In InterBase/Firebird Development Studio, you get the following power-packed features:

• Database Designer.
• Intelligent Code Completion.
• Refactoring, uniquely available for SQL coders.
• Dynamic syntax and errors highlighting.
• SQL Debugger.
• Database Comparer.
• Select, update, insert and delete procedures.
• Statistics Analyzer.
• Regular database maintenance.

Database Designer—a new paradigm in database development.

ER diagrams can make the early stages of database development a breeze. Database Designer offers ER diagramming features—and much, much more. Database Designer encompasses complete database development, covering table structures along with stored procedures and triggers. Your Database Designer project contains a repository for your database objects, including the ER diagram as an object type. Your team of developers can work efficiently and seamlessly in the InterBase/Firebird Development Studio:

• The version control system keeps everyone’s code synchronized.
• Refactoring allows you to change the project structure to accommodate new features, requirements, or external systems.
• SQL syntax parser minimizes errors.
• Project validation warns you about potential problems with your SQL code.
• Import your existing database to the Database Designer and continue development.
• Update the structure of the production database directly from Database Designer, which works in the same manner as the Database Comparer.
• Access HTML documentation about your project.

More about Database Designer...

Intelligent Code Completion.

Code Completion is a "must have" feature for the mordern programming environment. And of course it is supported in IB/FB Development Studio. It works as smart as possible -  it does not show just a list of reserved words and database object names. Instead it checks the syntax of the statement you writing and shows the list of words that fits the syntax requirements.

Here is an example of how Code Completion works:

Refactoring — uniquely available to SQL programmers.

You can change your project structure to accommodate new features, requirements, or external systems. Unfortunately, many simultaneous changes in an InterBase/Firebird database can force you to delete and recreate a large portion of your database. For example, if you want to rename a stored procedure used in dozens of other procedures and triggers, you cannot easily pass dependencies between objects. A simple rename can take a whole day of your development time. Adding one more parameter to the stored procedure used in half of the rest procedures can chew up even more of your valuable time. InterBase/Firebird Development Studio solves these problems—through an approach called Refactoring, available now, for the first time, to SQL coders. Refactoring is well-known in Java, C++ and Pascal. Only InterBase/Firebird Development Studio makes this powerful approach available to SQL programmers. Database Editor and Database Designer provide this powerful feature on the menu. You can perform the following actions:

• Highlight a specific name in the editor text. This is useful when you want to find all occurrences of a specified table, table field, or variable in long, complex code.
• Rename all occurrences of the selected object. Note that this feature is not like simple text renaming; this feature uses a syntax parser to find the next occurrence of the same object.
• Find references to the selected object in the whole database.
• Rename references. This feature performs like a Find References tool. The feature provides a button that alters all dependent objects to reference the new object name and generates SQL script for changing a database.
• Add or remove a parameter. This feature automatically changes the procedure call in all dependent objects after you add or remove a parameter in the stored procedure.
• Extract procedures. This feature is similar to the extract method tools found in common programming languages. This feature allows you to extract part of the procedure code for a new procedure and replace the code for the call with this new procedure.

Dynamic syntax and errors highlighting — making your development efforts a breeze

For the first time, you can get this feature in a dynamic database development solution. SQL code highlights in different colors dynamically as you edit. See all errors immediately—powered by our full-featured SQL syntax parser. No more typing errors! Now, you can even check your code for logic errors, as in the following example:

The code has two fields in the SELECT statement and only one variable specified for the output. The parser generates the following message:

Invalid number of parameters (1), should be 2.

When you type a field or variable name that does not exist, the error highlights, as in the following example:

The location variable is not defined, so it appears in red, as do the table fields. Customize your color settings. Each type of object can have a different color: table names, fields, variables, and reserved words. See details in Options > Code Editor.

SQL Debugger — making your code error free in a snap

You can now debug your stored procedures and triggers quickly and easily. SQL Debugger has a complete set of tools: step over and trace into, breakpoints, conditional breakpoints, and a watch list. And SQL Debugger also offers features specifically for SQL: Result Data, Statement Plan, and statement execution statistics.

Database Comparer — updating your production database in minutes

Want to update your production database with a new metadata structure in minutes? With InterBase/Firebird Development Studio, you can drop a grueling, manual process required in most database development environments. Database Comparer is your ideal solution. Deploy a new database structure in minutes—select your development database, choose a production database, and click Compare. The resulting script contains all statements required to update your production database. You can review the script and execute it quickly.

Note: Back up your production database before running any scripts that are generated automatically.

Select, Update, Insert and Delete Procedures — effectively designing your database

One of the most effective ways to design a database is to access data through stored procedures. IB/FB Development Studio allows you to automatically create stored procedures based on your table structure. Just click the appropriate menu command on the table context menu in Database Designer or Database Editor.

Database Statistics Analyzer — pinpointing hidden performance problems.

Now, you can save your valuable time by streamlining the presentation of your database statistics to pinpoint database performance problems. Bad indices can decrease your database performance. InterBase/Firebird makes these problems difficult to find by presenting database statistics that are difficult to read. However, now you can easily read your database statistics with the Statistics Analyzer in the Administrative Console tool.

Regular database maintenance — scheduling regular tasks with ease

InterBase/Firebird servers require almost no administration. However you need to regularly back up your deployed database, check for consistency, and other tasks. IB/FB Development Studio makes regular maintenance of your database a breeze. You can schedule backup and restore with a myriad of options like Check Restore. Check Restore places your database in a temporary file to determine whether your database can be restored. You can also schedule your stored procedures and SQL scripts to run on a specified day and time. The maintenance service is installed by default and can be managed by the Maintenance Service Manager tool.