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Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 04:32:26 +0200
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Subject: Re: Blogpost: "Databases aren't boring"
From: Robert Kowalski <rok@kowalski.gd>
To: marketing@couchdb.apache.org
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forgot to add the images:

https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-n=
ot-boring/1-to-1.png
https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-n=
ot-boring/diff.png
https://github.com/robertkowalski/couch-labs/blob/blog/blog/databases-are-n=
ot-boring/first-prototype.png

On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 12:10 AM, Robert Kowalski <rok@kowalski.gd> 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=E2=80=99t boring
>
> It sounds super boring, sometimes scary. Let=E2=80=99s talk about databas=
e
> development, data management, and database administration. Sounds boring,
> right? I promise: it isn=E2=80=99t. I mainly develop for [Fauxton](
> https://github.com/apache/couchdb-fauxton), the UI for CouchDB we=E2=80=
=99ll
> 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=E2=80=99ll discove=
r 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, li=
ke
> 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 u=
p
> a lot of space. Some of the Fauxton developers recently had a hackweek. A=
s
> part of one project we asked ourselves: =E2=80=9CHow can we make conflict=
 detection
> and resolution a first class citizen in CouchDB and make it as frictionle=
ss
> as possible?=E2=80=9D
>
> 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, directl=
y
> 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 =E2=80=9Cwinning revision.=E2=80=9D How to choose the right re=
vision and get rid
> of the other ones? Our project, codenamed =E2=80=9CThe Revision Browser,=
=E2=80=9D 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:
>
> ![The first prototype](first-prototype.png)
>
> 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 =E2=80=9Cdiff mode=E2=80=9D. It shows both conflicting docume=
nts next to each
> other:
>
> ![Both conflicting documents next to each other](1-to-1.png)
>
> 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 diffing for both conflicting documents](diff.png)
>
> 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=3D3G8d7PzMVsk):
>
>
>
> <iframe width=3D"420" height=3D"315" src=3D"
> https://www.youtube.com/embed/3G8d7PzMVsk" frameborder=3D"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, U=
X
> researchers, and designers. We also face interesting technical problems a=
nd
> 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 <rok@kowalski.gd> 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 <rok@kowalski.gd>
>> 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 <jan@apache.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> ooooh, I really like this, the feature and the writeup! Thanks for
>>>> offering to post
>>>> it on the CouchDB blog. I=E2=80=99d be very much in favour!
>>>>
>>>> I=E2=80=99d suggest we put this in a google doc and give it an editori=
al
>>>> 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 <rok@kowalski.gd> 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 hap=
py
>>>> > 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/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

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