Interesting developments in the MySQL world – it can now be used as a document store and you can query the database using JavaScript instead of SQL (via the MySQL Shell). There is also a new X Plugin (see: mysql-5.7.12/rapid/) (which now makes use of protocol buffers (see: mysql-5.7.12/extra/protobuf/)). I will agree, this is more than just a maintenance release.

Do get started playing with MySQL Shell. If you’re using the yum repository, remember to ensure you have …

Recently Todd Farmer shared an interesting story about the mysql command line prompt in MySQL 5.7: how it was changed to provide more context and why the change was finally reverted. This made me think that after using the command line client for MongoDB for awhile, I would love seeing a much more modern mysql shell prompt. Here are a few examples of what a modern command line client can do.

Add dynamic information to the prompt

If you use replication with MongoDB, you have probably noticed a nice feature of the prompt: it is replication aware. What I mean is that for a standalone instance, the prompt is simply:

>

When you configure this instance to be the primary of a replica set named RS, the prompt automatically becomes:

RS:PRIMARY>

and for secondaries, you will see: