Object Browser App

[greenrobot]

Allow to open ObjectBox databases with a generic browser.

Main question: should this be something you can integrate into an app? Or do you prefer an desktop app? Or a web app?

Pro app:

• no need to pull database files to the desktop

Pro desktop:

• More screen estate
• Also works for non-Android databases, e.g. desktop apps and unit tests

Pro web app (e.g. write server in Kotlin with embedded netty):

• More screen estate
• Can be accessed locally on the device or on the desktop
• Also works for non-Android databases, e.g. desktop apps and unit tests
• Remotely accessible, e.g. you could use ObjectBox on a server and connect to it

Pro Stetho

• Existing infrastructure

What would you prefer and why?

[Bringoff]

I think, Stetho plugin would be enough for the first time. Realm users on Linux and Windows use such kind of database access because native realm browser app is only available for MacOS.

[xu6148152]

Very agree with you!

[EricKuck]

The realm browser app is fantastic for iOS development, since the simulator's filesystem lives on your Mac's filesystem. It's not really so useful for Android development though, due to having to pull DBs off the phone before being able to do anything.

If your primary usecase is Android, a Stetho plugin (or something that works like Stetho) is a great idea. If you want something that'll work cross-platform though, is there an option other than a desktop app?

[greenrobot]

Actually, I think doing it as an embedded web server might be the best option in the long run. Maybe with web components (ping @mreichelt).

[mreichelt]

Yay, web components! :D
I also believe that a server containing a small web app would be the coolest way to do it.

[vRallev]

And it shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Especially making it an optional debug only dependency could save a lot of time.

[mreichelt]

@greenrobot I hacked something: https://github.com/mreichelt/ObjectBox-viewer

1. Run the sample app
2. Run adb forward tcp:8912 tcp:8912 to forward the internal port to the host machine
3. Go to http://localhost:8912 and observe:

Some notes:

• Technically possible, yay!
• Currently devs have to pass in the Entity classes, which we might be able to find via reflection -> yay
• We might also get the Entity data via reflection -> yay
• Currently devs have to start the HTTP server manually - this might be required because the viewer needs access to the BoxStore instance -> nay
• For now I don't know if we can automate the port forwarding - this could be an issue for developers when the emulator/device is restarted/reconnected and they wonder why http://localhost:8912 does not work anymore

[greenrobot]

@mreichelt Cool! Thanks for investigating.

Some comments:

• NanoHTTPD sounds familiar, think I used it before. Nice that it also supports SSL and WebSockets.
• In the same network, it should be possible to connect directly with the devices IP address, right? --> Log/show the IP.
• There will be a generic interface to ObjectBox to enable discovering available object types. Also a generic way to access object's data (without knowing Java classes, think of an object more like Map<String,Object> with property name keys).

Btw, do you know a powerful datagrid web component? Saw the one from Vaadin on top of Polymer, but not sure about it..

[ArthurSav]

I'd go with a stetho plugin for the simple reason that it has virtually no overhead to setup.

[luozheng1985]

@ArthurSav where is the stetho plugin for objectbox?