MySQL Workbench is a visual database design tool that integrates SQL
development, administration, database design, creation and maintenance into a
single integrated development environment for the MySQL database
system. It is the successor to DBDesigner 4 from fabFORCE.net, and
replaces the previous package of software, MySQL GUI Tools Bundle.
History = fabFORCE.net DBDesigner4 =
DBDesigner4 is an open source visual database design and querying tool for
the MySQL database released under the GPL. It was written in 2002/2003 by the
Austrian programmer Michael G. Zinner for his fabFORCE.net platform using
Delphi 7 / Kylix 3. While being a physical-modeling only
tool DBDesigner4 offers a comprehensive feature set including reverse
engineering of MySQL databases, model-to-database synchronization, model
poster printing, basic version control of schema models and a SQL query
builder. It is available for MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
In late 2003, Zinner was approached by representatives from MySQL AB and joined
the company to take over the development of graphical user interface tools for
MySQL. This led to the creation of the MySQL GUI Tools Bundle.
= MySQL GUI Tools Bundle = The MySQL GUI Tools Bundle is a
cross-platform open source suite of desktop applications for the
administration of MySQL database servers, and for building and
manipulating the data within MySQL databases. It was developed by MySQL AB
and later by Sun Microsystems and released under the GPL. Development on
the GUI Tools bundle has stopped, and is now only preserved under the Download
Archives of the MySQL site. The GUI Tools bundle has been superseded
by MySQL Workbench, and reached its End-of-Life with the beta releases of
MySQL Workbench 5.2. However, the MySQL Support team continued to provide
assistance for the bundle until June 30, 2010.
Releases The first preview version of MySQL
Workbench was released in September 2005, and was not included in the MySQL
GUI Tools Bundle. Development was started again in 2007 and MySQL
Workbench was set to become the MySQL GUI flagship product.
Version numbering was started at 5.0 to emphasise that MySQL Workbench was
developed as the successor to DBDesigner4.
= MySQL Workbench 5.0 and 5.1 = MySQL Workbench 5.0 and 5.1 are
specialized visual database design tools for the MySQL database. While MySQL
Workbench 5.0 was a MS Windows-only product, cross-platform support was
added to MySQL Workbench 5.1 and later. = MySQL Workbench 5.2 =
Starting with MySQL Workbench 5.2 the application has evolved to a general
database GUI application. Apart from physical database modeling it features
an SQL Editor, database migration tools, and a database server administration
interface, replacing the old MySQL GUI Tools Bundle.
= MySQL Workbench 6.0 = On May 22, 2013, the MySQL Workbench
Team announced that they were working on Version 6.0. The first public beta,
labeled version 6.0.2, was released on June 14, 2013, and the first
general-availability release was made on August 12, 2013.
= MySQL Workbench 6.1 = On January 23, 2014 the MySQL Workbench
Team announced its first public beta release of Version 6.1. The first
general-availability release was made on March 31, 2014. New features include
improved Visual Explain output, a Performance dashboard, Performance
Schema support, additional query result views, and MSAA support.
= MySQL Workbench 6.2 = On August 19, 2014, the MySQL Workbench
Team announced its first public beta release of Version 6.2. The first
general-availability release was made on September 23, 2014. New features are
shortcut buttons for common operations, "pinning" of the results tab, Microsoft
Access Migration, MySQL Fabric Integration, Spatial View Panel to
visualize spatial and geometry data, Geometry Data Viewer, Result Set Width,
SQL editor tabs are properly saved, Shared Snippets, a new Run SQL Script
dialog, Model Script Attachments, Client Connections management has a new "Show
Details" window where more information about connections, locks, and attributes
is displayed, performance columns can display sizes in KB, MB, or GB, the
migration wizard can resume operations of data copying if interrupted, MySQL
connection password is remembered across the MySQL Workbench session.
= MySQL Workbench 6.3 = On March 5, 2015, the MySQL Workbench
Team announced its first public beta release of Version 6.3. The first
general-availability release was made on April 23, 2015. New features include a
"fast migration" option to migrate the data from the command-line instead of
the GUI, a SSL certificate generator, improved SQL auto-completion, a new
table data import and export wizard, and MySQL Enterprise Firewall support.
Features Prominent features of MySQL Workbench
are: General
Database Connection & Instance Management
Wizard driven action items Fully scriptable with Python and Lua
Support for custom plugins MSAA compliant
Supports MySQL Enterprise features SQL Editor
Schema object browsing, inspection, and search
SQL syntax highlighter and statement parser
SQL code completion and context sensitive help
Multiple and editable result sets Visual EXPLAIN
SQL snippets collections SSH connection tunneling
Unicode support Data modeling
ER diagramming Drag'n'Drop visual modeling
Reverse engineering from SQL Scripts and live database
Forward engineering to SQL Scripts and live database
Schema synchronization Printing of models
Import from fabFORCE.net DBDesigner4 Database administration
Start and stop of database instances Instance configuration
Database account management Instance variables browsing
Log file browsing Data dump export/import
Performance monitoring Performance Schema metrics
MySQL instance dashboard Query statistics
Database migration Any ODBC compliant database
Native support: Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQL Anywhere, SQLite, and
Sybase ASE Licensing and editions
MySQL Workbench is the first MySQL family of products that offer two
different editions - an open source and a proprietary edition. The "Community
Edition" is a full featured product that is not crippled in any way. Being the
foundation for all other editions it will benefit from all future development
efforts. The proprietary "Standard Edition" extends the Community Edition
with a series of modules and plugins. As this business decision was announced
soon after the takeover of MySQL by Sun Microsystems, this has caused
speculation in the press about the future licensing of the MySQL database.
Community reception and reviews Since its introduction MySQL Workbench
has become popular within the MySQL community. It is now the second most
downloaded product from the MySQL website with more than 250,000 downloads
a month. Before that it was voted Database Tool of the Year 2009 on
Developer.com. MySQL Workbench has been reviewed by the
open source community and print magazines.
See also Comparison of database tools
References External links
Official website Official websites for
Documentation, Release notes MySQL Workbench Community blog