DBTarzan

The database browser

View project on GitHub

Can I use it with production databases?

DBTarzan does not change the content of the databases, it uses only read-only queries, so it can’t change the content of the database:

  • To query the names of the tables it uses the JDBC Connection.getMetaData().getTables() method.
  • To query the columns of each table it uses the JDBC Connection.getMetaData().getColumns() method.
  • To query the foreign keys it uses the JDBC Connection.getMetaData().getImportedKeys() and Connection.getMetaData().getExportedKeys() methods.
  • Simple selects with simple where clauses (on the primary key or on the foreign keys) are used to show the content of the tables.

DBTarzan is also built to have good performances and not block the database when reading from tables with a big number of rows or with big blob fields:

  • By default DBTarzan limits the rows resulting from a select query to 500. This can be changed in the Connections editor, but only by purpose.
  • DBTarzan can be configured in the in the Connections editor to limit the maximum amount of bytes it reads from each field when showing the table rows. When showing an individual row with the Vertical row view the fields are displayed in their entirety.

I use it frequently in my office on production databases.