SQLTouch – Review

Our rating:

By: Lorenzo Puleo

Version #: 1.0 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)

Date Released: 2009-06-26

Developer: SQLTouch

Price: 1.99

User Rating:

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Many people use ‘databases’ without realizing it; apps such as 5000 sounds, the Maps app, and any of the Drinks and/or Recipe rely on the iPhone’s built in sqlLite database engine.  Most people, however, don’t want or need access directly to the database itself—especially a database on a different compute, but me, being the geek I am, would love this ability. 

SQL Touch allows you to connect via the Internet to a database—giving you the ability to browse tables, and add new information as well.  This could be very handy indeed; the ability to get important data real-time, anywhere is a great empowering tool.  Perhaps that’s why I was excited when I found out about SQL Touch. 

I ran through the ‘demo’ bookmarks/lists built into SQL Touch.  They were pretty impressive—the speed was more than adequate and the layout and display of the data was really nice.

But how would it work ‘in the real-world’—or better yet, My World?  So I configured my mySQL server with the proper access and set up about testing SQL Touch.  The configuration required to connect to the database is extremely simple—a username, password, port, and database name.  One flaw in SQL Touch though is that you have to select only one to ‘query’ against.   So I selected one of my tables—one that has all the zipcodes in the US; 43,187 records in total.  This may seem like a lot of records but a database should be able to page through them relatively quickly.

I then started to ‘browse’ the data using SQL Touch.  One thing that I thought was awkward about it was that I had to press search, and after pressing ‘search’ it would go to the List screen.  On the search screen you can limit the number of results you see as well as choosing to view either the first or last page of the results. 

It quickly displayed to the total number of records in the table, but no data!  It turns out, I needed to SHAKE the phone to get in into a different mode so I could layout how the results should look. 

The layout builder is tricky only because of the size of the iphone screen—I doubt the developer could make it much easier.  You select the column you want and put it on the form where you want.  You can also add pictures, urls, etc.

I think SQL Touch is a handy app, but has some serious flaws—especially the ability to do custom queries, and select from more than one table at a time.   Where I think SQL Touch could excel would be if an IT person configured it properly for somebody that just needs a ‘report’ in real time, any time they want.  For that, SQL Touch is perfect.

Quick Take

Value: Medium

Would I Buy Again:  Maybe, depends on if it fit the project

Learning Curve:  High–esp. if you aren’t "IT" savvy (or have one on your staff)

Who Is It For: Niche markets where data is in a single table and you need it right away

What I Like: The connection was quick and the app was very responsive in displaying large amounts of data.

What I Don’t: High learning curve, can’t build custom SQL queries, limited to a single table at a time.

Final Statement: It’s a great start to a really useful app.  I hope he continues to make it better and better.  When it gets as powerful as mysql, I can see myself using this on a daily basis