Here comes Lita, an AIR SQLite administration tool

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Published by david_deraedt on October 30th, 2008 in SQLite, Lita, AIR, ADM

After FCG and ADM, I'd like to share another AIR developement application I've created and been using for quite some time, now.

Lita is an administration interface for your AIR SQLite databases.

You can download and install it from its dedicated page.

You probably know that there are other SQLite administration tools out there. Many (including free ones) are mentioned on the SQLite official website. I used to use the "SQLite Manager" Mozilla plugin. But, as it turns out that AIR's implementation of SQLite is a bit special (since you have dedicated type affinities, see these explanations on the livedocs), I figured a dedicated admin tool for AIR would be useful.

Of course, there also are AIR SQLite admin tools, but the only one I know is Christophe Coenraets'. His app is pretty cool, but it didn't exactly do everything I needed. So, I decided to create my own.

Some days ago, I watched Paul Robertson's 360 presentation on SQLite optimisation (you can watch it here, it's a must watch IMHO). Then I realized that I wasn't the only one who had been surprised by the lack of decent tools for this job.

So, just like I did with ADM not so long ago, I quickly refactored the app, and created a page to let you guys try it.

As always, I'd be glad to know what you think.

John Hattan (not verified) on October 30th 2008

Definitely the best AIR SQLite app I've found so far. Although your download link (the one under the screenshot) brings up an authorization failure. The Lita link above the screenshot works. And I tried it on one of my databases and I'm not getting anything meangful in the "Data" tab. If I go to the SQL tab and do a "Select * from tablename" statement, I see everything just fine. Email me if you want a copy of the database. It's only 3k.

david_deraedt on October 30th 2008

Thanks, the link is now fixed. I'd defintely like to have your db to try and fix this bug. However, I cannot seem to access your email...

John Hattan (not verified) on October 30th 2008

No prob. I sent you the URL privately.

david_deraedt on October 31st 2008

Thanks a lot John. I found the bug : it occurs when the DB has only one table, that's why I didn't see it before. I'm fixing it as we speak.

Pedram (not verified) on May 09th 2009

Hi David, Lita is very cool app. i sent this comment just for appreciation. good luck.

Raecoo (not verified) on August 09th 2009

thanks your app! very nice.

I decided to give up the purchase of Base

rich (not verified) on September 03rd 2009

Hi, this is definitely a sweet looking app.  I do think there's an issue with the hash function however - I am outputting the hashed key in my trace output of my Air app, but when I paste it into Lita, I get the dreaded Error 3138.  I have pasted the same hash into other SQLite admin tools and it worked so I think something's up.  Anyway, other than that, nice app.

david_deraedt on September 05th 2009

I Rich,

This looks like a bug. Could you please email me via my contact page so that I can investigate it further ?

Thanks

 

Brendon Kozlowski (not verified) on September 08th 2009

Hello, David.  This application has proven quite useful in helping to create a local backup database internally to distribute, rather than adding all of the CREATE TABLE syntax directly in the code.  I have noticed an issue, however, and I'm uncertain if it has to do with AIR itself, or with Lita's representation of DATETIME data fields.

Whenever I insert data in to a DATETIME field using a simple INSERT query, and use the special "now" syntax for SQLite, I am getting a GMT time (i.e.: standard GMT, no deviation regardless of my current machine's timezone) shown in Lita, but the actual timestamp information tells me that it is my timezone (GMT -0400).  For instance:

Current Datetime: Tuesday September 8th, 2009 at 4:40pm EDT

Lita's Representation: Tue Sep 8 20:40:31 GMT -0400 2009

I've tried to search for information related to this but have come up empty handed, I hope I'm not wasting your time in asking about this.  I would have expected to see "Tue Sep 8 16:40:31 GMT -0400 2009"; am I wrong to expect that value?

Brendon Kozlowski (not verified) on September 08th 2009

Sorry, David; as you probably know, it was simply my own lack of knowledge over SQLite.  I found the answer while combing the Adobe AIR discussion board, from the following URL:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2218467#2218467

(Note: I ignored the error information from the topic described above as the user had a different field type.)  In case anyone is looking and doesn't find it on SQLite's documentation, the proper way of inserting the local datetime is to add a parameter to SQLite's DATETIME method during INSERT:

DATETIME('now','localtime')

The shorthand usage of just "now" inserts a default UTC datetime value, and even then it's probably best to explicitly use the DATETIME() method rather than the simple shorthand.  Sorry David, and again, I love your app.

david_deraedt on September 12th 2009

Hi Brendon,

You're welcome. I'm glad you could find a solution to your problem.

Thanks for sharing !

Tadalafil (not verified) on October 27th 2009

hi, very useful app. Thank you!