Login Screen

The Login Screen (Figure 1) is made up from two distinct areas: the New Logins Area on the right and the Previous Logins Area on the left.

Figure 1- Connection Login

New Logins Area

The New Logins Area has four distinct zones that are used to create a new connection to the database. The zones: Connect To, Connection, Connection Attributes and Connection Buttons (the Ask for Password check box is part of the Previous Logins Area); are explained below. Once a connection specified in the New Logins Area has been used to successfully connect to the database it will appear in the Previous Logins Area.

Connection To

The “Connect To” combo box allows the user to specify which type of database they wish to connect to. There are two options: MySql and Oracle.

Connection

This values in this combo are dependent upon the database that you wish to “Connect To”. Depending upon the “Connection” selected the user will be presented with different fields that need to be entered to create a new connection. For an Oracle database new logins can be created for a “Connection” of either OCI8 or JDBC Thin. Figures 2 and 3 shows the login fields for the respective Oracle “Connection”.

    

Figure 2 - Oracle OCI Connection

    

Figure 3 - Oracle JDBC Thin Connection

For MySql there is only one “Connection Type”: JDBC Thin. Figure 4 shows the login field for MySql.

Figure 4 - MySql OCI Connection

All connection types have the same first two parameter fields: User Name and Password.

Oracle OCI8 Connection

The OCI8 connection also includes the Database field for the entry of the name of the database that is to be connected to. If you want to connect to the oradb database using the user name scott and the password tiger you need to enter the following information.

User Name:

scott

Password:

tiger

Database:

oradb

An Oracle OCI8 connection uses the Oracle Name Server to locate and connect to the specified database. For this type of connection to work your machine needs to have an Oracle Client setup installed.

Oracle & MySql JDBC Thin Connection

The Oracle JDBC Thin connection includes the fields Database Name, Port Number and Machine Name. The Database Name is the name of the database that you want to connect to. The Port Number is the port number that the specified Oracle database listens on for connections. The Machine Name is the name of the computer that the specified Oracle database is installed on. If you want to connect to the oradb database using the user name scott and the password tiger, where the oradb database is installed on the machine wellington1 and listens on the port 1521, then you need to enter the following information.

User Name:

scott

Password:

tiger

Database:

oradb

Port Number:

1521

Machine Name:

wellington1

For MySql the Database Name, Port Number and Machine Name are defaulted to:mysql, 3306 and localhost. If these are not the correct options for your connection then you will need to change these fields.

A JDBC Thin connection does not require an Oracle or MySql Client setup installed on the machine that Databrid is being run from.

Connection Attributes

The connection Attributes define how Databrid will look when a connection has been successful. The four connection attributes are shown in Figure 5. The attributes only apply to the connection specified and will always apply whenever that connection is reused.

Figure 5 - Connection Attributes

Background Color

The Background Color button allows you to specify the background color of text fields on the sql editor tab, for the display bar on the schema browser tab and the sql field on the File tab. This provides the facility to give a particular connect a distinct visual look. For instance the background color of production connections could be set to light red to remind the user they are in a production environment and should take care.

Text Color

The Text Color button allows you to specify the color of the actual text within text fields (except syntax highlighted fields) and tables. This attribute is provided to serve the same purpose as the Background Color attribute.

Group

This field is used for grouping together logins. For instance all admin logins could be placed in the “Admin” group, the development logins in the “Dev” group, etc. This field can then be used for the filtering of logins at a later stage.

Default Display User

This field allows for the specification of the Schema or Catalog that will be used as the default when connecting to the database. If you want to log in as the Oracle user paul and you mostly want to look at tables, views... that belong to the user scott then the “Default Display User” should be set to scott. If you wish to change the catalog used in your MySql connection (information_schema for example) you place it in the “Default Display User” field.

Whether a Default Display User is set or not it is still an easy process to change the schema or catalog that you wish to browse tables views etc for.

Connection Buttons

There are two Connection Buttons: Connect and Cancel. The Connect button tries to connect to a database using the connection information specified in the “Connection” zone. The Connect button has no affect on the Previous Logins Area. The Cancel button will exit Databrid.

Previous Logins Area

This area shows all distinct logins that have been previously used. Any new connections created in the New Logins Area are added to this list after they have been used to successfully connect to the database.

Figure 6 - Previous Logins List

At the top of the Previous Logins area are two filters: Connection and Group. The connection filter allows you to select the database to filter on and contains the values: All, MySql and Oracle. The group filter allows you to filter the list of logins by the login group. This combo will contain the value All and any values shown in the group field of the logins (including a blank).

The list of previous logins include the following fields:

Group:

The group name that the user is using to categorise the login.

Username:

The User used to connect to the database.

Display User:

The default schema or catalog used in Databrid (see the Default Display User in the New Logins Area section above).

Connection:

The database that will be connected to.

Color:

The text color and background color used for the login.

Last Login:

The date and time of the last login using this rows connection details.

Connect To:

The data used to connect to (i.e. MySql or Oracle).

Double clicking on a login row in the list will connect to the database using that rows login information, including using the “Connection Attributes” that were defined for the connection.

Right clicking on a login row will display the menu shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - Previous Logins Right Click Menu

This menu allows you to:

Editing a Login

The edit login screen allows the user to modify a predefined login. Changes can be made to the: group, username, password, display user and the background and text colors. Figure 8 shows the Login Edit screen.

Figure 8 - Edit Login Screen

Passwords

If the Ask For Password check box (under the New Logins Area) is checked then you will be prompted for a password before logging in. If the Ask For Password check box is not checked then you will not be prompted for a password when logging in, unless a password has not stored.

If this check box is unchecked when running Databrid and you click on it (so that it is checked) then all stored passwords will be removed.

NOTE: All passwords are stored in an encrypted form. This encryption is not full proof so you should consult with your system and/or database administrator before storing database passwords.