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EnterpriseDB: pgAdmin
Oracle Tips by
Burleson
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pgAdmin
Available at:
http://www.pgadmin.org
The gold
standard of IDEs for PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL derivatives such as
EnterpriseDB is pgAdmin III. pgAdmin III is completely
free and is
an open source tool that ships with PostgreSQL.
I'm not
a lawyer so I will not get into details but pgAdmin is released under
the Artistic License. I believe that means that you can do
whatever you want with it as long as you give the authors credit for
what they have done.
The
interface to pgAdmin III (Figure 5.59) will be very familiar. It
looks and works much like Developer Studio.
Figure
5.59: pgAdmin III
pgAdmin
has been around for
a
long time. The first version was available for PostgreSQL 6.
It is heavily tested and very reliable. It doesn't offer much
that is not available in Developer Studio except support for the
additional procedural languages.
Viewing
data in tables (Figure 5.60) is much like using SQL Interactive in
Developer Studio.
Figure
5.60: pgAdmin III View Data
The
query tool
(5.61)
is very much like Developer Studio's SQL Interactive. I like the
pgAdmin history feature better than the Developer Studio history
(which I find to be in an annoying location).
Figure
5.61: pgAdmin III Query Tool
pgAdmin
III is a fully functional tool
that
is the appropriate choice for many situations. I keep it
installed and use it regularly.
EMS SQL
Manager for PostgreSQL Lite
Available at:
http://www.sqlmanager.net/en/products/postgresql/manager
EMS SQL
Manager has the most
unique
interface of all the tools I use. It has a very Windows-like
interface and I personally like it for its ease of use.
The one
thing I don't like is that it has its own names for things instead of
using the more familiar words that all the other tools use. For
example, instead of adding a server or defining a connection, you will
register a host or register a database. That's a minor complaint
though as it is very easy to figure out.
The
interface (Figure 5.62) provides much more information than the other
tools all on a single screen. You will either need a very large
screen or you will want to maximize the tool.
Figure
5.62: EMS SQL Manager Lite
Viewing
data and running queries in SQL Manager is a bit different than the
other tools. Everything is integrated in a single MDI window and
you don't have to run a separate query to view data (Figure 5.63) in a
table selected in the navigator node. It's just a different tab
in the same window.
Figure
5.63: EMS SQL Manager View Data
Running
your own queries is also done within the same window (Figure 5.64).
Figure
5.64: EMS SQL Manager Query Editor
To
view the results of the query, you select the results table (Figure
5.65). Errors are displayed on the log tab.
Figure
5.65: EMS SQL Manager View Query Results
Of all
the tools in this chapter, I like the interface to EMS SQL Manager the
best. Then again, I prefer the windows interface.
If you
do like EMS SQL Manager, you can upgrade to the commercial version to
gain additional functionality, or you can purchase the SQL Studio pack
that gives you all of the tools you will need for managing your
environments. The full, paid version gives you a graphical query
builder and a visual explain.
This
is an excerpt from the book "EnterpriseDB:
The Definitive Reference" by Rampant TechPress.
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