Graphical User Interface

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This page is part of the Getting Started Section.

Startup

First of all, launch a GUI instance of BaseX. Depending on your operating system, double click on the BaseX GUI start icon or run the basexgui script. Beside that, some more startup options are available.

Create Database

Select DatabaseNew and browse to an XML document of your choice. As an example, you can start with the factbook.xml document, which contains statistical information on the worlds' countries. It is included in our official releases and can also be downloaded (1.3 MB). If you type nothing in the input field, an empty database will be created. Next, choose the OK button, and BaseX will create a database that you can visually explore and query.

If no XML document is available, the Text Editor can also be used to create an initial XML document. After saving the entered XML document to harddisk, it can be supplied as database input in the above dialog.

Input Bar

On top of the main window, you can find an input bar. The attached dropdown menu provides three modes: Find, XQuery and Command:

Input Bar

The upcoming example queries can all be used with an instance of the factbook database:

Find

In the Find mode, the input bar can be used to find single elements and texts in the currently opened database. The following syntax is supported:

Query Description
city Find elements named city, and texts containing this token.
=India Find texts matching the exact string India.
~Cing Find texts equal or similar to the token Cingdom.
id Find attributes named id and attribute values containing this token.
@=f0_119 Find attribute values matching the exact string f0_119.
"European Chinese" Find texts containing the phrase "European Chinese".
//city Leading slash: Interpret the input as XPath expression (see below).

XQuery

In the XQuery mode, XPath and XQuery expressions can be entered in the input bar.

To evaluate the following example queries: enter them in the input bar, and press ENTER or click on the START button:

Query Description
//country Return all country elements.
//country[name = "Switzerland"] Return the country element of "Switzerland".
for $city in //city
where $city/population > 1000000
order by $city ascending
return $city/name
Return the names of all cities with a population larger than one million and order the results by the name of the city.

Command

In the Command mode, BaseX Commands can be entered and executed. Just try the following examples:

  • INFO: Returns system information.
  • CREATE DB TEST: Creates an empty database named "TEST".
  • LIST: Lists all databases.

Text Editor

The powerful text editor can be used to write and edit XQuery code (simple queries, modules), XML documents, Command Scripts, and any other textual files:

  • XQuery and XML files will be parsed with each key click, and errors will be highlighted.
  • XQuery and command scripts can be executed by clicking on the green triangle.
  • Syntax highlighting is available for XQuery, XML, JSON and JavaScript files.

Numerous keyboard shortcuts are available to speed up editing and debugging.

Project View

The Project View is attached to the editor panel. It displays all files of the current project directory in a tree structure. Files can be renamed and deleted by right-clicks on the files. The project directory can be changed by clicking on the button with the three dots ... in the upper left corner of the project view panel.

Erroneous XQuery modules, and all queries importing these modules, will be highlighted. Highlighting can be disabled in the GUI preferences dialog.

Realtime Options

Via the Options menu, you can change how queries are executed and visualized:

  • Realtime Execution: If realtime execution is enabled, your searches and queries will be executed with each key click and the results will be instantly shown.
  • Realtime Filtering: If enabled, all visualizations will be limited to the actual results in realtime. If this feature is disabled, the query results are highlighted in the visualizations and can be explicitly filtered with the 'Filter' button.

Visualizations

The BaseX GUI offers various visualizations, which help you to explore your XML data instances from different perspectives:

Text View

Result

Displays query results and other textual output. Query results can be saved in a file.
Map View

Map

Displays all data in a TreeMap. All nodes of the XML document are represented as rectangles, filling the complete area. You can choose different layout algorithms in the Menu OptionsMap Layout.
Tree View

Tree

Displays all XML nodes in a top down tree with edges and nodes. You can change some settings of the Tree in the Menu OptionsTree Options.
Folder View

Folder

Displays all nodes in an Explorer-like folder view. Nodes can be expanded or closed by clicking on the arrows.
Scatterplot View

Plot

Displays all nodes in a scatterplot, which is particularly helpful if you want to explore analyze your data. Three drop down menus allow custom axis assignments.
The Table View

Table

Comes in handy if your data is highly regular. It displays all nodes in a table with rows and columns. Different assignments can be chosen by clicking on the arrow in the right upper corner.
Explorer View

Explorer

Can be used to explore the contents of your database via drop-down menus, search fields and double sliders.
Info View

Info

Helpful for analyzing the query plans of your XQuery expressions. It also displays information on the compilation and evaluation of queries.

Look and Feels

By default, the Look and Feel of your operating system will be used in the GUI. In the Preferences dialog, you can choose among some more window themes.

The JTattoo library offers some more look and feels. If you download and copy the JTattoo jar file into the lib directory provided by the ZIP and EXE distribution of BaseX, 13 additional looks and feels will get available.

Default Look & Feel
HiFi Look & Feel

Changelog

Version 8.4
  • Added: highlighting of erroneous XQuery modules in the project view.
Version 8.0
  • Updated: support for dark look and feels; support for JTatto library