Bloom searches with APOC commands stop working after version 1.5.0 update

[mlwalker23]

Hi, Following the Bloom 1.5.0 update i find my search with APOC commands like vNode and vRel do not work anymore, is it just me?

thanks
Marc

[clemens_anzmann]

Hi Marc,

thank you for highlighting this issue. Are you getting any error messages from Bloom when running these APOC commands or are the results of the search phrase different from previous Bloom versions?

I've been testing APOC's vNode and vRel in Bloom 1.5 and noticed that virtual relationships won't show in the Bloom scene anymore unless the relationship type also exists in the active Bloom perspective. In the previous Bloom version, virtual relationships of any type would show in the results. Is this what you are seeing in your end as well and would this explain why the commands are not working for you anymore?

Many thanks,
Clemens

[mlwalker23]

Hi Clemens, thank you for getting back to me. there were no error messages as per Bloom or the Search assessment of the Cypher query. when i ran the search the other nodes appeared but there were no vNodes or vRels as there were in v1.4.

How do i create the vNode and vRel in the Perspective, i have not done that before so will take a look? Otherwise do you expect this to be fixed in a new release?

thank you
Marc

[clemens_anzmann]

Hi Marc,

we've made updates to Bloom in 1.5 to be more strict on showing in the Bloom scene only what's defined in the perspective. This is to ensure read-only users can only see data that has been defined in their assigned perspective.

A perspective only contains labels and relationships that are present in the database. It's not possible to add relationship types or categorise labels that do not exist in the database in Bloom. The only way to bring new labels or relationships to a perspective is by adding them to the database first and then refreshing the perspective.

At the bottom of the perspective drawer is a setting called "Hide data that is not in any category". Switching off this setting will display nodes with labels that are not categorised in the perspective as grey nodes under the "Other" category. Toggling this setting off should show a category named "Other" in the legend and display the vNodes of your Cypher query under this category in the Bloom scene.

However, this type of setting does not exist for relationships. To ensure the virtual relationships from the search phrase are included in the perspective and therefor can show in the scene, a relationship with this name has to be present somewhere in the database.

There is a hack to add relationship types to a perspective by hand by downloading the perspective and editing the json file in a text editor. Adding a new object to the relationshipTypes array with a new name and id and then importing this perspective file would create an identical perspective which will include the relationship types added to the array (regardless whether they are included in the database or not). Adding a relationship this way that matches the relationship name of the vRel in your Cypher query would display this relationship in the Bloom scene when using this perspective. However, please be aware that this is not officially supported and refreshing this perspective would again remove any relationships in the perspective that aren't in the database.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Many thanks,
Clemens

[mlwalker23]

Thanks Clemens, i can understand the reason for change but i must say it is a bit disappointing that the APOC vNode and vRel features will no longer work. I found them very useful in Bloom for search scenarios. Are you able to consider an experimental or developers Perspective that is not used for User restrictions? Thanks again, Marc

[clemens_anzmann]

Hi Marc,

I'm sorry to hear the latest update is impacting Bloom's usefulness to you.

The APOC vNode and vRel features do still work as long as the types of the virtual relationships are included in the perspective and the “Hide data that is not in any category” toggle at the bottom of the perspective drawer isn’t active.

I will bring this issue to today's standup to discuss in the team whether there is a feasible way that won't impact user restrictions to allow for virtual relationships to still be included on the Bloom scene if their type is not defined in the perspective.

Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.

Many thanks,
Clemens

[clemens_anzmann]

Hi Marc,

we've talked about this issue in the team and decided to look further into ways how we can enable users to display any relationship on the scene, even if they are not defined in the perspective (as long as they are not flagged as hidden in the perspective). Empowering users to do this does need some consideration in regards to UI and security. We've added this feature to our backlog to be sketched and prioritised. Unfortunately I can't give you an estimate on when this will be available in Bloom right now.

In the meantime, when using APOC's vRel, please ensure the name of the virtual relationship is present in the perspective, either by creating a relationship with the same name in database or by editing the perspective's json like I've described in this post.

Please let me know if you have any further questions on this.

Many thanks,
Clemens

[mlwalker23]

Hi Clemens, thank you for considering my request and your response. i look forward to seeing any future changes you make to Bloom. The workaround works fine so thanks again for your help with that.

rgds
marc

[clemens_anzmann]

Hi @Mlwalker23,

I wanted to let you know that in the latest Bloom version 1.6.1, we improved the handling of virtual nodes and relationships. The legend now shows relationship elements in the scene in an Other category when they don't belong to the available relationship types, similar to how Other node elements in the scene get categorised.

I hope this helps.
Many thanks,
Clemens

[mlwalker23]

Hi Clemens, thank you for the update and look forward to trying out the new feature

thanks again for letting me know

rgds
Marc