October 18, 2022 at 10:50 pm
I made SQuiL, a SQL Server database browser that allows you to search and click around any database without writing SQL.
It doesn't have any users yet and I'd love to have some feedback. There's an online demo and if you then want to try your own databases, there's an app in the Microsoft store. There's also a Docker version.
October 19, 2022 at 12:28 pm
Very interesting. It looks impressive and the site works great. The GitHub repo (+1 star'ed) is always the interesting part imo. It seems maybe the project began a while ago and has been updated to .NET Maui. Lots of XML everywhere. Entity Framework and LINQ data access
Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können
October 19, 2022 at 2:30 pm
Maui is just for the Windows Desktop version. When you already have a Blazor web application that's the easiest way to get an installable version that can connect to local instances.
Entity Framework is just used for configuration purposes, the actual data access during browsing is custom (and are SQL Server XML queries).
It's just one-starred, yes. I haven't done much advertisement yet.
It's also likely still quite buggy and I'd love to have some test users.
Thanks for your interest!
October 19, 2022 at 4:04 pm
The GitHub link is only visible in the footer of the demo/query section of the site
https://github.com/jtheisen/squil
Entity Framework is just used for configuration purposes, the actual data access during browsing is custom (and are SQL Server XML queries).
On the site where it displays the queries it also says: "Each page's data is requested in only one query. The query is textually long, but executes efficiently as it relies only on a series of nested table seeks. This is guaranteed unless you use the scanning search or you hit a bug."
So how does the data access flow work? You're building dynamic SQL in CS and submitting the code using EF? It's server side Blazor and there doesn't appear to be any login or authorization.
The target audience is medium-sized SQL Server instances which have no UI? These are analytical/reporting/data mart type implementations?
The vision statement is interesting. I'm working on projects with a similar vision or so it seems
Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können
October 19, 2022 at 6:18 pm
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October 19, 2022 at 6:19 pm
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October 19, 2022 at 6:21 pm
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October 19, 2022 at 6:49 pm
(another attempt to fight the anti-spam forum measures)
EF isn't used at all for the interesting parts. I just added it 2 weeks ago and it's only used by the Desktop version to store connection configuration (the Desktop version has a UI to add connections). The web version currently doesn't make use of EF at all. It may in the future when I add more UI for configuration that needs to be persisted somewhere.
Data flow is: Building dynamic SQL in CS and submit it directly to SQL Server via ADO.NET. The result is an XML response that is then parsed by CS.
The demo site shouldn't have authorization obviously. If you want authorization with the Docker version you currently will have to put something in front of it. In Azure it's pretty easy to have App Services give you an Azure AD login, for example. Otherwise, maybe nginx?
The target audience is medium-sized SQL Server instances which have no UI?
Yes, that's most promising group. Also DBAs that want to have a quick look around or are asked to do some digging.
These are analytical/reporting/data mart type implementations?
Or those with old UIs that nobody wants to use anymore because they still require IE6 or Windows XP or something.
Also, once editing is supported, it could be an alternative to tools like retool: You have a UI for your database, but it's only for your customers and you do need something for internal admin stuff and don't want to spend too much resources on developing something proper.
The vision statement is interesting. I'm working on projects with a similar vision or so it seems
Really, what's that?
October 20, 2022 at 2:42 pm
(another attempt to fight the anti-spam forum measures)
EF isn't used at all for the interesting parts. I just added it 2 weeks ago and it's only used by the Desktop version to store connection configuration (the Desktop version has a UI to add connections). The web version currently doesn't make use of EF at all. It may in the future when I add more UI for configuration that needs to be persisted somewhere.
Data flow is: Building dynamic SQL in CS and submit it directly to SQL Server via ADO.NET. The result is an XML response that is then parsed by CS.
Imo and in my experience data access is a recurring issue for people trying to have a career as a DBA/SQL developer. C# developers are provided with tools to automate running SQL by mapping SQL data types to C# data types and vice versa. The alternative is always "something like Dapper" or "raw" ADO.NET, i.e. DIY. It's frustrating because those tools require certain data type conversions be coded individually (like stored procedure parameters) and the error handling is based on exceptions thrown by/in C# (hello ADO.NET errors!) and not the underlying SQL errors. There are many other issues as well. From a C# developer's pov EF makes their life easier and "self documents" and does other "full stack" things. Imo there's a large gap in automation where SQL developers' are being left behind. Sometimes SQL developers get unfairly portrayed as "Paul Bunyan" standing against things like EF. Relative to "the vision" there's a self-interested, intractable middle tier of complexity
Your approach seems interesting. I'll have to clone the repo and really look into it. The methods could be extracted into a library and configured using options. Maybe you could describe it more? How are the queries parameterized? Your code is parsing the query string or it's using .NET Core framework?
The demo site shouldn't have authorization obviously. If you want authorization with the Docker version you currently will have to put something in front of it. In Azure it's pretty easy to have App Services give you an Azure AD login, for example. Otherwise, maybe nginx?
agree
The target audience is medium-sized SQL Server instances which have no UI?
Yes, that's most promising group. Also DBAs that want to have a quick look around or are asked to do some digging.
These are analytical/reporting/data mart type implementations?
Or those with old UIs that nobody wants to use anymore because they still require IE6 or Windows XP or something.
Also, once editing is supported, it could be an alternative to tools like retool: You have a UI for your database, but it's only for your customers and you do need something for internal admin stuff and don't want to spend too much resources on developing something proper.
SSC is owned by a SQL tools vendor so maybe not the best place to conduct market research.
The vision statement is interesting. I'm working on projects with a similar vision or so it seems
Really, what's that?
The open technical project is a C# data access library for automating and running SQL Server stored procedures 🙂
Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können
October 21, 2022 at 2:18 pm
Did you try the Desktop version from the MS Store?
I got some reports about "crashes" from the partner portal, but no clue about what went wrong.
It would be useful to know when exactly it stopped working.
October 21, 2022 at 7:28 pm
At this point no I haven't downloaded the desktop app. I did look around some more at the Blazor razor pages. In that area in general you seem to be more into the details. We're using Telerik Blazor UI components which seems like a different approach. As far as diagnosing or fixing issues with desktop applications I know less about that. My areas are SQL Server database and data access with C# API's
Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand vertreiben können
October 21, 2022 at 8:31 pm
Ok, that was somebody else then.
Yes, I generally write very opinionated code. 🙂
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