Settings

The Settings dialog holds every option of DbSchema, from the network proxy to the SQL that DbSchema writes for your database. Most of them you never need to change. This page shows where they are.

The DbSchema Settings dialog, General tab, with the Reverse Engineer page open: Order Columns and the other options

A setting belongs to your DbSchema installation, not to the model, and changes nothing in the database.

Open the settings

  1. Choose Edit → Settings.
  2. Pick a tab:
    • General: application-wide preferences.
    • DBMS Specific: the data types and the SQL of one database type, such as PostgreSQL.
  3. Click a page in the tree on the left. Its settings show on the right, each with a line that explains it.
  4. Press OK to keep your changes, or Cancel to drop them.

Find a setting

Type a word into the box above the tree, such as proxy or order. The tree keeps only the pages whose settings match.

A setting that you changed shows its name in another color, so you can find your changes again.

The pages of the General tab

PageWhat it holds
Network → Proxy, SSL Certificates, SSHHow DbSchema reaches the network. See Firewall, Proxy & SSH Tunnel.
Language, Date, Time & Number FormatsThe language of DbSchema, and how it shows dates and numbers
Project FileOptions of the model file
Reverse EngineerHow DbSchema reads a schema from the database. See Sort columns alphabetically.
SQL EditorThe SQL editor
Relational Data EditorThe Data Explorer
Query BuilderThe Query Editor
Data Loader & GeneratorThe Data Importer and the Data Generator
HTML/PDF DocumentationThe logo and the company text of the documentation
Schema ExportThe SQL script that File → Export As... → Export Schema & Data writes
Software UpdatesHow DbSchema checks for new versions
DbSchemaCLIThe command-line client
Store LocationsWhere DbSchema saves its configuration
AI AssistantThe AI Assistant
Usage TelemetryAnonymous usage events, sent only if you opt in

Set the network proxy

If your company reaches the internet through a proxy, DbSchema needs it for everything it does online, such as downloading JDBC drivers and working with Git over HTTPS.

  1. Choose Edit → Settings.
  2. Open Network → Proxy.
  3. Choose the proxy in System Proxy. Press the pencil button next to it to add or edit a proxy.
  4. Press OK.
The Proxy page of the Settings dialog, with System Proxy set to Default Automatic

The proxy section of Firewall, Proxy & SSH Tunnel explains the proxy types and the bypass rules. Network → SSL Certificates sets which server certificates DbSchema trusts, as Trust your company's certificate shows.

Sort columns alphabetically

DbSchema shows a table's columns in the order the database lists them.

  • To sort them alphabetically for every table you load from the database, tick Reverse Engineer → Order Columns.
  • To sort one table in the model, right-click its header on the diagram and choose Order Columns Alphabetically ( Pk First ). The primary key columns stay first.

Either way, the database keeps its own column order. Databases have no way to reorder the columns of an existing table.

Reverse Engineer → Hide Table Columns If Larger Than ... Columns hides the columns of very wide tables on the diagram, except the primary key and foreign key columns.

Change the SQL that DbSchema writes for a database

DbSchema writes the SQL for each database type from templates, such as the CREATE TABLE or the RENAME statement. If your database needs another syntax, you can change the template.

  1. Choose Edit → Settings and open the DBMS Specific tab.
  2. In DBMS, choose the database type.
  3. In the Settings tab, open SQL Syntax and the kind of object, such as Table.
  4. Edit the statement. Below each one, DbSchema lists the keywords it fills in.
  5. Press OK.
The DBMS Specific tab for PostgreSQL, with the SQL Syntax templates of tables: Create Table, Rename Table, Drop Table and Comment

For example, the PostgreSQL template to rename a table is ALTER TABLE ${table} RENAME TO ${newName}. DbSchema replaces ${table} and ${newName} with the old and the new name.

The other pages of the Settings tab cover Formatting (letter cases, escape codes, date formats, delimiters), Synchronization, Reverse Engineer, Server, Behaviour and SQL Editor for that database type. To add a database type that DbSchema does not know, press Define New.

Edit the data types of a database

The Data Types tab lists the data types that DbSchema offers for the database type, in the column dialog and in the conversion between databases.

The Data Types tab for PostgreSQL, with the columns Data Type, Precision, Equivalent Java Type, Options and Preferred
  • Data Type: the name as the database writes it, such as varchar.
  • Precision: what the type takes in parentheses. NONE takes nothing, as integer. LENGTH takes a length, as varchar(100). DECIMAL takes a size and decimals, as numeric(10,2). ENUMERATION takes a list of values.
  • Equivalent Java Type: the general kind of the type. DbSchema uses it to pick a matching type when it converts a model to another database with Model → Convert Model.
  • Preferred: if ticked, DbSchema uses this type where it can. For example, if integer is an alias of number(12,0) and integer is ticked, DbSchema converts number(12,0) to integer.

Press Add to define a type, or Learn from Database to read the types from the connected database.

Share your settings

The Import, Export and Restore buttons under each tree work on that tab's settings:

  • Export saves them to a file.
  • Import reads them from a file, such as one a colleague exported.
  • Restore resets them to the defaults.

Common problems

Where is the proxy setting?

In Edit → Settings, General tab, Network → Proxy. Type proxy into the box above the tree to jump there.

Next steps