Desktop App

The desktop app (OmniDB.app on macOS, OmniDB/OmniDB.exe on Linux and Windows) is a small native window around the same OmniDB interface the server version serves to browsers. It starts its own private copy of omnidb-server in the background, listening on the local machine only, and signs you in automatically as the built-in admin user — there is no sign-in page, no Account icon and nothing to configure. See Installation for how to get it.

Where the data lives

Saved connections, snippets, settings, query history and so on are kept in ~/.omnidb/omnidb-app/ (the omnidb.db user database, plus a temp folder for exports and the saved window position). To keep a separate set of data — for example a throwaway one for testing — start the app with a different home directory:

open -a OmniDB --args -d /path/to/other/dir    # macOS
./OmniDB -d /path/to/other/dir                  # Linux
OmniDB.exe -d C:\path\to\other\dir              # Windows

The directory must already exist; a new, empty one is set up automatically on first use. Saved passwords are encrypted with a key kept in the operating system's secret store — see Security and Multi-user Server.

The menu bar

• OmniDB: About OmniDB, Settings… (Cmd/Ctrl-,), Import Data from Previous Installation… (sandboxed macOS build only, see below) and Quit OmniDB (Cmd/Ctrl-Q).
• Edit and Window: the operating system's standard menus (undo/cut/copy/paste, minimize, zoom, full screen, …).
• View: jump to a section of the left rail — Welcome (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-W), Connections (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-C), Database (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-D), Notify (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-N), Connected Users (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-U), Snippets (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-S) — plus Toggle Database Tree (Cmd/Ctrl-B) and Toggle Properties/DDL Panel (Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-B).
• Help: Getting Started (the interactive tutorial), Keyboard Shortcuts (opens Settings on the Shortcuts category), Visit omnidb.net and GitHub Repository.

The OmniDB, View and Help menus are shown in the language chosen under Settings > Appearance > Language and switch as soon as you change it; before the first page has loaded they follow the operating system's language. The standard Edit and Window menus stay in English. The window title shows the section you are in (for example OmniDB - Snippets).

Window size and position

On its very first launch the window opens maximized. After that it reopens with the size, position and maximized/restored state it had when you last closed it.

Links and files

Links to external pages (the Doc: … entries of the database tree, the Welcome page's links, the Help menu) open in your default web browser. Exports and Export as DBML open the native Save As dialog, so you choose where the file goes directly — see Writing SQL Queries.

macOS: sandbox, previous data and .pgpass

The macOS app runs in the App Sandbox, which gives it its own private home folder. Two consequences:

• Data from an earlier, non-sandboxed install in ~/.omnidb is not visible automatically. On the first launch without any data, OmniDB offers to import it — choose Import… and pick your previous .omnidb folder, or Not Now. You can do the same later with OmniDB > Import Data from Previous Installation….
• ~/.pgpass is not readable until you allow it. When a PostgreSQL connection has no stored password, the password prompt offers Grant access to .pgpass…: pick your .pgpass file once (hidden files are shown in that dialog) and OmniDB remembers the permission, so every later PostgreSQL connection looks its password up there, just as psql would. Import connections from .pgpass… in the Connections section grants the same access. See Creating Users and Connections.