For developers that use the ArangoDB shell arangosh the explain() command and its compact output format is a great resource to check AQL queries. Explain prints the original query, the generated query execution plan, the applied optimizer rules plus the list of indexes that will be used. Jan showed in a blog post how this can look like.

While preparing ArangoDB 2.6 we found some time to add this feature to the Web UI. So now you can check you AQL queries right in the Web-Interface as well.

In my blog post about npm packages, I tried to use underscore for ArangoDB. I found that the easiest way to archive this, is using the nodes package manager NPM. Node packages and modules follow the Common.JS specification, so they can be used by ArangoDB.

ArangoDB follows the Common.JS specification for modules. However, it would be very convenient, if there was an easy way to install a package like “underscore.js”. These package are, for instance, available using NPM. There is a draft for packages on Common.JS which seems to be compatible with NPM.

arangosh, The ArangoDB shell, provides some options that may simplify an ArangoDB user’s life. Some of these options have been added in version 1.1.2, and some options have been around for a while but are probably still less known. It’s time to showcase them.

Pretty printing results

arangosh prints query results in a compact format by default. This format provides a lot of detail and reduces the amount of (vertical) scrolling. However, it is not very legible: