Manage data sources

Data source is a location of data for your application. In IntelliJ IDEA, you can define the following data sources:

Database data source: operational databases that contain data (see Database connection ).

Data Definition Language (DDL) files: SQL files that contain data definition language statements.

Configure display options for data sources

You can group, assign a color, and filter objects in the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ).

Customize the view of objects in the Database tool window

To group, enable, or sort data sources, click the Show Options menu icon on the title bar of the Database tool window and select the necessary options.

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), the view of the data source changes instantly.

For more information about the view options, see View options in the Database tool window.

Group data sources in folders

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), select the necessary data source and press F6 . Alternatively, right-click a data source and select Move to Folder .

If you do not have any folders, you will see the New Folder dialog. In the text field, type the folder name. You can use a forward slash ( / ) to define nesting. For example, the QA/Quick name will create the Quick folder inside the QA folder.

If you have folders with grouped data sources, you will see the Move to Folder dialog. To create a new folder, select New Folder . To remove a data source from the folder, select Root folder .

Also, you can use Ctrl+C , Ctrl+V , and Ctrl+X to copy, paste, and cut your data sources between folders. If you cut and paste a data source inside one project, it will be just moved, no password is required. But the password is required in all the other cases. The cut operation can be undone by using Ctrl+Z .

Assign a color to a data source

To have better differentiation between production and test databases, you can assign a color to a data source.

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), click the Data Source Properties icon .

Select the data source for which you want to assign a color.

Click the circle in the Name field to select a color.

Assign a color to query consoles and grids

The text data viewer can use the color of the data source. To set a color, right-click a data source and select Color Settings . In the Database Color Settings dialog, select the dialog and coloring options. To have the data source color applied for query consoles and grids, select the In console editors and grids checkbox.

Filter objects from the toolbar

To select the necessary objects, use the Filter icon on the toolbar .

Show comments for data sources and database objects

To enable descriptions for databases and tables, navigate to View | Appearance and select Descriptions in Tree Views .

To add comments for tables, select a table and press Ctrl+F6 . In the Comment text field, add a table description.

To add comments for a database, open database settings Ctrl+Alt+S and add a database description in the Comment text field.

Share data sources

Data sources in IntelliJ IDEA are available at two levels: project and global. The project level means that you can access a data source only from the project where this data source was created initially. At the global level, a data source is available for other projects. By default, a data source is available at the project level.

To share a data source between different projects inside your IDE, you need to move the data source to the global level.

You can copy a data source if you need to use the same data source in another project, but have different requirements to it, such as its accessibility level (project or global), the user, database connection and schema settings, and so on.

Make a copy of a data source

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), click the Data Source Properties button ( ).

In the Data Sources and Drivers window, select the data source that you want to copy.

Click the Duplicate icon ( ), or press Ctrl+D .

Share data sources between projects

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), click the Data Source Properties button ( ).

In the Data Sources and Drivers window, click the Make Global icon ( ) to make the data source available at the global level.

Share data sources between different IDE instances

You can copy information about a data source to the clipboard in the XML format. The resulted XML does not include password information.

You can send the XML snippet to another IDE (in a messenger or by email) and import it.

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), select data sources that you want to copy.

On another workstation, click View | Tool Windows | Database .

In the Database tool window, click the New icon , select Import from Clipboard .

IntelliJ IDEA stores passwords in native keychains on macOS and Linux and in the KeePass storage on Windows. You can configure your IDE to store passwords in KeePass ( File | Settings | Appearance and behavior | System settings | Passwords ).

Sharing data source settings

You can export and import data source settings by using the settings.zip file. The settings.zip file includes only data sources that are available at the global level. For more information about how to change a level, see Change the project level to global.

Export data source settings

Click File | Manage IDE Settings | Export Settings .

In the Export settings window, click Select None .

In the Export settings window, select Database: drivers , Database: settings , and Database: global sources . You must have at least one global data source to have Database: global sources in the export list.

In the Export settings to field, type a path to the folder where you want to store the settings.zip file.

Import data source settings

Click File | Manage IDE Settings | Import Settings .

In the Import File Location window, locate the settings.zip file that you exported, and double-click it.

In the Select Components to Import window, select Database: drivers , Database: settings , and Database: global sources .

In the Restart Needed window, click OK to restart your IDE.

Open the Data Sources and Drivers window, enter necessary connection credentials in the data source properties. If the data source is on a local or network drive, ensure that the path to this data source is correct.

To ensure that the connection to the data source is successful, click Test Connection .

Database window

View | Tool Windows | Database
Ctrl+Alt+3

Overview

In the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ), you can work with databases and DDL data sources. You can view and modify data structures in your databases, and perform other associated tasks. To view a table, double-click the table. For more information about different viewing modes, see View data.

The available data sources are shown as a tree of data sources, schemas, tables and columns. If no data sources are currently defined, use the New command Alt+Insert to create a data source.

Most of the functions in this window are accessed by means of the toolbar icons or context menu commands. (If the toolbar is not currently shown, click on the title bar and select Show Toolbar .) Many of the commands have keyboard shortcuts. If the toolbar is hidden, the Refresh and Open Query Console commands can be access by means of the title bar icons ( and respectively).

Controls on the toolbar

Update the view of the selected element (that is to synchronize the view of the element with its actual state in the database).

Open the DDL of the selected object. For example, if you press this shortcut on a table’s name in the SELECT statement, you will see the DDL of this table (the CREATE TABLE statement).

Icon	Command	Shortcut	Description	Available for
	Collapse all the nodes.	All node types
	New	Alt+Insert	Create a new data source, role, database, schema, query console, table, column, index, or a primary or a foreign key. The list of options depends on which element is currently selected.	Data sources and their elements. If a DDL data source is selected, you can only choose to create another data source.
	Duplicate	Ctrl+D	Create a copy of the selected data source. Specify the properties of the data source in the Data Sources and Drivers dialog that opens.	DB and DDL data source nodes
	Refresh	Ctrl+F5	data sources and their elements
	Data Source Properties	Open the Data Sources and Drivers dialog to manage your data sources and their settings.	All node types
	Disconnect	Ctrl+F2	Close the database connection for the selected data source or data sources. (The names of the data sources with active database connections are shown in bold.)	Data sources with active connections and their elements
	Edit Data	F4	Open a table view of the object in the data editor. This option works for tables, views, and materialized views.	Corresponding elements in data sources.
	Edit Source	Ctrl+B	Corresponding elements in data sources.
	Jump to Query Console	Ctrl+Shift+F10	Open the default query console for the corresponding data source.	Data sources and their elements (tables and table columns)
	Filter	Open a list of database objects that you can filter for the selected database. The list of database objects depends on the selected database. To see a full list of available database objects and their icons, go to Icons for data sources and their elements.	Data sources and their elements

Controls of the right-click menu

Context-menu actions appear when you right-click an object in the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ).

Edit the definition of a table, column, index, primary or a foreign key.

View basic information about the selected element.

To close the documentation popup, press Escape .

Add an item to the Favorites list. You can quickly access those items in the Favorites tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Favorites ).

Generate data definition structures for database objects. For example, you can generate DDL files for a single table or for all the tables in the schema. Also, you can customize generation settings. For example, you can set what syntax to use for table creation: CREATE TABLE or CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS .

If your database stores DDL of the object, retrieve DDL from the database.

Generate DDL of the object and copy it to the clipboard.

Generate DDL of the object and paste it to a query console.

Open a popup with available schemas for the current data source.

Delete the data source information from cache and load it again. This action is available on the data source node only.

Delete the information that JetBrains Rider has accumulated about your database. This action is available on the data source node only.

Use this command when you experience issues like wrong display of data structures or errors during synchronization.

To check if this has eliminated the problem, use the Synchronize command.

Generate a JetBrains Rider-specific representation of the database structure (a database model).

Reload the metadata from the database and generate a LOG file. This information might be helpful for the support team when you think that your introspection is slow.

Generate three files that include information about the data source ( dataSource.txt ), a module that was used to load the metadata from the database ( introspector.txt ), and a part of the database model ( model.xml ).

This information might be helpful when introspection works incorrectly. For example, when you see something outdated or do not see new objects.

Compare structures of two selected database objects (data sources, schemas, or tables). The comparison results are shown in the differences viewer.

Save data for the selected tables and views in files. Select the output format (for example, SQL Inserts, Tab-separated (TSV), JSON-Clojure.json.clj).

Export with ‘mysqldump’

Export with ‘pg_dump’

Run mysqldump or pg_dump for the selected items. mysqldump and pg_dump are native MySQL and PostgreSQL tools. They are not integrated into JetBrains Rider. You can read about them at dev.mysql.com and postgresql.org.

Import a text file containing delimiter-separated values (CSV, TSV, and so on) into your database.

If a schema is currently selected, JetBrains Rider will create a new table for the data that you are importing. If a table is selected, JetBrains Rider will try to add the data to the selected table.

Search for data in your databases or a group of databases without knowing data exact location.

For more information about the full-text search, see Full-text search in databases.

Restore with ‘mysql’

Restore with ‘psql’

Set or change the color for the selected element or elements. (The Database Color Settings dialog will open.)

To set a color, right-click a data source and select Color Settings . In the Database Color Settings dialog, select the dialog and coloring options. To have the data source color applied for query consoles and grids, select the In console editors and grids checkbox.

Command	Shortcut	Description
New	Create a new data source, role, database, schema, query console, table, column, index, a primary or a foreign key. The list of options depends on which element is currently selected.
Rename	Shift+F6	Rename the selected data source, table or column. Specify the new name in the dialog that opens.
Copy Reference	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C	Copy the fully qualified name of the selected data source, table or column to the clipboard.
Quick Documentation	Ctrl+Q
Find Usages	Alt+F7	Find all the usages or references of a data source, table, column, or any other selected item in your source files and libraries.
Add to Favorites
SQL Scripts | SQL Generator	Ctrl+Alt+G
SQL Scripts | Request and Copy Original DDL	Ctrl+Alt+G
SQL Scripts | Generate DDL to Clipboard	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G
SQL Scripts | Generate DDL to Query Console	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B
Database Tools | Modify Comment	Modify or add a comment to a database object like if you have run the following query COMMENT ON SCHEMA information_schema IS ‘myComment’; .
Database Tools | Truncate	Remove all the rows in the selected table.
Database Tools | Manage Shown Schemas
Database Tools | Hide Schemas	Hide the schema that is selected.
Database Tools | Force Refresh	Ctrl+Shift+F5
Database Tools | Forget Cached Schemas
Database Tools | Properties	Shift+Enter	Open the Data Sources and Drivers window where you can customize data source settings.
Database Tools | Drop Primary Key	Remove the primary key constraint for the current table.
Database Tools | Drop Foreign Key	Remove the foreign key constraint.
Diagnostics | Dump Model
Diagnostics | Diagnostic Refresh
Diagnostics | Prepare Introspector Diagnostics
Delete	Remove the selected item.
Jump to Query Console	Ctrl+Shift+F10	Create and open a new query console for the selected data source.
Refresh	Ctrl+F5	Create and open a new query console for the selected data source.
Compare	Ctrl+D
Compare Content	Compare the output results of tables, views, and materialized views. The comparison results are shown in the differences viewer.
Export Data to File	Run mysql ,pg_restore, or psql to restore a data dump. These tools are native for MySQL and PostgreSQL. They are not integrated into JetBrains Rider. You can read about them at dev.mysql.com and postgresql.org.
Copy Table to	F5	Create a copy of the selected table. You can create a copy in a different scheme or data source. For example, you can copy the actor table from MySQL to PostgreSQL.
Color Settings
Scripted Extensions | Generate POJOs.clj	Generate a Java entity class for the selected table. In the dialog that opens, specify the directory in which the JAVA class file should be generated.
Scripted Extensions | Go to Scripts Directory	Switch to the directory where the Generate POJOs.clj example script file is located.

View options

The view options, generally, define what is shown in the tool window and how. To view or change these options, click on the title bar.

Displays folders for data sources if you created any.

Option	Description
Group Data Sources

Enabled	Disabled

Group Server and Database Objects

Displays folders for server and database objects. This setting concerns users, roles, tablespaces, modules, foreign data wrappers and other rarely-used objects.

Enabled	Disabled

Defines how schema elements are shown.

When on, there are separate nodes for tables, views and stored routines (shown as folders). Tables, views and routines (procedures and functions) are shown as elements of the corresponding groups.

When off, there is no explicit grouping for tables, views, and routines. Tables and views are followed by procedures and functions.

Group Object Elements

This option defines how table elements are shown.

When on, there are separate nodes for columns, indexes, primary and foreign key constraints, and triggers (shown as folders). The elements appear in the corresponding groups.

When off, there is no such grouping and, generally, only columns are shown for tables.

Show All Namespaces

Show all databases and schemes even if they are not selected for introspection .

When the Show All Namespaces option is disabled, databases that are not selected for introspection do not appear in the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ).

When the Show All Namespaces option is enabled, databases that are not selected for introspection are displayed in the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ).

Show Empty Groups

If the Group Schema Objects or Group Object Elements options are selected, you can select to show or hide the categories that contain no elements.

The Show Empty Groups option is on:

The Show Empty Groups option is off:

Show Intermediate Nodes

Shows or hides parent nodes only when you do not have other objects on the same level with a parent.

Enabled	Disabled

For Oracle, shows or hides auto-generated objects in the tree. It concerns the following objects:

Materialized view logs

The underlying tables for materialized views

When this option is off, columns, generally, are unsorted.

When this option is on, the columns are ordered alphabetically.

Show Toolbar Display the toolbar in the Database tool window ( View | Tool Windows | Database ) .

The rest of the options are common for all the tool windows, see Tool window view modes.

Icons for data sources and their elements

Column. For more information about column icon combinations, see Possible icon combinations for columns.

Read-only data sources

Icon	Description
	Access Method
	Aggregate
	Alias Type
	Argument
	Body
	Check
	Cluster
	Collation
	Collection Type
	Data File
	Database
	Read-only status
	DDL data source
	Default
	Exception
	Extension
	External Schema
	Foreign Data Wrapper
	Foreign Key
	Foreign Table
	Index
	Key
	Materialized Log
	Materialized View
	Object Attribute
	Object Type
	Operator
	Package
	Projection
	Role
	Routine
	Rule
	Scheduled Event
	Schema
	Sequence
	Server
	Stored procedure or function
	Synonym
	Table
	Table Type
	Tablespace
	Trigger
	User
	User Mapping
	Variable
	View
	Virtual Table

Possible icon combinations for columns

Icon	Foreign key	Primary key	Indexed	NOT NULL

Title bar context menu and buttons

You can right-click the window title bar and use the context menu to configure its viewing mode, associate the window with a different tool window bar, or resize and hide the window.

You can also use the toolbar buttons:

Automatically sets the focus on the object name in the Project view when the editor area is in focus.

Hide the tool window.

To hide all the tool windows, press Ctrl+Shift+F12 .

Item	Shortcut	Description
	Ctrl+NumPad —	Collapse all expanded nodes in the current view.
	Shift+Escape