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You are very welcome. The use-cases for such a tool, as you mentioned on the website, is when the user doesn't want to get involved with a querying language li
by shervinafshar 9y ago
You are very welcome.
The use-cases for such a tool, as you mentioned on the website, is when the user doesn't want to get involved with a querying language like SQL. I somehow disagree with the premise that writing SQL is "tedious and low value", specifically for a generalist software engineer. So although I'm not an ideal user for your product, but I could imagine a whole category of users who might need to find data in an instance of SQL Server (or any other RDBMS). Putting myself in their position, what I would like to have in such a tool is:
– not only use the full power of browser (tabs, etc.), but also benefit from code which runs on client-side and improves the interactivity of the tool; i.e. more JavaScript to allow users to dig and drill deeper into the data without leaving the page or even the browser tab. The foreign key reference is a good example for that.
– export the data I'm looking at for further processing and filtering in an spreadsheet; integration with in-browser spreadsheet tools such as Google Sheets would also be nice.
– improved UX; e.g. I know that the links in "referenced by" column of `Customer` table should point the address, etc., but the presence of the link doesn't necessary mean that there is a recorded address for a customer. The user shouldn't have to click on the link and open a new tab just to find out that there is no address for a customer.
- allow the user to save their customized views of tables or joins and come back to them easily; e.g. she is the head of customer support for your company and doesn't want to see `PasswordHash` and `PasswordSalt` for the customers. All she needs to know is a view into this table with customers' contact information or in more advanced use-cases, number of orders in the past year for each customer in a separate column.
- more advanced users might like to be able to pass SQL through your tool and get the results as the table format offered.
Hope these help.
- timabell 9y agoThat's very useful! Thanks again for your generosity with your time. I'll change the text about tedious SQL to something else, you make a good point. What I had in mind is where someone without access to the db has to ask a dev or dba to run a 'select * from xx' for them. Most SQL work certainly has great value and is far from dull!