Navicat does what few applications do

And that is to switch me 100% away from an application I have used for years.

Navicat is a powerful MySQL database administration and development tool that is not only sophisticated enough for professional developers, but also easy to learn for new users.

I did a post a few weeks back about some top tools for managing a MySQL database. From that post Navicat contacted my and offered me a free license to fully take advantage of their software. Usually I am weary about this but wanted to give it a try since a top developer I know that is in charge of DonationCoder.com also uses it. Why not give it a chance and use it for week to see if I like it - basically stop using the MySQL provided tools.


So glad I did as Navicat is an awesome application that is very well designed from a UI standpoint and provides all the functionality that one could need from a MySQL manager. So much better having all the features in a single interface instead of spreading them across several tools like MySQL Tools does.

Quick Highlights:

• Ability to drag and drop tables detween databases
• Ability to copy field(s) in a table design view and paste the fields into another table table design view. Makes copying part of a table definition easy
• Import wizard is very well designed and logical in its use and flow.

Wishes:

• Query Editor. I like typing in queries and it would be nice if the Query Editor either provided intellisense as I typed a table/field name or let me drag and drop table/field names into the Query Editor without navigating back to the Query Builder window.
• Quick SQL selection: Basically allow me to select a table and press one button (or right-click menu selection) to generate an INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE and other SQL statements. Provide options of how the SQL statement is constructed: SQL statement on a single line, Lines based on SQL commands, or Seperate lines for each item.

Link:
http://www.navicat.com/