2.3. Using Administrator
The interface to Administrator is very similar to a file browser. Along the top of the main program window is the Menu Bar. The Menu Bar allows access to configuration settings, among other things. Below the Menu Bar is the Toolbar. The Toolbar enables you to navigate through the databases accessed with Administrator. It also enables you to stop program operations prematurely.
Below the Toolbar is the Navigation Bar, which displays the path to the selected object. The Navigation Bar enables you to quickly move to a specific point in the Tree View.
Below the Navigation Bar are the Tree View and View panes. On the left is the Tree View, with which you can explore and modify various database objects. Information about the database object currently selected in the Tree View is shown in the right pane, the View Pane. The View Pane contains information about the properties of the currently selected object, or, in the case of a header node being selected, a summary of the properties of the existing objects of that class.
Below the two panes is the Status Bar. The Status Bar gives information about the current state of the program and shows information about the number of database connections Administrator has open.
You can navigate within Administrator in a number of ways. The quickest way to get started is to use the Tree View, which shows the overall structure of the database clusters. Click the [O-] to the left of any object to view its sub-objects and click it again to hide them.
Objects in the Tree View are cached for quick access, thus making refreshes necessary after certain actions. For example, if you perform a DROP CASCADE on an object that depends on another object that is under your current view, you need to refresh to see the results.
2.3.1. The Menu Bar
The Menu Bar enables access to cluster management dialogs, configuration settings, and preferences, among other things.
The Menu Bar has the following menus:
- File
File contains the following items:
Manage Cluster opens the Manage Cluster dialog, which enables you to:
Specify a new Cluster to administer
Edit an existing Cluster configuration
Copy an existing Cluster configuration
Remove an existing Cluster configuration.
Exit closes Administrator.
- Preferences
Preferences contains the following items:
Ask For Confirmations controls whether you are asked for confirmation when you attempt to perform certain actions that are potentially dangerous and irreversible, such as dropping objects. (This option is on by default.)
Caution Use this option very carefully! If confirmations is turned off and a DROP CASCADE is performed on the wrong object on a PostgreSQL 7.3 backend, you could lose a substantial portion of your database permanently.
Auto-quote Identifiers controls whether or not Administrator automatically quotes identifiers sent to the backend during CREATE/ALTER.
Note This option controls quoting only for items that are dynamic; that is, those in edit boxes (for example, Name Field, the Comment field in the Comment On dialog, etc.). Fixed-selection items such as those is combo-boxes and list are always quoted before sending to the backend.
Text boxes with multiple identifiers, such as function argument entries, check constrain definitions, and so on, are not parsed, so you must manually quote any identifiers that require it.
Log SQL Driver Data controls whether or not the JDBC driver (debug) data is logged to the SQL Driver Log window (whether or not the window is open). Turning this option on causes Administrator to log all the JDBC driver debug data to the SQL Driver Log window. (This option is on by default.)
Note This debug data also contains NOTICE messages from the backend. So for example, if you get an error during DROP RESTRICT on an object due to referential integrity problems, you can look in the SQL Driver Log window to see the NOTICE message from the backend and learn what the object's dependencies are.
Data Viewer Configuration opens the Configure Data Viewer dialog, which enables you to set the display and query preferences of the Data Viewer.
- View
If Show Driver Log is selected, a separate window displays a running log of the JDBC driver's debugging data.
- Help
Help contains information about Administrator in the About menu item. It also gives access to the appropriate sections of this manual in HTML.
 | Tip |
|---|---|
Some menu-bar functions can be activated from the keyboard.
Hold |
2.3.2. The Toolbar
The Toolbar enables you to navigate through the databases that you access with Administrator, and to refresh the Tree and Summary Views. The Toolbar also enables you to stop program operations at any time this is required.
The Toolbar contains buttons that perform the following actions:
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
 | Navigate back/forward to the last-visited object. |
 | Move to the parent cluster of the currently selected object. |
 | Refreshes the View Pane contents. |
 | Pressing this during the expansion of an object in the Tree View or during the display of a Detail View stops the current action. |
Table 2-1. Administrator Toolbar Buttons
| Note |
|---|---|
To refresh the nodes under an object, right-click on it and select Refresh (this level). To refresh the View Pane contents, click the Refresh button on the Toolbar. |
2.3.3. The Navigation Bar
The Navigation Bar enables you to quickly navigate to a specific point in the Tree View.
The Navigation Bar functions much the same way that address bars in browsers do:
Each time you use the Navigation Bar to go to a specific place, the path is added to the history
During a session, history can store an unlimited number of items, but between sessions a maximum of 30 unique items can be stored
When an old item in the history is revisited, it is moved to the top.
2.3.3.1. Navigation Bar Paths
To make the navigation as quick as possible, paths are entered in a format similar to the UNIX/Linux file system path.
The first component of the path is the cluster name. The next components specify which node you want to enter. To make this easy to type, you can use abbreviations. In most cases, these abbreviations are the first letter of the node. For example, the abbreviation for databases is "d", for users is "u", and for groups is "g". In addition, the full names can be entered directly as well. For example, to move to a table "tab1" under schema "S1" database "db1" under cluster "cl1", the navigation path would be:
cl1/d/db1/s/S1/t/tab1 |
Internal node names are not case-sensitive: the "d" for the databases can be specified as "D". However, the names of the individual objects (the cluster name, the database name, and the table name in this case) are case sensitive. The following paths are equivalent to the one listed above:
cl1/D/db1/s/S1/t/tab1 cl1/databases/db1/s/S1/TablEs/tab1 |
| Note |
|---|---|
Although an object name may contain a "/" in its name, the navigation bar cannot be used to access any object that has a "/" in its name. |
| Tips |
|---|---|
If you are unsure as to what the code for a node is, you can just manually visit that node; the Navigation Bar automatically updates itself to the current path using the proper codes. If your focus is in the Tree View, you can press
|
The abbreviation/name codes are listed below:
2.3.4. The Tree View and View Pane
The Tree View and View Pane enable you to explore and modify various database objects.
Clicking on an object in the Tree View displays its information in the View Pane. In the detailed view of some database objects, certain text may be in blue. If the cell contains a single blue line, it is a hyperlink that takes you to a detailed view. If it contains multiple blue lines, clicking on it brings up a menu that enables you to go to each of the blue objects.
In addition to mouse-based movement, you can use the keyboard to traverse the
Tree View.
For this type of movement to function, the Tree View
must be "in focus".
You can accomplish this by pressing the
Once the focus is on the Tree View, you can traverse the tree with the
arrow keys.
The current location in the Tree View is denoted by a flooded objectname box.
