Options Dialog

The Options dialog of MySQL Administrator allows you to configure connection profiles, general program settings, and more. You can open the Options dialog window using one of the following methods:

Figure 3.2. Options dialog

Options dialog

In the sidebar of that dialog, you can select the section you wish to configure. The sections each contain three buttons on the lower right side of the window:

If you make changes, but do not apply them before changing to another section or before closing the window, MySQL Administrator prompts you, asking whether or not you want to save your changes.

Administrator

[PD] It's kind of weird that the "General Options" section in this dialog doesn't occur first...? [PD] I don't understand the following sentence, which take this form: "The XXX section allows you to ... in the YYY section". The Administrator section allows you to specify MySQL Administrator's behavior in the User Administration section:

General Options

The General Options section allows you to specify the behavior and a number of other settings that are valid not only for MySQL Administrator, but also for other graphical MySQL applications.

  • Show Tip of Day: If enabled, a pop-up window with the tip of the day will appear on program startup.

  • Store Window Positions: When the applications are started the next time, the recent window positions will be reused.

  • Store Passwords: If enabled, passwords are stored in the MySQL Administrator's connection profile.

    You should specify how passwords are stored: Plaintext means they are stored without encryption; this can be insecure. Obscured means they are encrypted using a weak algorithm (and you could find the encryption key used in the source code). That encryption method, however, is operating system independent. Default is Plaintext.

  • Language: Select the interface language. The default is English.

  • Application Font: You may choose another font and font size by clicking the ... button.

  • Charset: By default, applications use the default character set (DEFAULT_CHARSET) of your operating system. The drop-down box allows you to select a different character set.

Connections

The Connections section allows you to change the values stored in your connection profiles. The available profiles are listed in the center box of the window, together with a history of connections that were made without storing them in a connection profile. You can collapse or expand both Connections and History by double-clicking them.

Connections are automatically added to History whenever you establish a connection to a MySQL server without using one of the profiles stored under Connections. They do, however, not appear in the drop-down box of the Connection dialog, but will be used when you manually type a connection name in the Connection box of the Connection dialog.

Figure 3.3. Options dialog: Connections

Options dialog: Connections

To edit an existing connection profile, click on its name and change the values that appear in the Connection Parameters and Advanced Parameters tabs, then click on the Apply Changes button to save your changes. To add a new connection profile, click the Add new Connection button. To delete a connection profile, click on its name and then click the Delete button.

The following fields are available for both Connections and History in the Connection Parameters tab:

  • Connection: Label of the connection profile. This is the profile name that appears in the Connection drop-down box of the Connection dialog. It may contain any characters, including spaces. The profile name should help you distinguish connections to different MySQL servers, or connections as a different MySQL user. Here are some examples:

    • Localhost as root

    • Localhost, Mike (not so privileged)

    • Remote machine XYZ where I'm superuser

  • Username: The username used to connect to the MySQL server.

  • Password: The password used to connect to the MySQL server. Note that passwords are not stored in the connection profile, unless you specify otherwise in the General Options section.

  • Hostname: The name of the host machine where the MySQL server you want to connect to runs.

  • Port: The port of the host machine that the MySQL server listens to.

  • Type: Specifies the protocol used to connect to the database server. The default protocol is MySQL (which uses the native MySQL protocol). The other protocols listed are not being used by MySQL Administrator. If you choose a protocol other than MySQL, MySQL Administrator will ignore that.

  • Schema: MySQL Administrator ignores entries made in that field. It is being used by other programs of the MySQL graphical tools suite.

  • Notes: Comment or additional information describing the connection profile.

Note that the Advanced Parameters tab may not be available in some of the first releases of MySQL Administrator. If that is the case in the version you are using, you can still set those parameters in the Connection dialog. Use the Details ... button of that dialog to display the Advanced Connection Options.

The following checkboxes are available for both Connections and History in the Advanced Parameters tab:

  • Use compression protocol: If enabled, the communication between MySQL Administrator and the MySQL server will be compressed, which may increase speed. This corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --compress option.

  • Return number of found rows, not number of affected rows: By default, MySQL returns the number of rows changed by the last UPDATE, deleted by the last DELETE or inserted by the last INSERT statement. Enabling this checkbox will return the number of rows matched by the WHERE statement for UPDATE statements.

  • Ignore spaces after function names, make them reserved words: Normally, an SQL function name has to be followed by a parens after the function name. If this option is enabled, you may write an SQL function like this:

           COUNT (*)
          

    This will make the function name a reserved word. This option corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --ignore-spaces option.

  • Allow interactive_timeout seconds of inactivity before disconnect: Normally, the connection is closed by the MySQL server after a certain period of inactivity on the client side. This period can be set with the interactive_timeout variable. [SH] Mike: This leave me wondering how you would set interactive_timeout in MySQL Administrator. If enabled, the server will not close the connection unless the period of inactivity exceeds the value set by interactive_timeout. This corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --connect-timeout=seconds option.

  • Enable LOAD DATA LOCAL handling: By default, the LOCAL option of the LOAD DATA statement is disabled for security reasons. Enabling this option will allow to load data from the local machine (that is where MySQL Administrator is running), and corresponds to starting a MySQL command-line tool with the --local-infile=1 option.