One of the many new time investments I have recently made, was the search for a utility to assist me with comparing MySQL databases.

During my recent site upgrade, I had to spend some time reviewing all of the changes Mark Kimsal and I have been discussing in Cognifty. I have been using SVN to keep up with code changes and applying new code when I had time.

The time had come to test a lot of database upgrade patches from the site to get current. I found I wanted something that had the familiarity of phpMyAdmin and some of the features I used in Subversion. I needed some diff functionality I wasn't finding in phpMyAdmin. I wanted to apply some SVN actions against an existing database, not the scripts that update them. I wanted to compare databases and see good representations of differences. Lastly, could the application generate adequate code to modify databases, tables, or even specific fields to meet my needs.

I have settled on using Toad for MySQL in conjunction with phpMyAdmin to analyze and manipulate the Cognifty MySQL database evolution. Be warned, there is some finicky behavior and a learning curve. I found the software suiteable for my use.

As with anything, your mileage may vary and always remember to backup first.

Toad for Mysql can be found here: http://www.toadsoft.com/toadmysql/

phpMyAdmin can be found here: http://www.phpmyadmin.net/

Cognifty can be found here: http://cognifty.com/

Quest Software offers the Toadsoft brand of products. Some offerings are freeware, some are not. The item I spotted was Toad for MySql. The application is not small and requires some patience during installation. Alas, it requires Windows, but, I have one machine running that.

I found the software had numerous MySQL management options built into it. I found many useful administrative shortcuts available and an ability investigate capabilities well beyond the reason I needed it. The major reason I used it was it's ability to examine two existing databases and provide a very intuitive, interactive summary of what the differences are. Toad was able to generate variations of SQL code based upon my selections within the diff reports.

If you want to get visual representations of Cognifty databases and dissect them, I can recommend using Toad for MySQL alone or in conjunction with phpMyAdmin.