What do you need from Shift?

Question Mark

Hey guys. Things are going pretty good around the shift campus these days. We just had a very talented coder join up with the project, so we hope to get things moving faster in the near future.

We are starting to compile a list of features that we would like to see in Shift. This list is not limited by reality; Anything we can think or dream of, we're writing down. We realize, however, that Shift will ultimately be used by everybody, so we are opening up this process to community contributions.

Here's the deal:

  1. Think hard about what you need from a database manager (nothing is too crazy, but realistic ideas help us all)
  2. Write it all down (be descriptive!) in the comments section of this post (we aren't going to open up the wiki for spam reasons)
  3. We will copy every idea over to the trac wiki for all to see
  4. If desired, comment on the ideas in this thread OR join the public #shift irc channel (info to be disclosed once it is up)
  5. We will sort through them and set implementation milestones on the feasible ones (Shift 14.0 anyone?)
  6. You get credit in the source code. Not necessarily an incentive, but hopefully a nice "thank you"

The wishlist is currently residing at http://trac.shiftosx.com/wiki/WishList.

If you want a say in how Shift moves forward, speak now or forever hold your peace. (Ok, that's not really true...)

~ Shift

06:58 AM | 14 Comments

Comments

  1. can't wait for a new release. i came up with 2 and have thought of more in the process: + this might be under "Schema view with graphical builder" but CocoaMySQL used to have a Right Click dropdown that allowed you to "Add field > Before the Selected Field / After the Selected Field / After Last Field" - i'd love that feature back! + a button or something on a field that allows you to reset auto_increment = 0. a quick button ALTER TABLE sometable auto_increment = 0 + that last one makes me think the program could have "quick queries" for frequent queries (a better version of "select query from history...") + AN ADD TO FAVORITES BUTTON (right now you have to save the database info in the form before you connect... many a-time i have saved to the wrong server)

    man i'm lazy, all of those are shortcuts, huh? well, i want 'em anyways.

    dave rupert on

  2. Support for SSH connections with the ability to automatically setup tunneling.

    Mathew Byrne on

  3. Added them to the wishlist. Thanks for the comments.

    Nate Todd on

  4. A easier way to handle favorites. The ability to:

    • Simply add a server to your favorites, when connected to it.
    • More things I will try to think of when I have more time

    I think Cyberduck is a good example. You can see how it looks when opening a new window:

    http://bivald.com/cyberduck.png

    You get your bookmarks easily listed, you can add/edit/remvoe them or connect to them. Might be an inspiration?

    Niklas on

  5. A very crazy "feature" I would like to see is a PHP Bridge for MySQL Server which don't accept external connection. I hope it's clear, I would like a PHP script to host on my server that communicate with Shift because my MySQL server don't accept connection directly from my computer.

    An other feature I would like is a very easy backup.

    olivier on

  6. @olivier je ne comprends pas. tu veux shift parler á php? comme un interface de programmation?

    Jonathan Crossman on

  7. I'm sorry to not be clear. One of my servers don"t allow me to access my MySQL database from another place than the local network of the server. So, I cannot use Shift or other software like that to manage my database because my computer is not in the same local network. I would like to have something that allow me to use Shift in spite of this restriction. I think the only way is doing a PHP script that make a "bridge" between the MySQL server and Shift.

    I hope you understand my envy. I know it represent a lot of work for only a minor part of the "public" but it'll be very useful for me. So implement features useful for everyone before.

    Thank you for reading me and sorry for my poor English!

    The same in French : Je suis désolé de ne pas être clair. Un de mes serveurs ne me permet pas de me connecter au serveur MYSQL depuis un autre endroit que le réseau local du serveur. Donc je ne peux pas utiliser Shift ou un autre programme du genre car mon ordinateur n'est pas dans le même réseau local. J'aimerais avoir quelque chose qui me premet d'utiliser Shift malgré cette restriction. Je pense que le seul moyen de faire ça est de faire un script PHP qui crée un "lien" entre le serveur MySQL et Shift.

    J'espère que vous avez compris mon envie. Je sais que ça représente beaucoup de travail pour seulement une minorité du public mais ce serait vraiment utile pour moi. Donc, implémentez d'abord des fonctionnalités utiles pour tout le monde.

    Merci de m'avoir lu et désolé pour mon anglais!

    olivier on

  8. That's cool. Sorry for my poor French. I think the SSH Tunneling might be able to help you with that sort of connection. I guess a PHP bridge would be a cool feature. It strikes me as a bit of a novelty, but I guess in situations where you have only have FTP access to a server it would be very useful.

    Also. @Niklas, Sorry I wasn't ignoring you. I've appended your name to the "add to favorites button" thing since I think that's what the first part of your comment was about. As far as location of the interface for managing favorites goes, it was actually a topic of discussion in the irc channel last night and we definitely want to make it as smooth and easy to use as possible. That Cyberduck style was one of the ideas kicked around.

    Jonathan Crossman on

  9. That's it, on this server, I only have a FTP access. Thank you for your interest :)

    If you need someone to do the French localization, you can contact me, I'll be happy to help this beautiful project ;)

    olivier on

  10. Just happened to stumble upon Shift, great initiative!

    From looking at the early Design ideas (which already look awesome!) I got the feeling that the 'tab' idea of CocoaMySQL is getting abandoned in favor of the 'iTunes favorites look'. Although this is a rather good idea and it looks great, I absolutely love the cmd+1 - 4 keycombo for switching between the various 'views', as being able to rapidly navigate using only a keyboard increased efficiency (at least for me, being a coder). In my experience the 'iTunes' look kinda rules out full keyboard control, so please take a moment to consider the options.

    That said, here's a few things I'd absolutely love to see in my database client: - The ability to create a text selection of a query in the manual sql area and being able to execute only the selected part (SQLYog (WIndows) does this) - Being able to move fields/columns in the structure view (this worked fine in CocoaMySQL until OSX 10.5) - Have favorite queries (which I can name myself) globally or per favorite server - Query performance suggestions, I'm imagining some visual aid which can make valid suggestions on where to add indexes, change JOIN orders etc. - SQLite support (as suggested already) would be awesome awesome

    Many of the current database client tend to clutter my desktop with a lot of different windows, it may be a personal preference, but I really dislike this.

    If you want help with Dutch localization, I can help with it (though I prolly won't be using it myself ;) ), I could also help out with the PHP Bridge that was suggested.

    Rogier on

  11. All current comments have been added. Thanks everybody and keep them coming!

    Nate Todd on

  12. The PHP bridge is a great idea, but you need to be very careful. Server's don't allow remote access to MySQL for security reasons. This feature is opening a back door to the database.

    I would not allow password authentication in a PHP bridge. Instead use a public/private key pair (which would require the OpenSSL module on the PHP end). Anything less is going to be vulnerable to brute force attacks.

    Abhi Beckert on

  13. My post might be off topic, but what I am desperately looking for is a nice and easy client software for a MySQL database sitting on a server. Something like PHPmyAdmin, but with the mom and pop user in mind.

    The rationale: It's so easy to set up a database-driven website for a client, but there is no backend for a non-tech user to maintain it (add records, delete, criteria-sorted list views etc). To me it seems like a waste of resources having to program such a thing from scratch, or using a full-blow CMS just to maintain a DB.

    If Shift is going in the other direction – more power and features – it might be worthwhile to think about having a password-protected "dummy" mode just for the basics that you could set up and hand over to a non-techie user just for the basic task (i.e. without the power of messing with the table structure).

    Ogil on

  14. You can drag columns in the Content view, but it doesn't stick. If possible, could you add that?

    Henk Poley on