MySQL Bugs: #87791: Improve "Default Schema" Description at Manage Server Connections

Bug #87791	Improve "Default Schema" Description at Manage Server Connections
Submitted:	18 Sep 2017 11:23	Modified:	21 Sep 2017 12:57
Reporter:	Bert de Jong	Email Updates:
Status:	Won't fix	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Workbench	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	6.3.6	OS:	Any
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	database, description, schema, ToolTip

Description:
The Manage Server Connections window has an input field for "Default Schema".

Its accompanying description says:
"The schema to use as default schema. Leave blank to select it later."

At the end of the day, this program is used by human beings who just want to get work done. I'm one of those human beings. It took me 30 minutes before I figured out that by "Default Schema" you mean the database name. "How weird that they don't allow me to specify a database name," I was thinking over and over, trying to connect to MySQL as a non-root. When I had finally given up and decided to connect as root, connected, and right clicked the database table I wanted to work with, I saw the menu entry "Set as Default Schema". I thought, "Wait, what?" and tried connecting as non-root again specifying the database name in the "Default Schema" field. Worked.

Now, you can say, not our problem, you should know/learn/RTFM that by default schema we mean the database (name), but, again, we're all just human beings and everyone has their own specialities and knowledge.

So, I looked at the accompanying description of the field again:
"The schema to use as default schema. Leave blank to select it later."

The former, "The schema to use as default schema," is basically pointless. It says that "Default Schema" is the schema that is used as the default schema. Wonderful. The latter, "Leave blank to select it later," is more or less another way of saying "Optional".

My suggestion, which you can probably guess by now, is to modify that description to, at the very least, say something like "... schema (database) ...". It's nice that everything is polished and professional, but I would rather have it say
"This is the name of the database you want to connect to. It's optional."
than
"The schema to use as default schema. Leave blank to select it later."

How to repeat:
(see description)

Suggested fix:
(see description)

Hello Bert,

Thank you for the bug report.
In MySQL schema means database name.
In MySQL developers have set some readable format names for labels. These have been used since long and now they will not accept to change.
As they have got used to it and changing one label breaks consistency.

Thank you for your interest in MySQL.

Thanks,
Chiranjeevi.

The input field in question has a label to its left and an accompanying description to its right. My suggestion is to improve the description to make the software more user-friendly. The label can remain as is, as to not break consistency.

Bert, while it would make the text more descriptive to you, because of your personal understanding, it doesn't mean it's in any way better than what is there currently. The description clearly states what's this setting for (a schema which will be used as the default schema, but you can set it at a later point in time, if you don't want to do it here), which is more than "the database you connect to, optional". You neither connect to a database nor is it optional. You connect to a server and without default schema you will get an error when running queries without schema qualifier.

Before submitting this bug report, I had invested the time and energy required for me to understand how to 'connect to' a specific database using Workbench. If my suggestion would be implemented, my understanding of the application would remain the same. I submitted this report with the idea that I might be able to help both you and your users. Help you make Workbench more user-friendly, help your users to understand that by default schema you mean database name.

It was not my intention to suggest to you the exact text to replace the current description with. I'm not a native speaker of English and the text I mentioned was meant to illustrate what would have been useful to me as an end-user.

This is why, when you, Mike, say that while a modification might be useful for my personal understanding the suggested text would not be better, it feels as if you are missing the point. I'm just one person and I'm vocal, but there may be more people like me who might have a better experience with Workbench if the description for the field with the "Default Schema" label would make it clear that your average Joe would enter a database name in that field.

And, again, the label is "Default Schema", so how is "The schema to use as default schema." useful as part of a description? In a random form, if a label is "First Name", would it be useful to have its description say "The name to use as your first name"? My reasoning is: what's more user-friendly, basically repeating the label or telling end-users that they can dump a database name in that field?