Visual Query Builder Mode

[jonmchan]

Hi,

I think this is an amazing project. You definitely have done really great work here!

I have an idea to utilize the visual ER as a query builder by providing a query builder mode. This mode would ideally allow you to generate query code in multiple formats/languages/frameworks (SQL, language and framework specific - Java, Ruby on Rails, etc), but initially just generating SQL would be great.

It is assumed you have an established ER diagram. The user would be allowed to enter the query builder mode. When in the query builder mode, a code generator text box window would be at the bottom with all the code that is generated. The behavior of clicking the tables would change and new icons would be next to the title and fields.

A user would be allowed to visually select what tables should be included in the query and joins would automatically be generated. On the relational lines, users can choose the type of join (left, right, inner, etc).

A user would be allowed to click an eye button next to a field or the table title to have that field or the entire table added to the fields for SELECT.

By each field, a magnifying glass would be shown opening up a modal to add constraints on the query for the given field. There could be constraint groups that represent AND for all constraints in the same group while different constraint groups can be combined by OR operators. Eg. - (cg1.fieldX = 5 AND cg1.fieldY = 'test') OR cg2.fieldZ = 25

I know this idea probably deviates quite significantly from the original goals of this project, and would be happy to start a different project for this. I just wanted to put my ideas down on paper and hear feedback for it first.

Again, awesome project, thank you for contributing this to opensource!