Tutorial — Relational Data Browsing

Navigate bidirectionally through the database by following foreign-key-based or user-defined relationships with Jailer.

The Jailer tool can be found at:

• https://github.com/Wisser/Jailer
• https://sourceforge.net/projects/jailer

You might also like:  Why You Should Use a Relational Database Instead of NoSQL for Your IoT Applications

1. Connect With the Database

Start the Data Browser (JailerDataBrowser.exe or jailerDataBrowser.bat on windows platform)

$ sh jailerDataBrowser.sh

and create a new data model. Press New and enter "Tutorial" as the name for the new model. 

Most of the information can be retrieved automatically by analyzing the database schema.

Click on Analyze Database.

You will be asked for the database connection information.

Create a new connection.

Select the DBMS you are using from the displayed list and fill out the following form:

Finally, click on Connect. Jailer finds seven tables and five associations:

Two associations are still missing:

• an employee is classified into a salary grade depending on his salary
• employees may receive bonuses

Add the definitions manually (Add-Button under Associations):

2. Browse a Table

Select the menu item "Open Table" from "File" and choose "EMPLOYEE" as the table you want to browse.

A Table Browser appears showing the rows of table EMPLOYEE.

3. Browse Related Rows

Select the "Children" item from the "Related Rows" drop-down menu and choose "EMPLOYEE on inverse-BOSS".

Another Table Browser appears showing the subordinates of each Employee (the inverse of the "BOSS" relationship).

4. Generate SQL-Query

Within each table browser, a SQL-Query can be generated which selects exactly the browser's content.
Essentially it's a join of all the tables in the navigation chain.

Close the second "EMPLOYEE" browser, navigate from EMPLOYEE to PROJECT_PARTICIPATION, and from there to PROJECT.

Choose "Query Builder" item from the "SQL/Query" menu in the "PROJECT" browser:

The Query Builder form lets you save the query into a file, copy it to the clipboard or even execute it.
Choose "Execute" to get a query-result browser:

Within this query-result browser, you can edit the query anyway you want.