HeidiSQL, previously known as MySQL-Front, is a free

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 and open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 client, or frontend for MySQL

MySQL

MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...

 and its forks

Fork (software development)

In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...

 like MariaDB

MariaDB

MariaDB is a community-developed branch of the MySQL database, the impetus being the community maintenance of its free status under GPL, as opposed to any uncertainty of MySQL license status under its current ownership by Oracle....

 and Percona, developed by German programmer Ansgar Becker and a few other contributors in Delphi

Borland Delphi

Embarcadero Delphi is an integrated development environment for console, desktop graphical, web, and mobile applications.Delphi's compilers use its own Object Pascal dialect of Pascal and generate native code for 32- and 64-bit Windows operating systems, as well as 32-bit Mac OS X and iOS...

. To manage databases with HeidiSQL, users must login to a local or remote MySQL server with acceptable credentials, creating a session. Within this session users may manage MySQL Databases within the connected MySQL server, disconnecting from the server when done. Its feature set is sufficient for most common and advanced database, table and data record operations but remains in active development to move towards the full functionality expected in a MySQL Frontend.Its efficient database.

History

Ansgar Becker began development on a MySQL Frontend in 1999 naming the project "MySQL-Front", and used a direct API-layer written by Matthias Fichtner to interface with MySQL servers and contained databases.

Private development continued up to version 2.5, until in April 2006, Ansgar open-sourced the application on SourceForge

SourceForge

SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...

, renaming the project "HeidiSQL". HeidiSQL was re-engineered to use a newer and more popular database-interface layer, ZeosLib, which debuted in the version 3.0 major release in April 2006.

Due to shortcomings in SourceForge project hosting and other comparative advantages (such as performance, features), Ansgar shifted HeidiSQL's code repository and bug/feature tracker hosting to Google Code

Google Code

Google Code is Google's site for developer tools, APIs and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers using Google's developer products....

 in May 2008. HeidiSQL was then rewritten to use a custom database-interface implementation rather than existing libraries.

Features

HeidiSQL has the following GUI features and capabilities.

• Server connection
  • Multiple saved sessions with connection and credentials stored within
  • Compressed client/server protocol for compatible servers
  • Interface with servers via TCP/IP, named pipes (sockets) or Tunneling protocol
    Tunneling protocol
    Computer networks use a tunneling protocol when one network protocol encapsulates a different payload protocol...
    
     (SSH)
  • Multiple parallelly running sessions in one window
  • Manage users on server: add, remove and edit users, and their credentials
  • Manage user privileges globally and per database
  • Export databases to SQL files or to other servers
  • Multiple query tabs, with each one having multiple subtabs for batch results
• Server host
  • View and filter all server variables, such as system_time_zone
  • Edit all server variables, either for this session or with global scope
  • View server statistic variables, and average values per hour & second
  • Currently running processes to analyze executed SQL and to kill bad processes
  • View command-statistics with percentage indicator bars per SQL command
• Databases
  • View all databases on server, connect to a single database to work with its tables and data
  • View connected databases' total and table size in KB/MB/GB within the database/table tree structure
  • Create new, alter existing databases' name, character set and coallation, drop (delete) databases
• Tables, views, procedures, triggers and events
  • View all objects within selected database, empty, rename and drop (delete) objects
  • Edit table columns, indexes and foreign keys. Virtual columns on MariaDB servers are supported.
  • Edit view query and settings
  • Edit procedure SQL body and parameters
  • Edit trigger SQL body and settings
  • Edit scheduled event SQL body time settings

jHeidi

A version written in Java, which is designed to work on Mac and Linux computers, also exists. The jHeidi project has been discontinued since March 2010. http://www.heidisql.com/jheidi/

External links

• Official website
• HeidiSQL project page on Google Code
  Google Code
  Google Code is Google's site for developer tools, APIs and technical resources. The site contains documentation on using Google developer tools and APIs—including discussion groups and blogs for developers using Google's developer products....