With MySQL Workbench 26.7, we introduced a new generation of MySQL Workbench, built on updated technology and on the MySQL Shell foundation.

Alfredo Kojima’s post, Introducing MySQL Workbench 26, provides a great overview of the new architecture and the capabilities available in this release. Rather than repeat that overview, I wanted to share a few things that are worth trying once you have Workbench 26.7 installed.

Some are immediately visible. Others are capabilities you may not discover until you start exploring the new interface.

1. Use a Notebook—or stay with a SQL Script

SQL Notebooks provide a new way to work with SQL by letting you combine queries, results, and explanatory text in an interactive document.

But Notebooks do not replace the traditional SQL Script Editor, they are another option.

Look at the + button at the top of the editor. From there, you can easily create either a Notebook or a SQL Script and choose the style that makes the most sense for what you are doing.

For exploratory work, troubleshooting, demonstrations, or analysis that you want to document, a Notebook can be very convenient. When you simply want to write and run SQL, the familiar Script experience is still there.

Tip: You do not need to choose one approach. I find it useful to switch between Notebooks and Scripts depending on the task.

SQL Notebooks

SQL Script Editor

2. Explore Client Connections beyond the connection list

The Client Connections screen is one of my favorite areas to explore in the new Workbench.

It is much more than a list of active sessions.

Select a connection and you can examine it using five different views:

  • Details
  • Summary
  • Locks
  • Statement
  • History

Together, these views give you much more context about what an individual connection is doing.

You can see information about the session, examine the statement it is executing, investigate locks, and look at recent statement history.

And once you understand what is happening, you can take action directly from the same interface. You can kill the current statement or, when necessary, kill the connection itself.

Tip: If an application appears to be stuck, start with the connection Summary and then look at Statement and Locks. If the problem is a particular statement, you may be able to stop just that statement rather than terminating the entire connection.

3. Try the new MySQL Enterprise Backup experience

For customers using MySQL Enterprise Backup, Workbench 26.7 includes an all-new graphical backup experience.

From Workbench, you can use MySQL Enterprise Backup to create and schedule full and incremental backups and restore from those backups.

This brings an important operational workflow into the same environment DBAs are already using to administer and troubleshoot MySQL.

Tip: If you already use MySQL Enterprise Backup from the command line, the new Workbench interface provides another way to manage common backup and restore operations visually.

4. Look at your query plan visually

Visual Explain has also been redesigned for the new Workbench.

It provides a graphical way to understand how MySQL plans to execute a query and supports newer MySQL capabilities, including the hypergraph optimizer and HeatWave query plans.

Visual Explain is obviously useful when investigating a slow query, but you do not need to wait until something goes wrong to use it.

Tip: For an important or complex query, look at its execution plan while you are developing it. You can zoom in and out of the plan and hover over individual elements for additional details. You can also use Visual Explain Analyze, which executes the query, when you want to compare the plan with what happens at runtime.

While you are working in the SQL editor, also try the SQL Formatter and updated auto-completion. They are smaller improvements, but they quickly become part of the everyday editing experience.

5. Take a look at GUI plugins

One of the aspects of Workbench 26.7 that I am particularly excited about is extensibility.

The new Workbench architecture supports GUI plugins, allowing developers and the MySQL community to add functionality and create new workflows inside Workbench.

That opens an interesting new direction for the product.

The MySQL team will continue adding capabilities to Workbench itself, but not every useful MySQL workflow has to originate in the core product. Developers can also experiment, integrate other tools, and create extensions for workflows that matter to them.

Tip: If there is something you repeatedly do around MySQL that you wish were available directly inside Workbench, take a look at the GUI plugin examples. It might be something you—or someone else in the MySQL community—can build. And if what you build is generally useful, consider contributing it back to the MySQL community.

A foundation we can continue building on

MySQL Workbench 26.7 is more than a change in version number. It establishes the foundation for the next generation of Workbench development.

It is also the current MySQL Workbench release. Workbench follows a Single Release model, so users should stay current with the latest available release. Customers still using MySQL Workbench 8.0.47 should plan to move to MySQL Workbench 26.7.

Because Workbench 26 is a ground-up rebuild, not every capability from Workbench 8 is available yet. We will continue adding functionality, and feedback from users will help us determine which workflows and capabilities are most important.

So download MySQL Workbench 26.7, try some of the features above, report any bugs you find, and let us know what you think.

And if you build an interesting GUI plugin, we would definitely like to hear about that too.

As always, thank you for using MySQL!