UI/Functional Spec for Updated New Connection Dialog and Connection Property Sheet

Tracked by Issue 125963

Currently the dialog used to establish a new connection is very JDBC-specific. In particular, it has you fill in the JDBC URL, which can be a somewhat complicated and arcane format, and is different for each database driver.

This feature change proposed to redo the New Connection dialog as well as the database connection property sheet to not require understanding a JDBC URL format. This is particularly useful for our growing set of developers who do not know about (or care about) JDBC and do not code in Java (e.g. PHP, Ruby, C/C++, Groovy, etc.).

For debugging purposes, or for quick cut/paste support we will provide a button that will allow them to display and edit the JDBC URL directly, but the default mechanism will hide the JDBC URL format.

New Connection Dialog

Today the dialog shows the driver name, the user, password, and database URL

Every client/server database URL needs to include the host, port and (in the majority of cases) the database name as part of the URL. Rather than having to enter that information directly into a URL string, this change recommends providing text boxes for these standard parameters.

If the user wants to add additional properties, they can choose to view and edit the URL directly.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                  |
| Driver:           ____________________________________ v         |
|                                                                  |
| Host name:        _____localhost______________________           |
|                                                                  |
| Port Number:      ____________________________________           |
|                                                                  |
| Database Name:    ____________________________________           |
|                                                                  |
| User:             ____________________________________           |
|                                                                  |
| Password:         ____________________________________           |
|                                                                  |
|                   [ ] Remember password                          |
|                   (see help for information on security risks)   |
|                                                                  |
| [ ] edit JDBC URL                                                |
|                                                                  |
| Database URL:      ____________________________________          |  
|                                                                  |
 ------------------------------------------------------------------

Some notes:

• The Driver field is a drop-down showing existing drivers that have been registered. There will also be a choose to register a new driver.
• The JDBC URL is not visible by default. If the user clicks "edidt JDBC URL" then the URL is visible, filled in based on the values entered so far
• Changes to the URL and the entry fields are kept in sync automatically.
• For Java DB's embedded driver (and potentially other embedded drivers), host and port are not visible
• Host name defaults to localhost, as that is the most common
• If we do not know the URL format for the selected driver, then the entry fields are hidden and the user is required to edit the URL directly
• Stretch goal: the Advanced tab is removed. Instead, after connecting, the user is prompted to select a schema (if this makes sense - it doesn't make sense for MySQL as it doesn't support schemas).

The Properties Sheet for a Connection

Currently the properties sheet for a connection shows (among other things) the JDBC URL, user and password. This will remain unchanged.

Comments Log

• Craig Russell and Wade Chandler both argue that the drop-down should include the ability to register a new driver. So I added support for this.