MySQL is my DB of choice, due to working mainly on LAMP architecture systems. The best tool by far I’ve found for managing MySQL databases under Mac OS X is Sequel Pro (previously CocoaMySQL).

Sequel Pro interface showing the table editor view

Before finding Sequel Pro I was a full-time user of PHPMyAdmin, a system which I continue to use in some instances. Sequel Pro essentially provides a desktop solution that is very similar to PHPMyAdmin, anyone who has experience using PHPMyAdmin should have no problems to adjusting to using Sequel Pro in its stead.

Annotated Sequel Pro

1. Database Selector

   A basic drop-down list where you can select a database to work with or add a new database.

2. Table Selector

   The list of tables in the currently selected database. If the number of tables is large enough a filter field appears at the top of this list allowing you to filter the tables based upon their names. Below the list of tables is a small section with meta-data on the currently selected table, under this is the controls for the database tables. From here we can add, remove, duplicate and truncate tables with ease (with conformation on the obviously destructive actions).

3. Field Viewer/Editor

   This portion of the interface is controlled by whichever view is selected from the icons appearing in the application toolbar.

4. Keys Viewer/Editor

   This area allows you to manage keys and indexes of the table you’re viewing. The +/- toggle at the bottom left allows you to add and remove keys/indexes.

5. Structure View (shown)

   Changes the view to the structure view as shown and detailed above.

6. Table Contents View

   Switches to the table contents view.

7. SQL Query Editor

   Switches to the SQL query editor view.

Another of the real selling points for Sequel Pro for me is the ability to easily import and export data. From the File > Export menu you can export data in various formats, CSV and XML being the most useful.

⌘+⇧+I invokes the import dialog which allows you to select an SQL dump or CSV of values to import into the selected database. The SQL import will obviously just run the query and update the various tables as required, the CSV import on the other hand allows you to select the table and marry rows in the CSV file to those in the table you wish to import to.

Table Structure

As detailed above the table structure view allows you to define the structure of the tables in the database and to set up the indexing and keys for the fields.

A nice touch available here is the ability to reorder pre-existing fields by dragging and dropping them in the relevant places and the ability to duplicate fields rather than have to re-enter details for virtually identical fields.

Table Contents

From there you can add, modify, duplicate and delete rows in the table, all of which you’d really expect from the table contents view.

Again, like the table structure view, you can duplicate entries to save re-entering similar data. Inserting NULL values is as simple as hitting ^+⇧+N. Copying rows as INSERT statements is a big plus (^+⌥+⌘+C) and useful when copying singular entries between a development and live database, rather than dumping the data from a custom query.

SQL Query

This view allows you to enter queries and run them against the database. The editor itself has autocompletion and some niceties like smart quoting of field names.

The power here comes from the ability to store previously used queries and access recent queries via a query history. Any of the generated result sets can be exported in the previously mentioned formats for easy data filtering and export.

In summary

It’s a bloody useful tool and a must for anyone working with MySQL databases under Mac OS X. It’s not a silver-bullet solution of course; it doesn’t do much more than PHPMyAdmin and the things it does can be replicated in PHPMyAdmin with relative ease; but then it can’t be a bad thing to have lying about, especially since it’s free!

• You can download a copy of Sequel Pro from their website.
• Developed by mjmedia.

Go have a play with Sequel Pro now,
- Chris

Being four out of four questions, I was a bit dubious about some of the course material that I was less clued-up-on coming up. The spread, however, was quite pleasing; covering all the main points of the course – none in too much detail!

Question 1

• A – Definition of statelessness wrt HTTP, naming an advantage and disadvantage[3]
• B – Outlining DNS resolution[5]
• C – Comparison of UDP to TCP [3]
• D – Discussion of IPv6 improvements on IPv4 [7]
• E – Public key algorithms, use for encryption and integrity verification [7]

Question 2

• A – Passing parameters to middleware applications [2]
• B – Scripting for DB update (I used PHP) [12]
• C – Justification of technology used in B and comparsion with other technology [5]
• D – Benefits challenges of using JavaScript, example solution to earlier problem [6]

Question 3

• A – Define valid and well-formed wrt XML documents [2]
• B – Writing DTD for specified XML document [7]
• C – Schemas question, advantage and disadvantage of use [3]
• D – XPATH question [3]
• E – Main differences between SAX and DOM [4]
• F – SAX or DOM pseudo-program [6]

Question 4

• A – E-commerce effects on offline shopping [5]
• B – Increasing search engine exposure [4]
• C – Desirable features of DB for web content [5]
• D – Web service advertisement and location [6]
• E – CORBA expansion and explination of how a request is demultiplexed [5]

Although most of the paper went fine, I forgot how to update a DB using PHP! Also I just didn’t know the CORBA expansion and didn’t have a clue about the demultiplexing (didn’t read it). I did however draw a COBRA in the exam, labeled it and gave it red eyes.

Here’s hoping tomorrow goes as well,
- Chris

After updating the packages, I checked to see if the server was running properly, it apparently was as I could load pages from the server. I didn’t reallise that these were probably the cached pages from previous visits I had made.

Today, whilst checking the site again and trying to do some database work, I was continually receiving alerts saying:

This document contains no data

Whoops! After restarting apache all seems to be working correctly. If anyone has any problems please mail me to let me know and I will endevour to sort them out.

Damn Debian packages,
- Chris