Database recovery tools are an efficient way to fix corrupt and damaged databases.
There are both commercial and free alternatives you can use; we selected five of the best free tools with all essential functionality to carry out successful database repair operations.
1: Apache Open Office Base (formerly known as MySQL)
With a long history behind this award-winning program, it’s no surprise that Base is one of the most popular database management systems available on the market nowadays. Formerly known as ‘MySQL’, Base has been around since 1994 when it was initially developed by Michael Widenius, David Axmark, and Jonas Oberg. In 2010 Oracle Corporation acquired MySQL AB, and then in 2011, they donated three core products to the Apache Software Foundation – MySQL, MariaDB and OpenOffice.org Base.
2: Spoon for MySQL Forked by Oracle back in 2007
MySQL is a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database management system that runs as a server providing resources to its clients (applications that use the database). Since it was first released under the GPL license in 1995, the software has undergone several changes and improvements thereby improving both stability & performance.
These days it’s considered one of the best open-source options available on the market with regards to enterprise databases. The current version comes with improved support for partitioning, InnoDB tablespaces and full Unicode support. By default, MySQL doesn’t provide any GUI tools; instead, users rely on either command line or SQL scripts to create databases.
There is, however, a number of third-party tools aimed at simplifying the process – Spoon for MySQL is one of them. The first version was released back in 2005 as a fork from Ptools which was created by Pierrick Hordeleau. At the moment it’s considered one of the fastest GUI management interfaces available on the market and supports all major operating systems (Windows, Linux & Mac OS X)
3: DBForge Studio for MySQL
Oracle took over Sun Microsystems in 2010 as part of its strategy to grow its portfolio of enterprise software products targeting large organizations. Among other things, the acquisition brought massive improvements in terms of Java support with several high-profile projects like Glassfish and Open Office for Java being developed ever since – DBForge Studio for MySQL is another example.
The application was initially released back in 2007 as a freeware solution aimed at simplifying the process of database management and reporting (similar to other open-source tools like phpMyAdmin). It’s capable of creating, editing, and deleting databases as well as executing SQL queries directly from within the interface.
The latest version brings improved support for Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL along with an improved user experience and several additional features such as data sources (for connecting to any supported database) and visual query builder (for developing complex SQL queries without having to write code).
4: AndroMDA
Formerly known asDarwino’ (a portmanteau of ‘database’ and ‘Arduino’), AndroMDA is a project released under the BSD license by David Czarnecki back in 2004. Self-described as an agile modeling framework, it’s primarily aimed at Java developers working on enterprise-level software products.
The idea behind AndroMDA is that you don’t need to be skilled in modeling (UML or otherwise) to benefit from its functionality – high-level models are created using domain-specific languages (DSL) while low-level code is generated automatically using various transformation rules.
Andromeda can be used with any database platform; however, there are currently only two modules available for MySQL: open source middleware (for simplifying development tasks like CRUD operations as well as creating a secure data access layer) and free online training course (a series of video tutorials created by David Czarnecki).
5: MyPhpAdmin
MyPhpAdmin is a web-based MySQL administration tool developed in PHP. Among other features, it comes with a simple interface for creating new databases, tables, and fields as well as importing/exporting data using CSV files.
At the moment there’s only one developer working on the project – Jachym Holecek from the Czech Republic – which means that updates are released on an irregular basis. That said, most basic functionalities work fine without any issues so if you need to perform some quick database changes from time to time then this is worth checking out.
Conclusion:
MySQL is a mature and stable database platform that has earned its position as one of the leading solutions for small, medium and large enterprises. Although there are plenty of open-source and commercial products available on the market (with more or less functionality), it’s still one of the cheapest ways to set up a professional data management solution.
