Help

These are the pages bonSQL opens from its Help buttons and the F1 key. Each one covers a window or a dialog of the program. New to bonSQL? Start with Getting started.

Some pages are still being written; they are marked.

Getting started and windows

Getting started Installing bonSQL, the first start, connecting and running a first query.
The Object Browser The tree of databases, tables, views and routines on the left, and what its menus do.
The query editor Writing and running queries: tabs, running one or all queries, files and editing aids.
The Result tab Reading, sorting, filtering and editing a query's results.
The Messages tab What each query did: rows affected, timings, warnings and errors.
The History tab The queries bonSQL has run on a connection, with their times.
SQL templates Ready-made statements to insert into the editor, and your own.
Preferences The General, Fonts & Editor Settings and Others pages of Tools > Preferences.
Checking for updates Help > Check for Updates, and the optional weekly check.

Connecting

Connecting to a server The Connect dialog and its Server tab: host, user, password, port, compression and timeouts.
Connecting through an SSH tunnel Reaching a server through SSH, with a password or a private key.
Connecting with SSL/TLS Encrypting the connection, checking the server's certificate, and client certificates.
Advanced connection settings Connection colours, SQL mode and commands run at connect time.
Exporting and importing connections Moving saved connections to another computer.

Databases and objects

Creating a database A new database with its character set and collation.
Database schema as HTML A browsable HTML document describing a database's tables and columns.
Emptying a database Dropping some or all objects of a database while keeping the database.
Views Creating, changing and dropping views.
Stored procedures Creating, changing and dropping stored procedures.
Functions Creating, changing and dropping stored functions.
Triggers Creating, changing and dropping triggers.
Events Creating, changing and dropping scheduled events.
User Manager Creating users and granting or revoking their privileges.
Flush Flushing logs, privileges, tables, hosts and status on the server.
Server variables and status Reading the server's variables and status counters.

Tables, columns and indexes

Creating a table The table designer for a new table: columns, types, defaults and options.
Changing a table The table designer for an existing table, and what it sends to the server.
Table options The designer's Advanced tab: engine, character set, row format and other options.
Creating an index Adding indexes: columns, order, unique, primary and full-text.
Changing an index Editing and dropping indexes in the table designer.
Foreign keys Relationships between tables and their ON DELETE and ON UPDATE rules.
Check constraints Rules a row must satisfy, on servers that enforce them.
SQL preview The statements the table designer will run, before it runs them.
Table diagnostics Checking, analysing, optimising and repairing tables.

Data

Viewing and editing data The Table Data tab: browsing rows, editing cells, adding and deleting rows.
Filtering and sorting data Narrowing and ordering the rows shown, without writing SQL.
Looking up foreign key values Picking a value from the referenced table while editing a row.

Import, export and backup

Backing up a database as an SQL dump Writing a database's structure and data to an SQL file.
Running an SQL script Running a file of SQL statements, such as a dump, against a server.
Exporting data Saving a table or result as CSV, JSON, HTML, XML, Excel XML or SQL.
Importing CSV data Loading a CSV file into a table with LOAD DATA LOCAL.
Importing XML data Loading an XML file into a table with LOAD XML LOCAL.
Copying to another server Copying databases and tables, with or without data, to another server.