6 ms·

Bike - phpMyAdmin replacement for geeks

51 points by bbq123 14y ago

nodata 14y ago
> Bike will finds out where it were uploaded and reads connection settings from WordPress, Drupal or Joomla confif file automatically. Please no.
shyn3 14y ago
Anyone have opinions on NaviCat?
drivebyacct2 14y ago
I'm not sure which, but Bike either selling itself short, or overexaggerating it's abilities by comparing it to phpMyAdmin like this.
- jlogsdon 14y ago
  It looks like Bike is a simple query interface whereas phpMyAdmin is a whole suite of tools akin to the desktop Workbench for mysql (at least, the administrative side).
- perssontm 14y ago
  I couldnt agree more, setting up Bike on every other server gives you the same maintenance headache(perhaps a little simpler) as having a version of phpMyAdmin on each. I just yesterday wrote a blogpost about tunneling mysql and using a locally hosted phpMyAdmin for those needs. That will give you the benefit of having phpMyAdmin at one place and you'll be motivated to keep that updated and properly configured. http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin-without-remotely-without-installing-it http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin-witho...
  - shellox 14y ago
    A bit of topic, but wasn't tm the expensive tld which you need to register for 10 years? When no can you tell me where you registered yours?
    - perssontm 14y ago
      Yeah, it is, but I have a long commitment to my last name. :)
      - shellox 14y ago
        Sounds plausible. I had also a lot of luck with a .ch domain, which fits my lastname ;)
- justindocanto 14y ago
  It's not, if you look at the github page they make no such claims and actually say it's a small tool. whomever made this post is the one saying it's an alternative.
verisimilitude 14y ago
I realize that this is a totally different strategy to solve the mySQL admin thing, but WOW is Sequel Pro great if you're on a Mac: http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ I used phpMyAdmin for 10 _years_, and switched after using Sequel Pro for 5 minutes.
- charliesome 14y ago
  For Windows users, HeidiSQL is also pretty damn good: http://www.heidisql.com/ http://www.heidisql.com/
- PhilRae 14y ago
  I can fully recommend it too. Now I shudder whenever I have to use phpmyadmin.
- sohn3 14y ago
  This means you have to have your mysql port opened? No thank you
- sohn4 14y ago
  This means you have to have your mysql port opened? No thank you
- jentulman 14y ago
  Sequel pro is such a good bit of software, especially for the price. I fell in love after a couple of days, and even if you're not looking for new mysql software it's worth a look to see how well the UX has been implemented. The most useful thing about it is you can jump between the various views it offers, across multiple tables, and it maintains the state of each view so well that it's an absolute pleasure to use.
- joshstrange 14y ago
  Sequel Pro + SSH tunnels is how I connect to all of my mySQL servers and i can honestly say you will not find a better experience out there.
pilif 14y ago
The issue behind phpMyAdmin IMHO neither is the fact that it's written in PHP nor that it looks unsexy. The problem is that it exists. It's too tempting to leave it running on some server and promptly forget it. Or get it installed without knowing by some third-party CMS. Even if it had a spotless security track record (it doesn't), this is just too big an attack surface. MySQL and especially Postgres have really good command line utilities you can use over SSH which will have the additional advantage of you learning DDL syntax for emergencies. And of course GUIs exist too (use SSH port forwarding). About Bike: I didn't install it, but this looks like a pure frontend to type in queries and get back results. This provides the security problems of phpMyAdmin minus the specialized GUI to save you from learning DDL or server internals. As such it provides the worst of both worlds. I wouldn't call that "phpMyAdmin for geeks". CLI mysql is phpMyAdmin for geeks.
- laumars 14y ago
  To be honest i do run phpMyAdmin, but I run it on a subdomain that has HTTP auth over SSL and the log files are included by fail2ban scans (thus anyone that fails to HTTP auth correctly 3 times gets auto-banned in iptables). So while I do agree with your points regarding phpMyAdmin, you can have the convenience of running it (and securely) if you really wanted to.
  - Kudos 14y ago
    None of those things protect you from security exploits in phpMyAdmin.
    - laumars 14y ago
      Actually they do. My method prevents attackers from being able to access phpMyAdmin in the first place and thus if an attacker cannot access phpMyAdmin, then they can't exploit any of the vulnerabilities within phpMyAdmin. Prevention is definitely better than a cure in this instance; preventing the unwanted from accessing phpMyAdmin is better than fixing all the vulnerabilities and hoping that an attacker doesn't discoverer a new exploit.
- 14y ago
christianmann 14y ago
One thing it could use is table/column completion assistance.
kcbanner 14y ago
There is no need for this software to exist. No need. No need for it to exist.
- bigiain 14y ago
  FWIW, I've got (or have to deal with) several ultra-inexpensive webhosting accounts where I don't get shell access, so command line mysql isn't an available option. Every one of these kind of accounts I've got, and the ones I'm happy to help friends out with, are all cpanel accounts, so I've pretty much always got phpmyadmin available. I'm not saying Bike (or phpmyadmin) are a good idea - but I do have a need for something like it to exist. (Arguably, if this software _didn't_ exist, webhosting companies would maybe give shell more readily to even the lowest of low-end hosting accounts, but that's not the reality I live in right now.)
kcbanner 14y ago
phpMyAdmin replacement for geeks? Uninstall phpMyAdmin?
jsilence 14y ago
I often see systematic scans for phpmyadmin installations in my weblogs. phpmyadmin has had a series of security issues. New software, new bugs. I am not very confident that the bike developers will have an eye on security, since there are a couple of spelling errors on the site and they brag about how good looking and ajaxy the software is. Wrong focus.
M4v3R 14y ago
Adminer [http://www.adminer.org/en/ http://www.adminer.org/en/] is a pretty sweet db administration tool. It's only one sub-300kB file with no installation or configuration (so if your hosting provider doesnt have any db tool you can upload yours in seconds), supports MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL and others, and does much more. I didn't had to use phpMyAdmin even once since I learned about this. One "killer" feature for me: Adminer automatically links items in columns that have foreign keys set, so you can click on a value and it jumps to that item in linked table.
- nikolaplejic 14y ago
  phpMyAdmin has that feature as well. I noticed it a few weeks ago as I've never paid much attention to it, but it's there and it works.
justindocanto 14y ago
If you go to their github page it says the following under security: "On current stage I don't care about login functionality. Put Bike into folder with name like 'tASTDKUWYVEjhas' or just use Apache httpauth as workaround." So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security, other than hoping you choose a good folder name. Even if you ignore that, this is an all-around poor attempt to be an alternative, let alone compete. UPDATE: Looks like the Bike developer is not trying to be an 'alternative' to phpMyAdmin and whomever made this post either used bad info or think it's an alternative themselves. Either way the guy says it's just supposed to be a lightweight and simple tool... not any sort of alternative. With that said, it's not so bad... but still, security needs to be a higher focus if this thing can access/modify your database.
- bigiain 14y ago
  "So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security …" So I wonder how long before this becomes a trending search query? https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Query%22 https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Qu... (a slightly more refined version of that search, which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader, has already revealed 3 probably exploitable urls, based on the google snippet - I'm not prepared to click the links to confirm…) While I can understand the author writing a tool that scratches his own itch, where that itch doesn't include the need for strong access control for the tool - releasing it in a "default unsafe" configuration seems, ummmm, unwise. I'd suggest perhaps publishing the software with a hardcoded 10..1 ip address as the only address it'll respond to, so that you can't just download and run it with the result of a wide-open access to your databases. If someone's savvy enough to safely use the tool, updating that hardcoded ip address to their own will be obvious, and while opening it up to the world will still be _possible_, at least it'll require some intentional effort.
  - justindocanto 14y ago
    i didn't even think of that (the google search). i fear for all the novice developers that use this and do nothing more than just install it and leave it wide open.
brusch 14y ago
dumb title - if it was phpMyAdmin for geeks I would say it should have more features, not less. Looks nice - but as most of you said, there are far better options for handling this. If you are using MySQL and like some "nice tool", the MySQL workbench supports tunneling directly.
joering2 14y ago
"open in the borwser"
otaku888 14y ago
Just came here to say SQLbuddy. http://sqlbuddy.com/ http://sqlbuddy.com/ Perfect for quick tasks.
TheSmoke 14y ago
nope. we need navicat for the web.
hakanito 14y ago
For mac, http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ is the shit
frenchfries 14y ago
Geeks use mysql from the command line

51 points by bbq123 14y ago

> Bike will finds out where it were uploaded and reads connection settings from WordPress, Drupal or Joomla confif file automatically. Please no.

shyn3 14y ago

Anyone have opinions on NaviCat?

drivebyacct2 14y ago

I'm not sure which, but Bike either selling itself short, or overexaggerating it's abilities by comparing it to phpMyAdmin like this.

jlogsdon 14y ago
It looks like Bike is a simple query interface whereas phpMyAdmin is a whole suite of tools akin to the desktop Workbench for mysql (at least, the administrative side).
perssontm 14y ago
I couldnt agree more, setting up Bike on every other server gives you the same maintenance headache(perhaps a little simpler) as having a version of phpMyAdmin on each. I just yesterday wrote a blogpost about tunneling mysql and using a locally hosted phpMyAdmin for those needs. That will give you the benefit of having phpMyAdmin at one place and you'll be motivated to keep that updated and properly configured. http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin-without-remotely-without-installing-it http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin-witho...
- shellox 14y ago
  A bit of topic, but wasn't tm the expensive tld which you need to register for 10 years? When no can you tell me where you registered yours?
  - perssontm 14y ago
    Yeah, it is, but I have a long commitment to my last name. :)
    - shellox 14y ago
      Sounds plausible. I had also a lot of luck with a .ch domain, which fits my lastname ;)
justindocanto 14y ago
It's not, if you look at the github page they make no such claims and actually say it's a small tool. whomever made this post is the one saying it's an alternative.

verisimilitude 14y ago

I realize that this is a totally different strategy to solve the mySQL admin thing, but WOW is Sequel Pro great if you're on a Mac: http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ I used phpMyAdmin for 10 _years_, and switched after using Sequel Pro for 5 minutes.

charliesome 14y ago
For Windows users, HeidiSQL is also pretty damn good: http://www.heidisql.com/ http://www.heidisql.com/
PhilRae 14y ago
I can fully recommend it too. Now I shudder whenever I have to use phpmyadmin.
sohn3 14y ago
This means you have to have your mysql port opened? No thank you
sohn4 14y ago
This means you have to have your mysql port opened? No thank you
jentulman 14y ago
Sequel pro is such a good bit of software, especially for the price. I fell in love after a couple of days, and even if you're not looking for new mysql software it's worth a look to see how well the UX has been implemented. The most useful thing about it is you can jump between the various views it offers, across multiple tables, and it maintains the state of each view so well that it's an absolute pleasure to use.
joshstrange 14y ago
Sequel Pro + SSH tunnels is how I connect to all of my mySQL servers and i can honestly say you will not find a better experience out there.

pilif 14y ago

The issue behind phpMyAdmin IMHO neither is the fact that it's written in PHP nor that it looks unsexy. The problem is that it exists. It's too tempting to leave it running on some server and promptly forget it. Or get it installed without knowing by some third-party CMS. Even if it had a spotless security track record (it doesn't), this is just too big an attack surface. MySQL and especially Postgres have really good command line utilities you can use over SSH which will have the additional advantage of you learning DDL syntax for emergencies. And of course GUIs exist too (use SSH port forwarding). About Bike: I didn't install it, but this looks like a pure frontend to type in queries and get back results. This provides the security problems of phpMyAdmin minus the specialized GUI to save you from learning DDL or server internals. As such it provides the worst of both worlds. I wouldn't call that "phpMyAdmin for geeks". CLI mysql is phpMyAdmin for geeks.

laumars 14y ago
To be honest i do run phpMyAdmin, but I run it on a subdomain that has HTTP auth over SSL and the log files are included by fail2ban scans (thus anyone that fails to HTTP auth correctly 3 times gets auto-banned in iptables). So while I do agree with your points regarding phpMyAdmin, you can have the convenience of running it (and securely) if you really wanted to.
- Kudos 14y ago
  None of those things protect you from security exploits in phpMyAdmin.
  - laumars 14y ago
    Actually they do. My method prevents attackers from being able to access phpMyAdmin in the first place and thus if an attacker cannot access phpMyAdmin, then they can't exploit any of the vulnerabilities within phpMyAdmin. Prevention is definitely better than a cure in this instance; preventing the unwanted from accessing phpMyAdmin is better than fixing all the vulnerabilities and hoping that an attacker doesn't discoverer a new exploit.
14y ago

christianmann 14y ago

One thing it could use is table/column completion assistance.

kcbanner 14y ago

There is no need for this software to exist. No need. No need for it to exist.

bigiain 14y ago
FWIW, I've got (or have to deal with) several ultra-inexpensive webhosting accounts where I don't get shell access, so command line mysql isn't an available option. Every one of these kind of accounts I've got, and the ones I'm happy to help friends out with, are all cpanel accounts, so I've pretty much always got phpmyadmin available. I'm not saying Bike (or phpmyadmin) are a good idea - but I do have a need for something like it to exist. (Arguably, if this software _didn't_ exist, webhosting companies would maybe give shell more readily to even the lowest of low-end hosting accounts, but that's not the reality I live in right now.)

kcbanner 14y ago

phpMyAdmin replacement for geeks? Uninstall phpMyAdmin?

jsilence 14y ago

I often see systematic scans for phpmyadmin installations in my weblogs. phpmyadmin has had a series of security issues. New software, new bugs. I am not very confident that the bike developers will have an eye on security, since there are a couple of spelling errors on the site and they brag about how good looking and ajaxy the software is. Wrong focus.

M4v3R 14y ago

Adminer [http://www.adminer.org/en/ http://www.adminer.org/en/] is a pretty sweet db administration tool. It's only one sub-300kB file with no installation or configuration (so if your hosting provider doesnt have any db tool you can upload yours in seconds), supports MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL and others, and does much more. I didn't had to use phpMyAdmin even once since I learned about this. One "killer" feature for me: Adminer automatically links items in columns that have foreign keys set, so you can click on a value and it jumps to that item in linked table.

nikolaplejic 14y ago
phpMyAdmin has that feature as well. I noticed it a few weeks ago as I've never paid much attention to it, but it's there and it works.

justindocanto 14y ago

If you go to their github page it says the following under security: "On current stage I don't care about login functionality. Put Bike into folder with name like 'tASTDKUWYVEjhas' or just use Apache httpauth as workaround." So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security, other than hoping you choose a good folder name. Even if you ignore that, this is an all-around poor attempt to be an alternative, let alone compete. UPDATE: Looks like the Bike developer is not trying to be an 'alternative' to phpMyAdmin and whomever made this post either used bad info or think it's an alternative themselves. Either way the guy says it's just supposed to be a lightweight and simple tool... not any sort of alternative. With that said, it's not so bad... but still, security needs to be a higher focus if this thing can access/modify your database.

bigiain 14y ago
"So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security …" So I wonder how long before this becomes a trending search query? https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Query%22 https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Qu... (a slightly more refined version of that search, which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader, has already revealed 3 probably exploitable urls, based on the google snippet - I'm not prepared to click the links to confirm…) While I can understand the author writing a tool that scratches his own itch, where that itch doesn't include the need for strong access control for the tool - releasing it in a "default unsafe" configuration seems, ummmm, unwise. I'd suggest perhaps publishing the software with a hardcoded 10..1 ip address as the only address it'll respond to, so that you can't just download and run it with the result of a wide-open access to your databases. If someone's savvy enough to safely use the tool, updating that hardcoded ip address to their own will be obvious, and while opening it up to the world will still be _possible_, at least it'll require some intentional effort.
- justindocanto 14y ago
  i didn't even think of that (the google search). i fear for all the novice developers that use this and do nothing more than just install it and leave it wide open.

brusch 14y ago

dumb title - if it was phpMyAdmin for geeks I would say it should have more features, not less. Looks nice - but as most of you said, there are far better options for handling this. If you are using MySQL and like some "nice tool", the MySQL workbench supports tunneling directly.

joering2 14y ago

"open in the borwser"

otaku888 14y ago

Just came here to say SQLbuddy. http://sqlbuddy.com/ http://sqlbuddy.com/ Perfect for quick tasks.

TheSmoke 14y ago

nope. we need navicat for the web.

hakanito 14y ago

For mac, http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ is the shit

frenchfries 14y ago

Geeks use mysql from the command line