The new Neo4j Browser, not for me, how to downgrade?

[tard_gabriel]

Hello

The new Neo4j browser suffer from a lot inconvenience, ergonomic and user friendly issue.

-As an example, seeing and editing a favorite was one click on it's title, now, it's 3 clicks on a creepy, tiny almost hide menu and this is a high frequent operation.

• The font is not as readable as before
• I just hate it lol

Is there any downgrade option?

[abk]

Hi @tard.gabriel ,

The only way down is to keep going up! Hm. That doesn't quite make sense.

Thanks for letting us know! You've raised some good points about usability. Would you mind taking a few screenshots, ideally with markup, to indicate the precise elements you're talking about?

We're hosting a demo this week for the latest release. You could also join us there for some live discussion about the design direction.

Collecting feedback is a critical step in making the design wheel go round and round.

Cheers,
ABK

ps. Anyone else have concerns or dreams for Neo4j Browser? Post here and join us this Thursday at https://www.meetup.com/Neo4j-Online-Meetup/events/276710011

[rmasrani]

I have to say that I agree with this. There are some bugs, but some of the design elements are not convenient:

1. If I close a frame, I get an alert "Close Frame?" I dont know why this is there, but at least add a "remember this choice" feature so I dont see it each time.
2. the tabs in the "in frame" editor are not preserved when you select a line
3. I was really happy with the ability to scroll up/down different queries. I know about :history - but why not have both?

[carib]

rmasrani:

I was really happy with the ability to scroll up/down different queries. I know about :history - but why not have both?

I agree with this, and I miss that feature as well. It was very convenient to scroll up and down through multiple queries.

Another thing I miss is this: I don't like how when you click on a previous query, it opens that same exact cell where you do your edits. I liked the previous approach where you click on a previous query, the editor would bring up the cypher text to the top cell. That way, I could compare by my new edits to the previous query I made.

Overall, I like the new editor and how it's similar to VS. Looking forward to improvements.

[rmasrani]

I have discovered another problem, and have a question.

The problem is with this warning message: "The statement refers to a parameter that was not provided in the request.

Did not supply query with enough parameters. The produced query plan will not be cached and is not executable without EXPLAIN. (Missing parameters: globalFiles)"

This is incorrect since "globalFiles" is defined and it runs fine.

Here is the suggestion/observation/question:

I used to be able to copy paste 200+ CYPHERS at a time and all was well. Now, it simply freezes even with a few hundred. Is this a bug or is there some syntax checking that is being done? Each time I do this, I have to shut everything down, spin it up again, and try with a smaller set. Again - this used to be perfectly fine in an older version!

[abk]

Hi @rmasrani ,

The new cypher editor in Neo4j Browser may need some tweaking. For very large files, it could be that we would need to defer parsing over some line threshold. When you say 200+ cyphers, is that 200 statements or single-statements that are 200 lines?

-ABK

ps. Any ideas @oskar.damkjaer ?

[rmasrani]

One file has 600+ lines; 60 cyphers. This is one of 7 files. If i put them all together, I am at (est) about 350 cyphers over 1400 lines. I know how to use the cypher-shell - but the problem is that if I paste it all in the shell, it whizzes through all the cyphers regardless of errors.

[abk]

Could you post a screenshot about the double display? That sounds like a bug.

-ABK

[rmasrani]

[abk]

Ah, I see what you mean know @rmasrani . When you run a cypher script, we call the UI panel a "result frame". The top bar of the frame shows the script that was executed, and the results in the main part of the frame. For a multi-statement query we do not show data results but the success/failure of running each statement.

@elizaveta.shkirando wdyt about the two kinds of result frames, single result vs multi-result?

-ABK

[rmasrani]

Sure – I would be happy to help

[oskar_damkjaer]

Hi @rmasrani and thanks for all the detailed observations, it helps us know what to improve. On the pasting of CYPHER queries it does seem like we have introduced a performance regression. It'd be helpful if you could share what you copy paste to make browser freeze and so we can be sure it's fixed, and add tests to prevent it happening again. Feel free to reach out to me by mail: oskar.damkjaer@neo4j.com

[abk]

What interactions would you expect/want for a query within a result frame?

When you do this, the result should be...?

• click on query: ..?
• double-click on query: ..?
• right-click/context-menu on query: ..?

Alternatively, what could you point at an app which you think does this really well? For Browser the sympathetic apps are things like notebooks or editors, but we'd love to draw inspiration from any app that you think is great.

Cheers,
ABK

[abk]

Hi @rmasrani ,

Could you create a new post about this and cc me there? The thread here is about UI/UX design.

Thank you!

-ABK

[rmasrani]

Will do.

I have a UI question though for clarification. When I paste a bunch of CYPHERS (separated by ";") i see each displayed twice. In grey, and in black - separated by a "$". What is the reason for this? Am curious.

[elizaveta_shkir · Accepted solution]

Hi @rmasrani @abk

I've been following this thread and we are planning to work on some of the usability issues mentioned here in the nearest future.
@rmasrani would you be interested in a one-on-one discussion about Browser workflows and usability? Working with multi-statement results is an interesting topic among others. We could have a 1 hour discussion and we offer a reward.

Also anyone who is interested in giving us more direct feedback are welcome to contact me.

[rmasrani]

Sure – I would be happy to help.

[tard_gabriel]

The user experience designer at Neo4j as considered and answered this thread, I think I can mark it as resolved and go in peace lol. Keeping it open will no longer have sense in a near future anyway.

Thanks @abk and @elizaveta.shkirando and everyone who brought their complains about it.