You could make it more clear that it just generates the dump command; it doesn't attempt a connection.
1. Remove the "Generate" button.
2. Move the "Generated CLI Statement" to the right of the form as a second column (at least on wider screens).
3. Pre-fill the form with dummy data so that the generated statement does not start empty.
4. Immediately update the generated statement when someone edits any form field (with an aria-live region for accessibility).
5. Consider making the password field non-editable, or omitting it but leaving a password in the output.
6. Change "We do not store your credentials. Tasks are done in your browser" to "No data is saved. View source on GitHub." with a link to the source if you feel comfortable providing it.
> 6. Change "We do not store your credentials. Tasks are done in your browser" to "No data is saved. View source on GitHub."
Assuming that OP has made it clearer that this website is a CLI command builder and not a dumping tool, I’d find “No data is saved” potentially confusing. To me, it would be unclear whether “data” refers to the credentials or to the underlying database data. It might also raise the concern why a command builder utility would entertain the idea of storing anything in the first place.
Maybe “Your credentials won’t leave your computer” or so?
That could also be an option, although an additional manual step might be slightly less convenient, especially in case you want to “debug” the command (i.e., regenerate multiple times with varying parameters).
Another potential benefit of entering the PW in the field is that the generator could take care of proper escaping – think, if the password contains spaces, quotes, asterisks, $ signs, or other bash shenanigans. (That, by the way, doesn’t seem to work right now, @OP.)
Another idea could be to allow entering an env variable name instead of a value.
If you are on a dev machine iterating quickly, just set the basic credentials up in ~/.mylogin.cnf[0] and you don't need to worry about supplying those options on the command line at all.
I'd like to add that it wasn't obvious there was a whole ultimate guide. I think brining in some of that content on the homepage would let people discover more use cases for the command.
I feel bad giving negative feedback, but I'm not sure the world needs a dedicated site to generating a simple command like this. I'm genuinely not trying to be elitist, but do users really have a need for this?
I suppose if you add support for everysinglefeature you've superbly well documented in "The Ultimate Mysqldump Guide", which is indeed impressive, then perhaps.
But even then, I think users would likely prefer to use PHPMyAdmin or DBeaver etc, where real values can be selected?
Out of interest, what is your motivation for doing it? Are you planning to monetize/banner advertize it somehow?
this is kind of fun side project for me. as a developer, I do have the need to generate mysqldump statement now and then. most of time, I had to search on google.
thanks for your feedback and i am definitely going to add various options.
as for monetization, let's see, nothing particular in mind.
I appreciate your good intentions but please don't teach users to type their passwords (not even for localhost, password reuse is a thing) to a random website. Even if everything is local, there are no indicators in the browser that this is so (like a network permission on Android). Even if it's local now, think who will buy the domain in 5 years once you move on and lose interest. That said, if you don't let the user put in a password and just output a placeholder, sure, nice project :thumbs up:.
To make it less scary, don't make the host and password fields editable, just put placeholders in there for the user, like [HOST], so that they understand they will need to change it when executing it in their own environment.
I get what you're trying to do, but the first impression I get when opening the site is "this site is asking for credentials to connect to my database for me". It doesn't have the look of a "quick utility" website to generate a command. I like crontab.guru as an example of a "quick utility" site that I go to frequently with an intuitive UX. I think if your site had the "generated command" front-and-center, maybe even pre-generated with a command already, the site's goal might feel more obvious upfront.
The generator is avoiding the real complexity of the command. Username and password are easily used, but actually providing support for various other options (mentioned in the guide) will be worth it.
Maybe just don’t ask the password to allay security fears, and put a placeholder password in the generated command. There’s also other methods of authentication.
Next up: a command line generator for `cat`. Put the filenames you want to display in a form and click "generate"!
(sorry to be so negative, but it really seems weird when the only arguments of mysqldump it guides you through are the ones that don't require any guidance)
Because at the moment someone would need to use mysqldump, if they wanted to be sure that this is browser only app, they would need to evaluate the JS source safety. And even if that was feasible (which it is not), they would have to evaluate it again on every use.
One does simply not trust a 3rd party (random browser) app.
Congrats on the launch, it's always great to launch something. If it's useful to you, happily use it. But don't expect others to do so.
I think it's a great idea. I have had an example of use of mysqldump for myself with all the reasonable switches.
I think you should develop it a bit more. Add more options. For dumping just the structure, just the data, limiting, compressing, generating another command to import.
Also as you can see from the comments here, password box makes people uneasy so better remove it and replace with bold instruction on how to add password near the generated command.
1. Remove the "Generate" button.
2. Move the "Generated CLI Statement" to the right of the form as a second column (at least on wider screens).
3. Pre-fill the form with dummy data so that the generated statement does not start empty.
4. Immediately update the generated statement when someone edits any form field (with an aria-live region for accessibility).
5. Consider making the password field non-editable, or omitting it but leaving a password in the output.
6. Change "We do not store your credentials. Tasks are done in your browser" to "No data is saved. View source on GitHub." with a link to the source if you feel comfortable providing it.