Once you’ve logged in, the interface feels much like Microsoft’s Enterprise Manager, so if you’ve been using Enterprise Manager, you’re already right at home. You’ll see a folder for databases, management, security, and tools (Figure 4).
Figure 4. The Main Menu
You’ll notice if you click on any particular database, you’ll get detailed statistics on the database itself, including file MDF and log file sizes, backup dates, total disk size, and so forth. This is great information for hosted customers to have because it gives them basic information that might not be available in the control panel you use for hosting. You’ll also notice the many things you can work with including tables, views, stored procedures, etc.
Databases
You can easily create a new database by clicking the Databases folder itself. From this menu, you have several options. These include creating a new database, renaming a database, viewing database info/space usage, generating SQL script that you can use to recreate the database, backing up a database, detaching a database, and deleting a database (Figure 5). This view can be turned on or off for web hosted customers, say for example, if the database was created through a control panel and you didn’t want your customers to manage the creation/deletion of databases unless it was through your control panel.
Figure 5. The databases menu
Tables
Clicking on the table menu brings up a list of tables in that database (Figure 6). You have many options from here including creating a new table (the yellow star at the top right), adding content to the table, searching for data within the table, renaming the table, managing the table structure (to include relationships, triggers, constraints, and indexes), creating the SQL code to create the table, and deleting the table.
Figure 6. The table list
Viewing table content is simple. Click the content icon and you can instantly see your data (Figure 7). From here you can add data, search for data, create XML, CSV, and edit the table structure. And once you create an index on a table with a primary key, you can then easily edit the data in the table as well (Figure 8).
Figure 7. Table Content
Figure 8. Edit Table Data
Figure 9 shows how detailed you can get with your table structure. You can edit table structure quickly and easily, including defining indexes, relationships, triggers, and constraints. All very powerful features of MS SQL 2000 and also one of the places where free tools like Microsoft’s Web Data Admin fall short. They don’t have this kind of flexibility or control to handle all the intricacies involved in complex database work.
Figure 9. Managing Table Structure