Preferences

When working with multiple databases – possibly on multiple servers – it can be hard to know which DB you are currently connected to. As you have also seen in the previous chapters, there are several locations in the UI where neo4j Commander needs to show nodes and relationships and by default it does this in a rather random fashion BUT you can use Preferences to optimize your experience and productivity drastically.

Select “Preferences” from the main menu (top left):

• DB Name … assign a unique name. This will be shown in the top bar of the app so you always know which DB you are connected to
• Toolbar Color … for example set it to a red color on a production DB for a visual warning
• Hidden Labels … enter one or more node labels that should not be shown in search results and other places where nodes are shown. (Note: The “Labels” field of the node editor always shows ALL labels, of course)
• Nodes > Avatar (PRO only)
  • URL … fixed image per label – e.g. https://domain.com/img.jpg
  • property name … property contains URL e.g. img
  • Materila Icon: Prefix with “mi:” to show an icon from the Material Icons Pack e.g. “mi:movie” or “mi:person” -Use || (double vertical lines) for fallbacks: For example we want to show the avatar set by a node-property but a material icon as a fallback if the node doesn’t have such a property: “avatar || mi:person”
• Nodes > Favorite Properties … Here you can define the node properties you are most interested in and that most likely let you distinguish between nodes. These favorite properties are used in the search result and the first property you enter here, will be shown as the “main property” in breadcrumbs and other places.
• Relationships > Favorite Properties … Shown in the list of relationships

You can set these preferecens according to your data schema to optimize the UI/UX. And since these settings are so tighlty related to the data model of your DB, these preferences are stored inside the DB in a special “N2Neo4j” node. This way everyone connecting to that DB with neo4j Commander immediately gets an optimized user experience.

Note: The query history, last opened editos and bookmarks are stored in the browser’s storage on a per-database basis.

Tip: If you are using OGM/SDN to map classes to DB nodes, the nodes are automatically assigned labels for the object’s class and all super classes. E.g. a User class might be derived from AbstractUser which in turn is derived from AbstractEntity. Use the “Hidden Labels” feature set to “AbstractEntity, AbstractUser” to hide those labels and avoid visual clutter.