Testing Valentina Studio Pro Features in Free Edition [Valentina Database Wiki v13] (2024)

Table of Contents

Valentina Studio PRO adds dozens of cool advanced features! Most of them you can try within the free Valentina Studio with some limitations.Some features disable saving to disk, some can work a limited number of times per launch of VStudio.

This page describes how exactly you can try a PRO feature in the FREE version. Use the menu on the right side of the page to quickly find a feature.

The Mac App Store version of Valentina Studio does not have any demo features because of the limitations of Apple's Mac App Store policies. Download Valentina Studio from Paradigma Software to get access to the demo features.

The FREE version refers to Valentina Studio, which you can download and use for free.The PRO version refers to Valentina Studio Pro, the commercial upgrade from Valentina Studio.

SQL Editor allows you to type and execute a SQL query, see the result of the query, and other information about the query (errors, warnings, timing, …).

Read More about SQL Editor Features...

With this feature SQL Editor is completed with the following advanced query editing actions:

• Duplicate Line

• Move Element Left

• Move Element Right

• Move Statement Down

• Move Statement Up

• Move Line Down

• Move Line Up

[New in 12.5] Placeholders are an additional mechanism to improve SQL query typing. In the FREE version, they will be shown 3 times per start. Read more ...

Removes quotes and escapes in the text copied from e.g. C# or PHP into SQL Editor, in order to get a clean SQL query ready for execution within Valentina Studio.

• FREE: Transformation can be done once after each start.

• PRO: Transformation can be applied an unlimited number of times.

This feature allows you to edit the result of an SQL query. In the background, VStudio Pro sends UPDATE commands to DB Server and updates the result grid.

• FREE: View the result of the SQL query.

• PRO: Edit result records and apply changes.

Read More...

This feature allows you to assign values to parameters in the SQL queries using the right panel of SQL Editor. Developers often use SQL queries with bind parameters in programming languages.

This feature allows you to format the text of the SQL query.

• FREE: Formatting can be done once after each start.

• PRO: Formatting can be applied an unlimited number of times.

Read More...

During typing of SQL query, Valentina Studio does static analysis of SQL text to recognize SQL command and its sense. Valentina Studio uses this information

and shows found errors on the Analyzer tab.

• PRO: You can use smart suggestions to get potentially long lists of Table fields, which are annoying and time-consuming to type.

Such long-smart suggestions exist, for example, for:

• [SELECT] list a table's fields in the 'SELECT expr_list'

• [SELECT] join text with possible linked tables and join conditions.

• [INSERT] list a table's fields in the 'INSERT INTO tblName( list_fields )'.

• [INSERT] list values as bind parameters for the VALUES( values_list ) clause of the INSERT command.

• [UPDATE] list fields of a Table in the SET clause of the UPDATE command.

• FREE: You see these smart suggestions but you can use them only once per start, all other times you see them disabled.

Having this it tries to check IDENTs, which can be e.g. a table name or a field name if they are really found in the current database. Not founds IDENts are underlined, so you can see errors and correct them in “live mode” before executing the query on a remote DB SERVER.

See picture:

Using information from the Static Analyzer VStudio Pro is able to recognize and display additional semantic errors, for example:

• missing end-SEMI.

• a different number of values and fields in the INSERT command.

• etc

• FREE: Additional errors are not shown.

[v10.5]

UPDATE and DELETE commands without the WHERE clause modifies the whole table and can lead to data loss if used by mistake, so they are considered unsafe.

Using information from the Static Analyzer VStudio Pro is able to recognize such unsafe commands.

• PRO: Valentina Studio Pro asks if an unsafe command is used intentionally.

• FREE: Unsafe commands are executed without any checks.

This feature allows you to define formatting for table values.

Read More...

This feature allows you to navigate to a parent record using the value of a Foreign Key or ObjectPtr field.

Read More...

The layouts feature allows you to tune how the table content is displayed.

Read More about Data Editor Layouts...

• FREE: Select columns to show or change their order, changes are not saved anywhere

• PRO: Ability to save changes made to columns list and their order as a named layout

This feature allows you to update multiple rows at once.

Read More about Data Editor Multiple Update...

• FREE: Update only one record

• PRO: Ability to update the value for all shown records in some columns.

This feature allows you to copy records between two different databases. This feature is different from simply importing data.

Use the Data Transfer Wizard to choose one database (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/Valentina/ODBC) to be a 'sources' database. Then choose another database (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/Valentina) to be a 'target' database. You can then specify the mapping of source/target tables and fields and load records from db1 to db2.

• FREE: Loading of records does not actually happen.

• PRO: Use all features of Data Transfer.

Read More about Data Transfer Features...

This feature helps you to find the error message by its code for a particular database engine.

Read More...

Taking existing databases with tables and other objects, and creating new diagram(s) is referred to as reverse engineering. You can create diagrams and add new tables, and link them together with existing tables. You can save such diagrams.

• You can draw a totally new diagram(s) in an empty database and save them to a disk inside of this empty database.

• FREE: You cannot ask Valentina Studio to produce SQL commands, which will create these new objects.

• PRO: Buttons to generate SQL scripts are enabled. You can see those scripts. You can execute them against different databases. You can copy-paste them into your application code.

Read more about Forward Engineering Features...

Keyboard shortcuts give fast access to the most used actions of Valentina Studio.

• FREE: You can view and use the default shortcut set.

• PRO: You can modify shortcuts and create your own sets of shortcuts.

Read more about the Keyboard Shortcuts...

Valentina Project file allows you to organize different objects into a single project. In particular, Valentina Reports, JS Scripts, Queries, etc. These objects can be organized into a hierarchy of folders and you can see the project tree.

Valentina Project file can be under Valentina Server to provide multi-user access to its items and jobs.

Report Editor is a very major feature of the PRO version. Actually, it is part of Valentina Reports technology. Report Editor allows you to design reports visually.

• FREE: You can design one and even a few reports to play with, but they are not saved to disk. Valentina's project file .vsp always will be empty.

• PRO: You can save your job to disk.

Read also FAQ “Can I test before buying?” on this page.

Read more about the Report Editor...

Form Editor allows you to design input forms for your data sources visually.

• FREE: You can design one and even a few forms to play with, but they are not saved to disk. Valentina's project file .vsp always will be empty.

• PRO: You can save your job to disk.

Read more about the Form Editor...

You can write JS scripts and keep them in a Valentina Project file.

Valentina Studio provides integration of the JS engine to GUI objects of QT classes, and to own DB-related objects/classes.

This feature allows you to build SQL queries visually, working directly with tables and links that are a part of the query you want to create. If you aren't a SQL pro, you will find this feature invaluable!

• FREE: You can create SQL queries, but you cannot copy-paste them or save them. So you still can get help from this tool, even in the free edition.

• PRO: No limitations for saving or copy-pasting the SQL query that you generate.

Read More...

Drag and drop in the Schema Editor provide a simple visual mechanism that users can use to copy the schema objects within one database or even between different databases.

• FREE: You can drag and drop the object one time after each start.

• PRO: No limitations for copying the objects.

Read More...

Valentina Studio loads the structure of database objects and their properties on demand and stores them in the runtime cache.But the database structure usually doesn't change frequently as usual. This feature allows us to store the schema cache and use it when it is necessary.

• FREE: Schema cache is removed when a database is closed.

• PRO: Schema cache is saved in a file on disk, restored, and used when the database is opened the next time which speeds up opening and navigation.

Read More...

Valentina Studio Pro allows you to mark objects with specific colors. You can specify a color for Connection/Db/Table. After this, all tools related to this object and its sub-objects will be colorized. This allows easy differing, for example, Deployment/Development databases.

Read More...

The Virtual Links feature allows the users:

• to automatically recognize potential foreign keys in the database schema using defined patterns

• to manually create virtual links

• to work with virtual objects like with real links.

• Free: Recognizes or creates only 5 virtual links.

• PRO: Recognition and creation of virtual links without limitation.

Read more about Virtual Links...

Valentina Studio Pro allows you to save database schema in a structured format using the Schema Snapshot tool

Read more about Schema Snapshot...

The Source Control feature of Valentina Studio Pro provides an ability for database development using any VCS.

Read more about Source Control...

Compare schemas of two databases to find differences and produce SQL scripts that can transform the first schema into the second. Also, it is possible to apply changes directly to the first database.

• FREE: You can see only the number of found differences for all Tables, Links, but you do not see details by each table, and you cannot save SQL scripts.

• PRO: All features available! You see detailed differences, produce SQL scripts, and apply changes to the database(s).

Read more about SQL DIFF...

SQL Search allows you to find database objects on a server or in local storage very quickly. Objects can be located either by name or by property value, according to the filter and selected matching pattern.

Read more about SQL Search...

Creates a dump of the whole database or selected objects.

Read more about Create Dump Wizard abilities...

• PRO: Available usability improvement - filter for the list of database items, that will be dumped.

• PRO: Ability to save the mapping between CSV columns and table fields in an external file and load it later.

• FREE: You can work with workspaces (create, delete, modify) but changes are not saved to disk.

• PRO: All features available!