DBeaver PEV2 : the PostgreSQL explain plans of DBeaver in PEV2

A DBeaver plug-in which runs EXPLAIN on the active query of the SQL editor and opens the plan in PEV2, the PostgreSQL explain visualizer of Dalibo. PEV2 is embedded in the plug-in: the plan never leaves your machine.

SQL editor (PostgreSQL connection) > side toolbar > PEV2 button

Update Site

You can find the latest build of dbeaver-pev2 here:

https://github.com/RoiSoleil/dbeaver-pev2/raw/update-site/latest/

Features

• PEV2 button in the side toolbar of the SQL editor, shown only for PostgreSQL connections.
• A click on the button runs the active query with EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, COSTS, VERBOSE, BUFFERS, FORMAT JSON) and opens the plan in a PEV2 editor.
• The drop down of the button gives the same explain without ANALYZE (EXPLAIN (COSTS, VERBOSE, FORMAT JSON)): the query is planned but not executed, which suits slow queries and INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE statements.
• Query parameters are asked as for a normal execution in DBeaver.
• Save As... in the PEV2 editor writes the query and its plan to a .pev2 file, which reopens in the same editor.
• The embedded PEV2 follows the upstream releases: a daily GitHub Actions workflow opens a pull request when a new version is published.

Build

Requires JDK 21 and Maven 3.9.11 (Maven 3.9.12 has a regression with Tycho).

mvn clean install   # update site in update-site/org.eclipse.dbeaver-pev2/target/repository

Every push to main is built by GitHub Actions, which publishes the update site to the update-site branch and a zipped copy to the latest release.

The tests are SWTBot tests: they start a full DBeaver workbench, so they open windows on the current display, and the integration test connects to a PostgreSQL database initialized with bundles/org.eclipse.dbeaver-pev2.tests/schema.sql:

mvn clean verify -Pcoverage -Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US \
  -Ddb.host=localhost -Ddb.port=5432 -Ddb.database=dbeaver_test -Ddb.user=test -Ddb.password=test

The locale must be English because the tests look for the labels of the DBeaver wizards. GitHub Actions runs them against PostgreSQL 18 and sends the coverage to Codecov.

Platform notes

• The plug-in is built against the latest Eclipse release and the latest DBeaver update site.
• With ANALYZE the query is really executed: use the drop down entry without ANALYZE for a statement which modifies data, or run it in a transaction you roll back.
• Without ANALYZE PEV2 shows the estimated costs and rows only, there are no timings or buffers.

License

MIT. The bundled PEV2 is distributed under the PostgreSQL license.