Why Switch to MySQL Workbench? A Free Open‑Source Alternative to Navicat
This guide explains why Navicat’s licensing issues make MySQL Workbench a compelling, GPL‑licensed, free alternative, and walks through downloading, installing, creating connections, testing them, and using core features such as schema defaults, fuzzy table search, CRUD operations, and data preview.
Open‑Source License
MySQL Workbench Community Edition follows the GPL license, which allows free use, sharing, and modification, but requires any derived software to also be GPL‑licensed.
First Experience with Workbench
Download the installer from MySQL official site , install it, and you will see the main interface.
Creating a Connection
Click the “+” next to “MySQL Connections”, then enter Hostname, Port, Username, Password, and other details.
Press “Test Connection”; a successful test shows a “Successfully made the MySQL connection” message.
Exploring Workbench Features
Setting Default Schema
To open a specific database automatically, set the “Default Schema” in the connection properties.
Fuzzy Table Search
In Workbench, use the regular‑expression pattern .*info* to perform a fuzzy search for tables containing “info”.
CRUD Operations
To insert a row (e.g., id=3), fill in the data and click “Apply”. The generated SQL appears; click “Apply” again to execute.
The execution log is displayed as follows:
Data Preview
Right‑click a table and choose “Select Rows – Limit 1000” to preview a subset of data.
Three Main Action Buttons
After selecting a table, three icons appear: the first shows table details (columns, indexes, DDL), the second allows modifying the table structure (DML), and the third displays table data with options to add, delete, or update rows.
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Programmer DD
A tinkering programmer and author of "Spring Cloud Microservices in Action"
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