure of array objects. In addition to a new JSON-based syntax for presenting and editing arrays, the improved understanding of the array data types also enables new validation of user input before it’s sent to the database.
The new array support is currently available for PostgreSQL, Oracle and MySQL databases.
Database-Specific improvements
Improved database support
MariaDB, Oracle
A new navigation panel was added to the package body editor making it easier to navigate between procedures and functions in the package.
Cassandra
This release introduces support for the JDBC wrapper of the Java driver for Cassandra which is more powerful and future-proof than previous alternatives. To start using the new driver in existing connections, choose "Cassandra" in the Driver Type field. In addition, a number of Cassandra-related improvements were implemented such as support for overloaded functions, error marking in the procedure editor and more.
PostgreSQL
The support for PostgreSQL was extended to include role management (in addition to users and groups in legacy versions of the database). Additionally, this update allows you to specify the sequence name when working with auto-generated columns.
MySQL
It is now possible to create and update generated columns in the Create Table and Alter Table dialogs.
Redshift
The new release adds support for materialized views in Redshift.
Snowflake
In this update, support for additional table types in Snowflake has been added. This includes dynamic tables, event tables, hybrid tables and iceberg tables.
Greenplum
Integration with the Greenplum database has been extended to Greenplum 7 including adjustments for partitioned tables, generated columns, constraints, procedures, functions, aggregates and sequences.
Databricks
The new release adds basic database support for Databricks. You will find a pre-defined entry for Databricks in the driver manager, making it easy to get started.
DATA EXPORT
New options for data export
Support for MERGE statements
When exporting data in SQL format, it is now possible to generate merge statements instead of insert statements. Check the “Generate MERGE statements” option and select the desired merge statement type.
Trim text data
Support for text functions has been added to the grid export dialog. For now the available options are to keep the text as is, trim both ends, trim the right end or trim the left end. This setting affects all text columns that are exported.
Suggest file extensions automatically
When exporting data to a file, the correct filename extension is now applied automatically depending on the selected output format. If the format is changed, the export filename will be updated with a suitable extension. You can always change or remove the extension if so desired before proceeding with the export.
Syntax highlighting in the export preview
When previewing the export in SQL format, the generated code will now use syntax highlighting making it easier to read.
CODE Editor
Editor improvements
Advanced substitution in Find and Replace
Support for advanced substitution in Find and Replace has been extended. Now, the panel contains buttons to add newlines to the corresponding field and supports literals n and t, as well as L, U, E for lowercase and uppercase manipulation.
Smarter auto-completion
When auto-completing column names, they will now be automatically qualified when the column name alone is ambiguous.
Select next/previous statement
A quick action was added allowing to select the next/previous statement in the current script. This can be done using the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+ALT+UP and CTRL+ALT+DOWN.
Support for a list of choices in custom variables
For advanced scripting scenarios, it is now possible to define variables with a list of available values using the choices attribute.
AND MORE
And more improvements across the board
Uncommitted SQL statements
When warning about auto-commit being turned off, also show which statements are going to be committed as a result of the commit.
Special characters in text fields
Previously, it was possible to see and edit special characters such as newline and tab in text values using the cell editor but they were not visible in the data grid. In the new release, newlines and tabs in text fields are rendered as symbols in the data grid.
Images in the data grid
Values in binary columns can be displayed as images in the grid. Now, this support also includes SVG images.
Additionally, DbVisualizer now multi-threads image loading for binary columns, which means that the images in a data grid show up quicker, especially for data sets containing larger images.
Create persistent database connections using the command line
In addition to the familiar graphical UI, DbVisualizer comes with a command-line interface that can be used for various automation scenarios. With the new release, this support has been extended to include creation of persistent database connection using the command line.
Updated user guide
Since the previous release, we updated our user guide in a massive overhaul to improve usability. It received a major design update, and includes a much more powerful search function as well as an easy-to-use version selector. If you haven’t already, go in and take a look.
And that’s not all…
There are a total of 50 improvements and fixes that you can read about in the release notes.
OTHER RELEASES