Get The Most Out of Your Database with SeeQR
By: James Kolotouros
Tags: Database Design, Postgres, Database, Sql, Dev

Safe Testing with Less Overhead

We also redesigned the way SeeQR creates your testing environment under the hood by letting the app create a local Postgres instance rather than spinning up a Docker container. Now, you’re probably thinking “…But what about my sensitive data?” — not to worry, we thought of this too. You can still test databases in a production environment without fear, and without any third-party software! SeeQR now creates a copy of your database schema and sets up an instance with the copy, rather than using your original schema file. Any queries or changes you make to test your schema’s efficiency will only affect the copy — NOT your original database. So, you can still treat SeeQR like your own personal PSQL playground — with much less overhead!

More Query Metrics

Another addition we felt was important to give our users was more information about their database’s efficiency (after all, this is a database tool). SeeQR’s first version was great for telling us how efficient our queries were, but didn’t give us any other metrics.

While runtime is important, there is more to think about when optimizing your database.

One example is the data types you will be using (or which you can be using instead). This is why SeeQR now gives you the file size of your database. You can test how different datatypes in your schema affect the size of your database overall, as well as how it will be affected by increasing the amount of that data (using the built in dummy data generator mentioned above).

A New Way to Use SeeQR!

Finally, our team took SeeQR one step further to solve issues with platform compatibility, barrier to entry, and portability. We created and deployed a web based version of SeeQR with the goal of offering a solution to developers when the desktop version isn’t an option. Users would be able to use SeeQR from any computer that has an internet connection, without worrying about issues like not having admin permissions to install the app, or being tied to their machines where the app is installed. Another concern this takes care of is compatibility and consistency. The web based version of SeeQR aims to give users a consistent experience, regardless of their OS or possible hardware limitations.

Rather than uploading a file, just copy and paste your schema code into the code editor, click submit and your db instance is created via a Postgres API.

You are then able to run queries and see your metrics just like the desktop version!

Note: For Security Purposes, the online db instance expires after 30 minutes

SeeQR 3.0 took a wonderful efficiency tool and made it more efficient! You can test it out for yourself by downloading the latest build at the official SeeQR website. You can also try out the beta version of the web app here . If you like what you see feel free to give us a star on the app’s github, as well as our web version’s github by clicking here. Happy Coding!

Note: SeeQR 3.0 and SeeQR web are currently still in Beta

Contributors: James Kolotouros, Jennifer Courtner, Chris Akinrinade, Katie Klochan