A major update of the phpMyAdmin web-based database administration tool for MySQL is available to download.

phpMyAdmin provides a graphical interface for most common operations for MySQL including the management of databases, tables, fields, relations, indexes, users and permissions. Version 3.4.0 of phpMyAdmin is being described as a 'huge step' by the development team.

The main improvements to the new version start with a visual query builder providing an alternative way to create SQL queries. You can now export your database schema to multiple formats, and there's an overall simplified interface for importing and exporting data.

Some parts of phpMyAdmin have been 'Ajaxified' by giving commands AJAX behaviour. This latest version uses jQuery as the AJAX library of choice, and the developers have converted some parts from Mootools to jQuery and implemented the jQueryUI in some parts. One noticeable change is that using AJAX avoids the need to load entire pages, which should make phpMyAdmin much faster in modern browsers.

A user preferences page has been added that is accessible from the browser, rather than storing your configuration options in the default config file. Other improvements include the addition of charts to the status tab, profiling page and query results, and a new ENUM/SET editor in the form of a popup that lets you create, edit or delete fields in an easier way.

Version 3.4.0 of phpMyAdmin is available to download from the SourceForge and a full list of fixes is also available.