Neo4j Desktop 1.4.0 Release
New user interface to match the mental model of a file manager
Neo4j Desktop is the database, plugin and extension management UI for your local development. It can handle as many projects and databases as you need. It is implemented as an Electron App and runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Download Neo4j Desktop from neo4j.com/download
The Neo4j Developer Tools team has been conducting ongoing user research for the past few years. One of our findings was that for many new users, especially new and beginner users, the concept of Projects and Files in Neo4j Desktop was not clear enough.
Today we are bringing in support for folder structures, importing a git project as well as saving cypher files from Neo4j Browser. We decided to combine the efforts to create a new, coherent UI with a familiar mental model.
Our goal was to make Neo4j Desktop look and behave like an OS file manager. This approach is hopefully reduces confusion and cognitive load.
The active database is always displayed on the top of the screen. It shows the active database regardless of which project is open. The project that the active database belongs to, can be easily reached by clicking the Project name in the top bar.
The mental model of a File Manager is supported through a number of interactions and a tabular structure. To make the default UI cleaner, basic interactions are only visible on hover:
- Start/Stop/Connect (for a database),
- Open With (Browser or installed Graph Apps),
- context menu.
You can create a new database (local or remote) or add a file to a Project by clicking the Add button. Files can be sorted by name, dates or size. Manual rearrangement of files and databases inside a project is planned for future releases.
Files and databases can be moved between Projects by dragging and dropping them.
Clicking a database or a file opens up the Manage Pane on the right hand side. It replaces the old Manage Screen and is now accessible in one click. Logs and Settings are available in the context menu of a database or a file and open as an overlay window.
In the Manage Pane you can:
- install plugins
- see database details
- upgrade the database and change the password
Displaying files as a list is beneficial in case you have a lot of files in a Project. For example, if you are saving Cypher Files in Neo4j Browser they will show now up in Neo4j Desktop. A list view gives a better overview of the files than the previous tile-based UI.
Please reach out to us via Community forums or Slack if you have any feedback or want to take an active part of the future feature development of Neo4j Desktop and Browser.
You can also create GitHub issues for Neo4j Desktop:
