Axion: Tools
Axion Console
Axion includes a simple console-based JDBC/SQL client application
similar to MySQL's console or Oracle's SQLPlus. To use it, simply invoke:
java -cp axiondb.jar:commons-collections.jar:commons-logging.jar \
org.axiondb.tools.Console dbname [dbpath]
or on Windows:
java -cp axiondb.jar;commons-collections.jar;commons-logging.jar \
org.axiondb.tools.Console dbname [dbpath]
You can enter arbitrary SQL commands and queries via the console.
There are a few special commands that you may find helpful.
-
LIST [SYSTEM] TABLES
-
Enumerate the tables known to the database.
-
DESCRIBE TABLE tablename
-
Enumerate the columns in the specified table.
-
@filename
-
Read the given file (path provided after
@-symbol) and execute all the commands listed in that
file. Each command should be terminated with a
semicolon. Comments are allowed using C-style
/* ... */
Since the console is included (by default) in Axion's JAR,
you may find it a handy tool for making quick changes in or
taking a quick look at an Axion database.
Third Party Tools
JDBC supports rich meta-data
functionality that make it possible to create generic but
robust query and administration tools. Axion already
supports a substantial portion of this functionality, and
hence can be used with many of these tools.
Recommended
The following tools are favorites of the Axion development team. They're both
robust tools in their own right, and work well with Axion.
-
DbVisualizer
-
http://www.minq.se/products/dbvis/
A very slick, free, but closed source tool. Axion works reasonably well with it,
although Axion doesn't yet support some advanced features that DbVisualizer
can provide.
Axion's logging seamlessly integrates with DbVisualizer's Log4J support (including display in
DbVisualizer's "Debug Console").
Note: It seems you need to add commons-logging.jar and
commons-collections.jar to DbVisualizer's classpath directly (edit
the dbvis.lax file), since DbVisualizer only allows one dynamically selected
JAR per Driver.
Version(s) Tested: 2.1, 3.2
-
iSQL-Viewer
-
http://isql.sourceforge.net/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/isql/
A slick tool with many nice features. Axion works well with it.
iSQL's message window can display Axion's log.
Version(s) Tested: 2.1.0
-
SQuirreL-SQL
-
http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/squirrel-sql/
A slick tool with many nice features, also skinnable and extensible.
Recent Axion builds and recent SQuirreL releases
work well together. (Be sure to try out Axion's transaction support with SQuirreL as well.)
Note: Due to some (commons-logging/log4j related?) classpath issues, you need to
add commons-logging.jar directly to SQuirreL's classpath (or lib directory). It
is not sufficient to add the JAR to the Axion Driver path only.
(The good news is that since Axion uses commons-logging and SQuirreL uses Log4J,
you can view Axion's log via the SQuirreL's log viewer.)
Version(s) Tested: 1.0final2, 1.1beta5, 1.1rc2
Others
Of course this just scratches the surface of the database tools that are available.
Try SourceForge,
Freshmeat.net,
DMOZ,
Google, etc. for more.
If you find Axion works well with your tool of choice,
drop us a note
and we'll be happy to list it here as well. If you find Axion's meta-data
facilities aren't sufficient for your tool of choice, by all means
drop us a note
and we'll see what we can do to support it.
Axion - Open Source Java Database Engine
$Id: tools.html,v 1.37 2007/11/15 15:09:27 rwald Exp $
Published 15 Nov 2007 at 3:07 PM GMT.
