What's new in Kexi?

1. Support for server databases with new command line options

Now it's easy to create, connect and drop Kexi project database from a db server. Type kexi --help from konsole to see all available aptions with descriptions. Currently supported database servers are: PostgreSQL and MySQL. Firebird support is planned.

First, let's create, say, a new Kexi project database on our local MySQL server. We're using root MySQL account for this:

kexi -dbdriver mysql -user root -createdb mydb

Oops, 'mydb' database already exists. Kexi kindly asks us for permission to completely replace it:

Done:

Kexi created database and exited. We can open newly created database with using

kexi -dbdriver mysql -user yourname mydb

Note: currently on server-based Kexi project creation, permissions are not set to use database from your non-root account. This will be added. In the meanwhile, you need to set permissions on the database using your database administration tool, eg. MySQL ControlCenter, pgAdmin, etc.

2. Support for newest SQLite 3 database file format

SQLite 3 introduced new, awesome database file format, which is incompatible with SQLite 2 format. Kexi, however, offers automatic migration for existing .kexi project files, from SQLite 2 to SQLite 3 format.

Let's suppose we've clicked old_project.kexi file on our desktop. With current (pre beta5) Kexi version you can get following question:

If you answered "Yes", the project file will be converted imediately:

.. and Kexi will open it in a new format:

Answering "No" allows to still use old "SQLite2" format. Later, there will be more compatibility options available both via GUI and command line.

Note: You can specify database file format from command line (e.g. -dbdriver sqlite2 option) but it's not a requirement, as the file format is autodetected.

References

• More information about Kexi command line options