forgot to add the images: https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-not-boring/1-to-1.png https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-not-boring/diff.png https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-not-boring/first-prototype.png
On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 12:10 AM, Robert Kowalski <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey there! > > Here is the latest version, thanks to the awesome help of Jenn! > > I am leaving for Cuba in 6 hours, it would be cool if someone could > publish it. The feature is already merged. Please decide how you want to > handle the video (embedded youtube, gif or something else). > > Thank you, > Robert > > > Original video: > > https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1809262/rev-browse.mov > > gif: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1809262/revision-browser.gif > > Article: > > --- > > # Databases aren’t boring > > It sounds super boring, sometimes scary. Let’s talk about database > development, data management, and database administration. Sounds boring, > right? I promise: it isn’t. I mainly develop for [Fauxton]( > https://github.com/apache/couchdb-fauxton), the UI for CouchDB we’ll > release with 2.0. We are developing, designing, and concepting a UI for > administration and data management. > > When I tell fellow developers and designers that I develop a database, > many of them look scared. Sometimes they also look bored, because people > rarely imagine data management is exciting. Some of them might think of > boring database courses in college. In this article we’ll discover what > makes database development so interesting and exciting. > > One of our main objectives is to make data management as frictionless as > possible for the user. How can we lower the entry barrier for new users, > but still support our power users? How can we display data in an accurate, > detailed way, but still have a high density of information? How do we > measure our success without traditional systems to measure engagement, like > tracking? It is important to remember--we can be successful only if our > users are successful. > > A recent example where we want to make our users more successful is > [eventual consistency and MVCC]( > http://guide.couchdb.org/draft/consistency.html). Large numbers of > conflicts can be problematic; they will slow down the database and take up > a lot of space. Some of the Fauxton developers recently had a hackweek. As > part of one project we asked ourselves: “How can we make conflict detection > and resolution a first class citizen in CouchDB and make it as frictionless > as possible?” > > Our goals: > > - Conflict detection should be as easy as possible > - Make conflict resolution as easy as possible and provide necessary > tooling > - Help to avoid situations where a large number of conflicts become > problematic > - Provide better education and tutorials for conflict resolution, directly > in the dashboard > > We focused mainly on conflict resolution as our time was limited to one > week. A document with conflicts has different revisions, and Couch elects > one as the “winning revision.” How to choose the right revision and get rid > of the other ones? Our project, codenamed “The Revision Browser,” was born. > We wanted to provide a way to easily diff revisions, and inspect the > revision tree. We also wanted an easy way to delete conflicting revisions > and select other revisions as a winner. The first, ugly prototype had two > dropdowns: > >  > > We are a distributed team, so use video calls for evaluating the > iterations. We demo the current, incomplete work. Whenever possible, we > test ad-hoc changes directly in the browser during the session. One > addition that came up during our demos was to provide another view mode > next to the “diff mode”. It shows both conflicting documents next to each > other: > >  > > After the hackweek we had some work left to bring the project over the > finish line. I am happy to announce that we have a minimum viable product > now: > >  > > The feature was created in close collaboration with other developers and > UX researchers. [Here is a video showing the new features in action]( > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G8d7PzMVsk): > > > > <iframe width="420" height="315" src=" > https://www.youtube.com/embed/3G8d7PzMVsk"; frameborder="0" > allowfullscreen></iframe> > > > Data management is also interesting from the technical point of view. How > can we display a lot of documents, but keep the application snappy? > > The revision browser is written in React. The code itself is pretty > concise as we recently added ES 2015 / ES6 support to Fauxton. Thanks to > our test coverage, we can refactor large parts of Fauxton. Recently, we > changed the whole infrastructure underneath without much trouble. > Interested in the code? It is available at: > https://github.com/apache/couchdb-fauxton/pull/670 > > > > ## Conclusion > > > Despite its image, data management and database administration IS > interesting. We face hard problems from a product point of view. They are > challenging and it is fun to solve them in a team including developers, UX > researchers, and designers. We also face interesting technical problems and > solve them with the best technology available. > > > ## About the author > > Robert Kowalski is a passionate software engineer and CouchDB contributor. > He enjoys traveling and recently released a book about command line tools > in Node.js, [The CLI Book](http://theclibook.com). > > > > On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 12:50 AM, Robert Kowalski <[email protected]> wrote: > >> here is the original source of the video (maybe to create better gifs i >> my does not suffice?): >> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1809262/rev-browse.mov >> >> On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 12:48 AM, Robert Kowalski <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> here is the gif: >>> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1809262/revision-browser.gif >>> >>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 8:56 PM, Jan Lehnardt <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> ooooh, I really like this, the feature and the writeup! Thanks for >>>> offering to post >>>> it on the CouchDB blog. I’d be very much in favour! >>>> >>>> I’d suggest we put this in a google doc and give it an editorial >>>> once-over (looking at Jenn with puppy-eyes ^^), but then this is ready to >>>> go. >>>> >>>> The video could maybe be a gif, so we can tweet/share it more easily, >>>> if you are up for converting it (or anyone, really). >>>> >>>> Great job! :) >>>> >>>> Best >>>> Jan >>>> -- >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> > On 19 Apr 2016, at 19:39, Robert Kowalski <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> > >>>> > Hi there, >>>> > >>>> > I went into a hip cafe this weekend, drank espressi and wrote a >>>> blogpost! >>>> > >>>> > The draft is at >>>> > >>>> https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-not-boring/databases-are-not-boring.md >>>> > >>>> > If you want we can publish it on the CouchDB blog, but I am also happy >>>> > to publish it somewhere else. >>>> > >>>> > btw.: seems GitHub does not support embedded videos in markdown, so I >>>> > linked it for the draft. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Professional Support for Apache CouchDB: >>>> https://neighbourhood.ie/couchdb-support/ >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
