Chapter 23. Options Dialog

Table of Contents

23.1. Introduction
23.2. General Options
23.3. Connections
23.3.1. SSL Connections
23.4. Editors
23.5. The Browser Section
23.5.1. Display Options
23.5.2. Query Options
23.5.3. Various
23.6. Administrator
23.6.1. User Administration
23.6.2. Health Graphs
23.6.3. Backup

23.1. Introduction

The Options dialog allows you to configure connection profiles, general program settings, and more. You can open the Options dialog window using one of the following methods:

  • In the connection dialog window, click the ... button.

  • In the main application window select Options ... from the Tools menu.

Figure 23.1. Options Dialog

Options dialog

In the sidebar of the dialog, you can select the section you wish to configure. These options are Administrator, General Options, Connections, and, on Windows only, Editors.

There are three action buttons in the lower right corner of the window:

  • Apply: Applies and saves changes.

  • Discard: Discards any changes you have made.

  • Close: Closes the Options dialog window. If you have not applied or discarded your changes, you will be prompted to do so.

23.2. General Options

The General Options section allows you to specify a number of settings that are valid for all graphical MySQL applications.

  • Store Window Positions: When an application is started the next time, its latest window position will be reused.

  • Show Tip of Day: If checked, a pop-up window with the tip of the day appears at program startup.

  • Store Passwords: If checked, passwords are stored in the user's connection profile. You can specify the password storage method:

    Plaintext: Passwords are stored without encryption; this can be insecure. Obscured: Passwords are encrypted using a weak algorithm. This encryption method is operating system independent. OS Specific: Use the default encryption method provided by your operating system. The default option is Plaintext.

  • Language: Select the interface language. The default is English.

  • Default Font: The font used for all application text.

  • Data Font: The font used for all query and table data displayed.

  • Code Font: The font used for all queries entered by the user..

  • Ignorelist: Whenever you check the Do Not Show This Message Again option on error and message prompts, they are added to this list. If you would like a particular message to be shown again, click the Remove button after selecting the message from the list.

You may change the font and font size of any of the application fonts by clicking the Choose ... button to the right of the font.

23.3. Connections

The Connections section allows you to create, edit, and delete connection profiles. The center box displays a list of currently available profiles, together with a history of connections that were made without being stored in a profile. You can collapse or expand both the Connections and History trees by double clicking them.

Connections are automatically added to the History tree whenever you establish a connection to a MySQL server without using one of the profiles stored under the Connections tree. They do not appear in the drop-down box of the Connection dialog, but you can use any of them by manually typing their name into the Connection box of the Connection dialog.

Figure 23.2. Options Dialog: Connections

Options dialog: Connections

To edit an existing connection profile, click on its name and change the values that appear in the Connection Parameters and Advanced Parameters tabs, then click on the Apply Changes button to save your changes.

When you select a connection profile from either the Connections or History trees, the Connection Parameters tab displays the following fields:

  • Connection: The connection profile label. This is the name by which you refer to the profile and that appears in the Connection drop-down box of the Connection dialog. It may contain any characters, including spaces. Choose distinctive names so that you can easily tell which profiles they refer to. The names can help you distinguish connections to different MySQL servers, or connections as different MySQL users to a given server.

  • Username: The user name used to connect to the MySQL server.

  • Password: The password used to connect to the MySQL server. Note that passwords are not stored in the connection profile, unless you specify otherwise in the General Options section.

  • Hostname: The name of the host machine where the MySQL server runs, or its IP address.

  • Port: The TCP/IP port that the MySQL server listens to on the host machine.

  • Type: Specifies the protocol used to connect to the database server. The default protocol is MySQL (which uses the native MySQL protocol).

  • Schema: The default database for a connection when using the MySQL Query Browser.

  • Notes: You can use this field to enter comments or additional information describing the connection profile.

Note

The Advanced Parameters tab is not available on all platforms. Advanced parameters can still be configured in the Connection dialog. Use the Details ... button to display the Advanced Connection Options.

When you select a connection profile from either the Connections or History list, the Advanced Parameters tab displays the following checkboxes:

  • Use compressed protocol: If checked, the communication between the application and the MySQL server will be compressed, which may increase transfer rates. This corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --compress option.

  • Return number of found rows, not number of affected rows: By default, MySQL returns the number of rows changed by the last UPDATE, deleted by the last DELETE or inserted by the last INSERT statement. When this option is checked, the server returns the number of rows matched by the WHERE statement for UPDATE statements.

  • Ignore spaces after function names, make them reserved words: Normally, any reference to a function name in an SQL statement must be followed immediately by an opening parenthesis. If this option is checked, spaces may appear between the function name and the parenthesis, like this:

    COUNT (*)
    

    Enabling this option has the effect that function names become reserved words. This option corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --ignore-spaces option.

  • Allow interactive_timeout seconds of inactivity before disconnect: Normally, the connection is closed by the MySQL server after a certain period of inactivity on the client side. This period can be set with the interactive_timeout variable. If checked, the server will not close the connection unless the period of inactivity exceeds the value set by interactive_timeout. This corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --connect-timeout=seconds option.

  • Enable LOAD DATA LOCAL handling: By default, the LOCAL option of the LOAD DATA statement is disabled for security reasons. Enabling this option will allow you to load data from the local machine (the machine where the client GUI application is running). This option corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --local-infile=1 option. (Note that this option is ineffective unless the MySQL server allows LOCAL handling.)

23.3.1. SSL Connections

To set up an SSL connection under Windows, open the Advanced Parameters tab of the Options Dialog window. Select the connection you wish to configure, or create a new connection. Use the Advanced Parameters text boxes to send options to the MySQL client library in much the same way that you would pass parameters to the command-line client.

The parameters are essentially the same as those you would use for the command-line client, with underscores replacing “-” and USE_SSL replacing --ssl. See the following example.

Figure 23.3. Options Dialog: Advanced Parameters

Options dialog: Advanced Parameters

Note

The file separator used for path parameters is “/” and not “\”.

The parameters used with an SSL connection are found in the SSL Command Options section of the reference manual. For instructions on setting up SSL certificates, see Setting Up SSL Certificates for MySQL. Links to the different versions of the reference manual are found at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman.

There is currently no provision for creating an SSL connection when running MySQL GUI Tools on Mac OS X.

23.4. Editors

The Editors section is used to configure options specific to the different editors available within the MySQL GUI Suite. At the time of writing this is limited to the MySQL Table Editor.

Note

Currently, configuring editors is only available on the Windows platform.

  • Show SQL command before applying changes: Toggles whether the MySQL Table Editor will show you the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement it is about to execute for confirmation when you click Apply Changes.

  • All columns Not Null per default: Determines whether the MySQL Table Editor will designate columns as being NOT NULL by default when creating new columns.

  • All integer columns unsigned per default: Sets whether integer columns are declared UNSIGNED by default when creating new columns.

  • Default storage engine: Sets the storage engine to be assigned to newly created tables. This value is independent of the default storage engine of the MySQL server.

  • PK Naming: Dictates the format that should be used to name PRIMARY KEY columns that are automatically generated. The %tablename% portion will be replaced with the name of the appropriate table.

  • Index Naming: Sets the name automatically generated for new indexes. The %nr% string will be replaced with an automatically incrementing number.

  • FK Naming: Configures the name used when creating new foreign keys.

  • PK Datatype: The datatype used when creating a PRIMARY KEY column.

  • Def. data type The default datatype assigned to all new columns that are not part of a PRIMARY KEY.

23.5. The Browser Section

The Browser section allows you to specify options that relate to the MySQL Query Browser. The Browser section is divided into three areas: Display Options, Query Options, and Various.

Figure 23.4. The Query Browser Options Dialog

The query browser options dialog

23.5.1. Display Options

The display options affect the appearance of the MySQL Query Browser.

  • Show advanced toolbars: Display or hide the The Advanced Toolbar.

  • Hide the tab when only one page is open: Determines whether or not to display a tab icon at the top of the Result Area if there is only one result area.

  • Toolbars use gradient background: Enables and disables use of gradient effects in the background of the Query Toolbar.

  • Show field overlay images for long VARCHAR, TEXT, and BLOG fields: Toggles on and off the BLOB management icons.

  • Show composer buttons toolbar: Toggles on and off the query composition buttons on the Advanced Toolbar.

23.5.2. Query Options

Enforce queries to be editable by adding primary key columns to the select: Adds PRIMARY KEY columns to a query that does not explicitly SELECT them to ensure that the results of a query can be edited. The PRIMARY KEY columns will not be displayed in this case, but will still be stored.

Open resultset in associated application after export: Causes the associated application to be opened after choosing the Export Resultset option from the right click menu of the Result Area.

23.5.3. Various

Associate sql/query files with Query Browser: Configures Windows to associate all .sql files with the MySQL Query Browser. As a result, all such files will be opened with the MySQL Query Browser by default.

23.6. Administrator

The Administrator section allows you to specify options that affect the behavior of the MySQL Administrator. The Administrator section is divided into four sub-sections that will be discussed further in the sections that follow.

23.6.1. User Administration

These options affect the interface of the User Administration section of MySQL Administrator.

23.6.2. Health Graphs

These options affect the appearance of the Health Graphs section of MySQL Administrator.

  • Use Peak Level Indicator: This will display a thin yellow line on the health graphs indicating the highest value recorded by the graph.

  • Reset Peak Level after a number of ticks: If this box is not checked, the Peak Level Indicator will be permanently positioned at the highest value ever recorded on the health graph. With this box checked, the Peak Value Indicator will be reset after a period of time indicated by the Time after the Peak level resets option. Use this option if you would like to know the peak level over an interval rather than the peak level overall.

  • Ticks after the Peak level resets: When the Reset Peak Level after a number of ticks option is set, this determines the amount of time (in ticks) that will pass before the Peak Level Indicator will be reset.

23.6.3. Backup

The backup options configure how MySQL Administrator performs backup operations.

  • Add Date/Time to Backup Files: This determines whether the date and time of the backup operation are added to the name of the backup file. See the backup section for more information.