SQL Data Workshop - First version (0.8.5) released

Approximately, eighteen months ago, I began to work with SQL queries that returned large data amounts. The database server was SQL Server 2005 and I used the SQL Server Management Studio 2005 and 2008 with no successful results.

Then, in my free times I developed a small application using java and swing in order to execute those queries. This time, I have success. This is a screenshot of the very earlier versions with it’s initial name “Bringer Query Executor”:

Over time, I was adding more features. At the beginning of this year, I realized that I could share this application with more people if I made some adjusts and improvements to the GUI (graphical user interface) and correct some errors and bugs.

For the GUI, I began using the flamingo ribbon bar but, I felt the application's performance very poor. Interacting with controls and it's response was not good. Additionally, I do not found some way to remove the ribbon’s upper toolbar when using other look and feel that substance.

This is a screenshot of the application using the native look and feel under Windows 7 Operating System:

The same application with substance look and feel:

But, using the substance look and feel, sometimes the application freezes unexpectedly or throws a Java Heap Memory Exception.

Then, I decided to leave the GUI ribbon-based approach and tried the jidesoft framework (http://www.jidesoft.com). This time, the application has a very good performance.

The latest feature that I added it was a visual query engine. I implemented this engine based on the SQL Leonardo application (https://sourceforge.net/projects/sqleo/).

Finally, I host it in sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqldw/.

Here are some screenshots.

This is the main application window running on Windows 7:

 The Visual Query Builder running on Ubuntu Linux:

 The results populated by the query:

A correlation matrix calculated using values retrieved by a query:

A grouped histogram chart using the integrated charting feature:

A scatter chart using a short dataset:

A scientific scatter chart using a large dataset:

And finaly, a spider-web chart:

There are some of the program's features. But, there are more to explore. 

At this moment, last released version is 0.8.5.2. 

Changes in 0.8.5.2 compared with 0.8.5.1, are related only with certain parts of code in order to provide back compatibility with jre 1.6.x. This changes were made because many users ask me for compatibility at least with jdk 1.6.x.

I'm planning improvements and major changes for the next version. For example, I'm thinking seriously to write some parts using java fx, including css stylying in order to integrate uniformly the jide native swing look and feel with the new javafx controls. Another change includes too quit the current statistical core and replace it by the apache commons math library since it is more robust and efficient for nearly all tasks. But, until all this changes are commited, I hope that you enjoy work with this current version (0.8.5.x).

Thanks to +Dolores Juárez by support with the project documentation. Now, she is in charge for the user experience improvements.

Greetings!

+ M. Angel