A first look at the new RavenDB UI

time to read 1 min | 142 words

Originally posted at 12/1/2010

There are still stuff to be done, but it is looking quite impressive.

You’ll be able to see a release of this in the next week or so.

Exciting!

Especially given the sort of things that we expect to be able to do with this.

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Raven

Comments

01 Dec 2010
10:04 AM

Igal Tabachnik

Wow, Metro inspired?

I really like it!

But wasn't there a web interface?

01 Dec 2010
10:21 AM

theouteredge

Looking very nice, I do like the Metro UI, is this a web based still or have you implemented it Silverlight/WPF?

01 Dec 2010
11:29 AM

Ayende Rahien

Igal, there is a web interface, but we want to move to a more capable platform for the things we want

01 Dec 2010
11:32 AM

I don't really like it. I'm sorry, it looks like a really bad flash website to me. The Prof interface is much nicer IMO.

01 Dec 2010
12:34 PM

Scooletz

Looks nice, but I'd like to get a nice color palette like in the Uber Prof :P

01 Dec 2010
12:50 PM

Peter

I like it! Looks a bit like the Zune software UI, with the less-is-more, let-the-UI-get-out-of-the-way idea.

01 Dec 2010
14:23 PM

Alex Simkin

One of screenshots contains button "Save" the other contains icon of diskette. I would recommend to stick with one or the other. (I would prefer "Save" because my kids doesn't even know what diskette is but it is well established icon.)

01 Dec 2010
15:36 PM

josh

Very Nice!! I've been thinking about RavenDB lately for some upcoming work too.

01 Dec 2010
15:41 PM

Steve

Further nitpick, the vertical alignments are also inconsistant (for example, "ID" in the second pic v. "name" in the third pic).

Consistency is paramount in good UI development.

01 Dec 2010
15:46 PM

Jarf

@ Steve - The ID is referring to a document and the Name is referring to an Index. They are different concepts, so the inconsistency is actually consistent ;)

01 Dec 2010
16:02 PM

Simon Bartlett

@Jarf - Steve isn't talking about the inconsistently in naming - but the inconsistency in element (label/textbox) alignment between screens.

01 Dec 2010
16:18 PM

Steve

@Jarf,

As Simon pointed out, that is not what I meant. I meant layout. "ID" is valign top and "name" is valign bottom.

Other problems I see off the top of my head, Text Areas are handled differently in Pic 2 and Pic 3 as well (pic 3 is better IMO). I'm also not thrilled about the customize buttons being below "customize" and almost touching "field".

All nitpick-ish I know, but things that would drive me crazy.

01 Dec 2010
19:41 PM

Chris Patterson

What's that thing above the red X on the last image? What's it supposed to do?

01 Dec 2010
19:51 PM

Eric J. Smith

What Silverlight editor control are you using? Have you seen the Actipro one? It has IntelliSense and QuickInfo and a bunch of other features.

www.actiprosoftware.com/.../default.aspx

01 Dec 2010
21:09 PM

Bertrand Le Roy

Love the Metro style on top, but I think the icons are not in sync with the idea: rounded corners, bright colors and cartoony look don't go so well with Metro.

01 Dec 2010
21:42 PM

Harry Steinhilber

I like the new look. Though I'm surprised no one has commented on the obvious abbreviation for Raven DB Management Studio => RDBMS. :-)

01 Dec 2010
23:21 PM

James L

Looks excciting but too many fonts spoil the appearance.

02 Dec 2010
04:05 AM

David Pendray

Will the index screen of this UI include creating/editing of the TransformResults part of an index? This would be really useful.

02 Dec 2010
04:36 AM

Ayende Rahien

David,

Yes, it would

03 Dec 2010
09:36 AM

jalchr

I can't see where can I do patch operations ... are they part of current release ?

03 Dec 2010
15:13 PM

Ayende Rahien

Jalchr,

"first look", remember?

08 Dec 2010
00:54 AM

Karim

The UI is looking good for now, but I think that you're missing one fundamental point.

The zune-like UI is implemented in Zune. Zune is a multimedia software and using it is entertaining. On the other hand, your software is a data-intensive application which should be used easily and practically.

You cannot use big font with data intensive applications, you cannot use any fancy-looking UI (even if it gives an impression of being clean and minimal - but part from that minimalism is the space between elements) to an application where the most important aspect is the data that it presents, not the joy of using it.

Try to look at the available data-intensive apps and try to use the "standard" (or the data-centric) ones and compare that with the fancier and more exotic counterparts and you'll see.

08 Dec 2010
21:40 PM

Ayende Rahien

Karim,

The reasons for this UI aren't so much for providing a data centric app.

It is expected that you'll mostly work with the code, this is just to allow you to peek into the database, administer it and watch what is going on.

12 Dec 2010
16:12 PM

Sohail Iqbal

Nice, but too fancy for a DB Admin app. Moreover, since its all about the .Net Eco System, I was wondering if there was a Visual Studio Plugin to do the DB Admin stuff, which may also harness some if its editing features... say IntelliSense :)

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Oren Eini

Oren Eini

CEO of RavenDB