Being some weird hours of the night working on MySQL using SQLyog, it seems like only last year since I started using this MySQL GUI client Software. How time flies when one is having fun. I have certainly enjoyed using SQLyog Enterprise Edition ever since I upgraded from SQLyog Community Edition almost two years ago.

The reason I am writing this article is because I just realized how I had just 14 days to complete and submit a massive project that would probably have demanded at least two months worth of work yet I made the conscious decision to proceed on a tighter schedule Part of my confidence in getting this done is because I knew I would have had to rely on SQLyog Enterprise Edition to help me get this done as quickly as possible and I knew it was up to the job.

Task

I had to come to terms with designing a database from scratch about… sorry can’t say what it is about as I swore myself to privacy. Anyway to make the long story short, I am barely one day into the project and I think I am already through with the database design partly thanks to SQLyog Enterprise Edition.

Overview

For those that are not aware about SQLyog, you need to know what exactly it is. SQLyog is a GUI for the MySQL Relational Database Management System or in simpler terms, RDBMS. It was originally developed in 2001 by Webyog Softworks a company based in Bangalore, India who still maintain and continue to develop it. Its also worth noting that SQLyog Community Edition is released as Open Source and developed in C++.

Features.

When I first turned to using SQLyog and away from using MySQL Front, the first thing I noticed was the massive improvement in performance over MySQL Front and certainly PhpMyAdmin, the Web based MySQL GUI which I think I will be writing an article about it soon enough.

So now solely because of that single feature, I was totally hooked onto the tool as the computer I used back then was pretty challenged (with 32MB RAM) when it came to trying to get the least of tasks done. With SQLyog I had finally gotten a breather.

With the help of scintilla the text editing library, I was pretty much enjoying the color syntax highlighting that it offered and that was much better than before especially when I remembered the times I had to do my database queries using the MySQL command line client.

A Step Up

Let us now fast forward a few years when there was an increase in the kind of work that I did with MySQL. I found that SQLyog Community Edition no longer served my purpose to the letter and went ahead and got myself the SQLyog Enterprise Edition License.

It was a great move I must say. To start off, no longer did I have to work around the Nag Screen on start-up and shutdown that was ever teasing us about the SQLyog Enterprise features. That in it’s self was comforting.

Within minutes of starting off to do my database operations I particularly fell in love with the following features.

Visual Query Builder

Without typing a single word of text, I was well on my way to compiling complex queries without the headache of misspelling little bits and pieces here and there. That was the top most welcome feature for me, then…

Visual Schema Designer

This really and I mean, really helped me save loads and loads of valuable hours as being able to visually look at what I was designing gave me a real opportunity to catch design flaws and little bugs that may have easily been overlooked by doing it using traditional methods, and now again, that feature has come to my help once more. Not to mention the head start it has given me as far as documentation goes.

SQL Formatter

All I have to say about this one is debug, catch spelling errors and correct syntax. I believe that is self explanatory.

Wizard Driven Migration Toolkit

This along with scheduling of tasks is Yet Another Great Feature of SQLyog Enterprise Edition. I’m sure anyone who has tried doing migrations using other methods that come native to MySQL such as command line will attest to the fact that this can be a gruesome process. Good News though. With SQLyog this becomes a walk in the park.

SSL/HTTP/HTTPS Tunneling

Is another feature that cannot go without mention. Before I upgraded I worked with a web host company that beefed up their security and only allowed access to their database using a local network address or a tool they provided… bummer. Well, it was SQLyog Enterprise Edition that came to the rescue for me as I was able to implement the tunneling features so as to get past this slight glitch and now I am just as happy with their security working in collaboration with me and my SQLyog Enterprise Edition.

As I bring this to a close it will be an injustice to all database developers out there if I don’t mention what this tool has to offer in terms of

Data Backup and Restore.

Well SQLyog does an amazing job as it harnesses the power of MySQL using built in wizards to export and import table data in the form of SQL, XML, CSV and HTML as well as create and restore backups from SQL dumps.

All That and a Bag of Chips

Finally I didn’t forget that with SQLyog you can do all your table and database operations like select, alter, insert, update, delete, drop, truncate and the list goes on and all of it just at the click of your humble mouse.