Exploring Databases Visually
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Exploring Databases Visually
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Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#2I implemented a DB visualisation tool like this for sqlite3, also using graphviz. It's called, unimaginatively, sqlite3todot [1]
The couple tricks it has that I really like are a) it shows the table itself [which isn't uncommon], but also b) has the ability to group up tables, which for me turns out to be a devastatingly killer feature that no other tool has.
When I'm working on a schema [especially one I've not seen before], one of the things that drives me insane is not being able to say "these six go together. Group them". Then you can simply look at arrows that enter or leave that grouping for your next exploration step. By the time I'm done, anything not-categorised stands out [it's simply in the space between groups]; any boxes that have an excess of arrows between them can mean my mental model is wrong [or the schema has some nonoptimalities].
There's an example here; it only has two groupings ["input" and "output"], but it immediately gets the point across: https://icculus.org/~chunky/stuff/sqlite3_example/sqlitesche...
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#3Isn't this what schemaspy does? http://schemaspy.org/
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#4Isn't this what schemaspy does? http://schemaspy.org/
That looks like another full-scale ERD generator, with much more detailed structural information too. Those make useful references, but what I'm trying to reach is a way of understanding parts of a relationship graph better and more quickly by navigating it from the inside with the terminal as a REPL of sorts (or, if you like, a very limited "parser" as in interactive fiction or a MUD) instead of the holistic and potentially overwhelming birds-eye view of an ERD.
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#5I love graphs (it was my favorite topic in algorithms) and I think they can be applied to many subjects to help us understand and visualize problems and systems better. In particular, I think graphs could really help network security monitoring efforts to quickly identify anomalies.
Also, graphviz is really cool.
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#6I'm building a 3D database that lets you explore graph and relational data that you've created. For research or creating your own mind palaces - you can freely join & filter collections of information. But it's more like a 3D excel of sorts.
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#7As part of my research, I'm also building a new UI for exploring a database using data visualizations and an ER diagram. Here is a half-baked demo: http://mondial.kyrixdemo.live/
Hopefully the UI is self-explanatory - if not try clicking on visual objects to perform drill down, or search something in the top righthand corner.
The underlying dataset is a public DBMS called MONDIAL: https://www.dbis.informatik.uni-goettingen.de/Mondial/mondia...
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#8I've been doing something similar to this using an Observable notebook - this one joins the sqlite_master table against the pragma_foreign_key_list() SQLite function and uses the returned data to show a DOT diagram:
https://observablehq.com/@simonw/datasette-table-diagram
It defaults to showing the tables from my GitHub example database but you can paste in the URL to another Datasette to see that one visualized instead - try https://latest.datasette.io/fixtures for example
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#9I'm building a 3D database that lets you explore graph and relational data that you've created. For research or creating your own mind palaces - you can freely join & filter collections of information. But it's more like a 3D excel of sorts.
I'm curious what you're using to build this. I've been playing around with a similar idea, and have been prototyping in Godot. Visually representing the connections/structures between items has been a sticking point, but I've settled on two main abstractions: stacks and surfaces, mapping to 1D and 2D arrangement. I've been hesitant to explore 3D, as it unlocks many novelties in the design of a micro-world; but I do think that a 3D space brings a lot of our instincts from the physical world into digital ones. Would be curious to hear how you're approaching the problem, if you feel like sharing.
Re: Exploring Databases Visually
#10What a worthless comment