Re: [PlumAdmin][Weekly Design Update]

I just wanted to chime in because both of these features are things I used
heavily in previous jobs with different DBMS.

> History : Enabling users to be able to see their full queries within the
> history panel
>
> What we know
>
> -
>
> Users want to reuse queries when they are iterating upon previously
> run queries
> -
>
> When the changes are small, retyping queries is a painful and time
> consuming process
> -
>
> Users tend to use the text editor as their history, choosing not to
> delete each query after running it, or type out full queries in another
> application and copy/paste it into pgAdmin when they need to run it.
>
>

...
>
>
> What we’re working to validate
>
> -
>
> Do users need to compare two previously run queries? (Is this an edge
> case we need to account for?)
> -
>
> What value does seeing time offer? If it’s to see how long ago I ran
> this query, how might we better display time to enable this?
> -
>
> What is the best way for displaying a 1000+ line query?
>
>
I absolutely love the idea behind this, but the old PGAdmin3 implementation
left a lot to be desired.

I think the most useful implementation of a "history" feature i've used
can be found in an extension for Sql Server Management Studio (SSMS) called
SSMS Tools: http://www.ssmstoolspack.com/Features?f=3
That is one of the things I miss most about using SSMS for database
development. It saves both window history, and query execution history,
and both are put in a single searchable location, as well as the current
window history feature that's been discussed. I heavily used the date
search in my workflow.
In my old job, I was responsible for assigning all of my time to tasks in
our ticketing system. If I ever had time that wasn't assigned at the end
of the week, the history in SSMS Tools is how I would figure out what I was
doing on Monday from 2pm - 4pm.

It was also helpful if I wrote an "adhoc" script that I didn't save because
it wasn't something that should have had to be used again, but then a week
later someone wants the same thing slightly tweaked. Since it saved window
/ execution history for an arbitrary amount of time, you could set it to
save the last 6 months of history if you wanted. We had 10 developers on
my team, and every single one had that extension installed and used it
heavily.

Autoformat: Enabling users to quickly organize unformatted code into
> something readable
>
> What we know
>
> -
>
> Users need to quickly be able to organize it for scanning and reading.
>
>
>
> What we’re working to validate
>
> -
>
> Users need to see how to autoformat after they highlight a section of
> text
> -
>
> Where autoformat function can be placed to be useful with minimal
> distraction
>
>
Here is another area where I had missed. I used to use a tool called SQL
Assistant: https://www.softtreetech.com/sqlassist/index.htm

It had very configurable formatting options, so you didn't have a
one-size-fits-all solution. If you liked your commas in a select list
before or after, there was a setting for that. Do you like each join
condition on a new line? How much should it be indented? Etc... I have my
fingers crossed that any implementation is open to that type of
customization.

Anyways, thank you for all the work that you're putting into the project,
it's not going unappreciated.