Database Explorer overview

Last modified: March 24, 2025

Database Explorer is a structured and tree-based user interface to manage and interact with connected databases and their objects. It lets you navigate through database objects, such as tables, views, stored procedures, functions, triggers, etc., and perform administrative and database-related operations.

Key features of Database Explorer in dbForge Studio:

View schema information for tables, views, procedures, functions, and triggers.
Browse through database objects.
Generate DDL statements for selected database objects.
Navigate between multiple servers or databases.
Back up, restore, export, and import data from the explorer.
Link to version-control systems.

Open Database Explorer

Database Explorer is displayed by default when opening the tool. If it is hidden, do one of the following:

On the View menu, select Database Explorer.
Press Ctrl+W, L.

Database Explorer includes a toolbar and a hierarchical tree structure that displays connections and database objects. Each connection in the tree contains the following elements:

Databases
Folders grouped by database objects, such as Tables, Views, Synonyms, Programmability, External resources, Service Broker, Storage, and Security
Database objects

Each connection, folder, and database object has a dedicated shortcut menu. In addition, a shortcut menu is available when selecting multiple objects at once.

Use the header shortcut menu

Right-click the Database Explorer header to open the shortcut menu and select the required option.

Database Explorer header

The following table lists and briefly explains the available options.

Option Name	Description
Float	Moves Database Explorer from its default docked position and place it anywhere within the Studio or in a separate window.
Dock	Reattaches Database Explorer to its default position after it has been floated or moved.
Dock as Tabbed Document	Displays Database Explorer as a tabbed document within the main workspace instead of a floating or docked panel.
Auto Hide	Collapses Database Explorer into a small tab along the edge of the Studio window. When you hover over or select the tab, Database Explorer temporarily expands, and it hides again when you move the pointer away. Alternatively, select Auto Hide on the Database Explorer header.
Close	Closes Database Explorer. Alternatively, select on the Database Explorer header.

The toolbar appears under the title bar of the Database Explorer window.

Database Explorer toolbar

The following table lists and briefly explains the available options.

Option	Name	Description
	Refresh	Refreshes the list of database objects, for example, tables, views, procedures, etc. to reflect any changes made.
	Stop Refresh	Cancels an ongoing refresh operation.
	Collapse All	Collapses all expanded nodes in a hierarchical view.
	New Connection	Creates a new database connection.
	Open Connection	Reconnects to the closed or lost database connection.
	Close Connection	Closes the selected database connection.
	Show All Objects	Enables the display of all database objects, including system objects. When turned on, all databases for the selected connection are shown. When turned off, only object folders for the selected database are visible. If no database is selected, the object folders of the default database appear.
	Filter	Filters the child elements for the selected node.
	Show Object Viewer	Opens the Object Viewer.

Select multiple objects

You can select multiple databases or database objects in Database Explorer and right-click them to perform specific tasks from the shortcut menu.

To select individual database objects, hold Ctrl while selecting. To select a range of objects, hold Shift.

Drag objects

You can drag the selected objects from Database Explorer to the required working space, such as query documents or diagrams. To drag multiple objects to the diagram or query documents, hold Ctrl and Shift while selecting objects in the Database Explorer tree.

Display the number of database objects

In Database Explorer, right-click the required database object node to view the number of database objects. The count appears in parentheses next to the node name.

If a database object node contains sub-nodes, such as Functions, the total object count is not shown at the parent level. Instead, the number of objects is displayed separately for each sub-node.