Web-based UI for MongoDB administration

Discussion:

davidgubler

2013-09-05 09:30:23 UTC

We're desperately looking for a user interface for MongoDB, mostly to allow
our developers and support staff to debug issues in our application.
Something like PHPMyAdmin, only for MongoDB, would be awesome. The biggest
requirement is that it should be web based, to allow reasonnably secure
access to our production database without too much hassle (also, we use
Windows, OSX and Linux, which makes desktop apps impractical). Paying for a
commercial product is an option.

However, even after spending days with research and testing, we have come
up with nothing really usable. I can see that a lot of people apparently
have spent a lot of time implementing GUIs, though...

Yes, I do know
http://docs.mongodb.org/ecosystem/tools/administration-interfaces/, here's
the result of our research:

UMongo, MongoExplorer, MongoHub, MongoVUE, Meclipse, MonjaDB, Robomongo:
Desktop apps

Fang of Mongo, Mongo-Vision, Opricot:
Abandoned since 2011

Humongous:
Website dead

mViewer:
Even the latest beta does not seem to work properly with authentication,
exceptions all over the place. No progress since half a year.

PHPMoAdmin:
No auth support

RockMongo (1.1.5, upcoming 1.1.6):
Uses eval extensively, which breaks with Mongo 2.4 user accounts that don't
have global rights to do everything (not acceptable on production DBs). PHP.

Genghis:
Rather simplistic, but has all the functionality we want; but stores
credentials unencrypted in Cookies, which is a show-stopper. PHP or Ruby.

mongo-express:
Not tested, Node.js app (we don't want yet another web stack...)

Everything written in PHP has an additional problem:
The PHP driver cannot properly destinguish between arrays and objects.
Thus, it silently converts {} into [] (and, as far as I understand it, also
something like {"0": "a", "1": "b", "2": "c"} into ["a", "b", "c"]. Which
is just unacceptable for a tool that should work on production data. We
have made this painful experience with Rockmongo, where we broke some user
accounts because of this issue.
By the looks of it (https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHP-550), this problem
is not going to be resolved anytime soon.

Why am I writing this? First, I hope it helps other people who are in the
same situation.
Second:
* Did I miss something?
* Does the-company-formerly-known-as-10gen intend to develop someting in
that direction?

Thanks!
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Sam Millman

2013-09-05 09:36:49 UTC

Permalink

Why not open an issue about that? I am sure it is easy to change

Post by davidgubler
We're desperately looking for a user interface for MongoDB, mostly to
allow our developers and support staff to debug issues in our application.
Something like PHPMyAdmin, only for MongoDB, would be awesome. The biggest
requirement is that it should be web based, to allow reasonnably secure
access to our production database without too much hassle (also, we use
Windows, OSX and Linux, which makes desktop apps impractical). Paying for a
commercial product is an option.
However, even after spending days with research and testing, we have come
up with nothing really usable. I can see that a lot of people apparently
have spent a lot of time implementing GUIs, though...
Yes, I do know
http://docs.mongodb.org/ecosystem/tools/administration-interfaces/,
Desktop apps
Abandoned since 2011
Website dead
Even the latest beta does not seem to work properly with authentication,
exceptions all over the place. No progress since half a year.
No auth support
Uses eval extensively, which breaks with Mongo 2.4 user accounts that
don't have global rights to do everything (not acceptable on production
DBs). PHP.
Rather simplistic, but has all the functionality we want; but stores
credentials unencrypted in Cookies, which is a show-stopper. PHP or Ruby.
Not tested, Node.js app (we don't want yet another web stack...)
The PHP driver cannot properly destinguish between arrays and objects.
Thus, it silently converts {} into [] (and, as far as I understand it, also
something like {"0": "a", "1": "b", "2": "c"} into ["a", "b", "c"]. Which
is just unacceptable for a tool that should work on production data. We
have made this painful experience with Rockmongo, where we broke some user
accounts because of this issue.
By the looks of it (https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHP-550), this
problem is not going to be resolved anytime soon.
Why am I writing this? First, I hope it helps other people who are in the
same situation.
* Did I miss something?
* Does the-company-formerly-known-as-10gen intend to develop someting in
that direction?
Thanks!
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davidgubler

2013-09-05 09:49:02 UTC

Permalink

There is an open issue about that, but apparently it's not that easy to
change. And the PHP issue remains (although I guess we might be able to use
the ruby version).

Post by Sam Millman
Why not open an issue about that? I am sure it is easy to change

Sam Millman

2013-09-05 10:44:12 UTC

Permalink

Well that's kinda bad I must admit.

Post by davidgubler
There is an open issue about that, but apparently it's not that easy to
change. And the PHP issue remains (although I guess we might be able to use
the ruby version).

Post by Sam Millman
Why not open an issue about that? I am sure it is easy to change
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Keith Schnable

2013-09-06 22:31:25 UTC

Permalink

What administrative functions are required? That is, what additional
administrative requirements besides basic CRUD for users, databases,
collections and indexes?

Alan Williamson

2013-09-06 22:45:52 UTC

Permalink

David you missed my project:

MongoWorkBench for Eclipse (therefore multiplatform)
https://github.com/aw20/MongoWorkBench

For CFML, we have deep integration in OpenBD (a CFML runtime engine)
http://openbd.org/manual/?/function/category/mongo

Post by davidgubler
We're desperately looking for a user interface for MongoDB, mostly
to allow our developers and support staff to debug issues in our
application. Something like PHPMyAdmin, only for MongoDB, would be
awesome. The biggest requirement is that it should be web based,
to allow reasonnably secure access to our production database
without too much hassle (also, we use Windows, OSX and Linux,
which makes desktop apps impractical). Paying for a commercial
product is an option.
However, even after spending days with research and testing, we
have come up with nothing really usable. I can see that a lot of
people apparently have spent a lot of time implementing GUIs,
though...
Yes, I do know
http://docs.mongodb.org/ecosystem/tools/administration-interfaces/
<http://docs.mongodb.org/ecosystem/tools/administration-interfaces/>,
Desktop apps
Abandoned since 2011
Website dead
Even the latest beta does not seem to work properly with
authentication, exceptions all over the place. No progress since
half a year.
No auth support
Uses eval extensively, which breaks with Mongo 2.4 user accounts
that don't have global rights to do everything (not acceptable on
production DBs). PHP.
Rather simplistic, but has all the functionality we want; but
stores credentials unencrypted in Cookies, which is a
show-stopper. PHP or Ruby.
Not tested, Node.js app (we don't want yet another web stack...)
The PHP driver cannot properly destinguish between arrays and
objects. Thus, it silently converts {} into [] (and, as far as I
understand it, also something like {"0": "a", "1": "b", "2": "c"}
into ["a", "b", "c"]. Which is just unacceptable for a tool that
should work on production data. We have made this painful
experience with Rockmongo, where we broke some user accounts
because of this issue.
By the looks of it (https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHP-550
<https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHP-550>), this problem is not
going to be resolved anytime soon.
Why am I writing this? First, I hope it helps other people who are
in the same situation.
* Did I miss something?
* Does the-company-formerly-known-as-10gen intend to develop
someting in that direction?

davidgubler

2013-09-09 07:09:29 UTC

Permalink

Post by Keith Schnable
What administrative functions are required? That is, what additional
administrative requirements besides basic CRUD for users, databases,
collections and indexes?

Nothing fancy. It must be possible to browse through collections, search
for specific documents (PHPMyAdmin-style search would be nice, but having
to enter something like {"userId":"foo"} is ok, too), and allow arbitrary
changes to documents. It must also support the MongoDB 2.4 auth scheme with
restricted users. Pretty much everything else is optional.
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Keith Schnable

2013-09-10 06:01:55 UTC

Permalink

David, another possibility for you is mongoSQL (http://www.mongosql.com).
While it is already available as a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux
(I know you're not interested in a desktop app), the browser-based version
of mongoSQL is currently in beta and looks and behaves the same as the
desktop version.

I think it might do just want you need - mongoSQL originally came about due
to needs very similar to yours (minus the browser requirement): for
developers and QA querying / vetting and tweaking data directly.

It is a SQL UI and pretty powerful. You can either check out one of the
desktop apps just to find out its capabilities or if you'd rather just
check out the beta browser-based version let me know and I can send you the
link directly. You'd have to be willing to have your browsers enable Java
but mongoSQL uses Java 7 so you wouldn't have the same security concerns as
earlier versions of Java running in your browser. (Works on IE, Safari and
Firefox.) No cookies used at all and, once released, all client-side state
information will be encrypted.

Post by davidgubler

Post by Keith Schnable
What administrative functions are required? That is, what additional
administrative requirements besides basic CRUD for users, databases,
collections and indexes?

Sam Millman

2013-09-10 07:18:02 UTC

Permalink

Does the group statements etc use the aggregation framework?

Post by Keith Schnable
David, another possibility for you is mongoSQL (http://www.mongosql.com).
While it is already available as a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux
(I know you're not interested in a desktop app), the browser-based version
of mongoSQL is currently in beta and looks and behaves the same as the
desktop version.
I think it might do just want you need - mongoSQL originally came about
due to needs very similar to yours (minus the browser requirement): for
developers and QA querying / vetting and tweaking data directly.
It is a SQL UI and pretty powerful. You can either check out one of the
desktop apps just to find out its capabilities or if you'd rather just
check out the beta browser-based version let me know and I can send you the
link directly. You'd have to be willing to have your browsers enable Java
but mongoSQL uses Java 7 so you wouldn't have the same security concerns as
earlier versions of Java running in your browser. (Works on IE, Safari and
Firefox.) No cookies used at all and, once released, all client-side state
information will be encrypted.

Post by davidgubler

Post by Keith Schnable
What administrative functions are required? That is, what additional
administrative requirements besides basic CRUD for users, databases,
collections and indexes?

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Keith Schnable

2013-09-10 07:32:57 UTC

Permalink

It's optional. By default the aggregation framework is used but there is
an OPTION statement that will cause map-reduce to be used instead. Pretty
simple to switch which method right in the SQL script.

Post by Sam Millman
Does the group statements etc use the aggregation framework?

Post by davidgubler

Post by Keith Schnable
What administrative functions are required? That is, what additional
administrative requirements besides basic CRUD for users, databases,
collections and indexes?

Silviu Dicu

2013-09-08 02:32:20 UTC

Permalink

http://blog.mongodb.org/post/58228251389/the-mongodb-web-shell

is made by mongodb

Sam Millman

2013-09-08 08:47:12 UTC

Permalink

The web shell is for demonstration only.

Post by Silviu Dicu
http://blog.mongodb.org/post/58228251389/the-mongodb-web-shell
is made by mongodb

Post by davidgubler
We're desperately looking for a user interface for MongoDB, mostly to
allow our developers and support staff to debug issues in our application.
Something like PHPMyAdmin, only for MongoDB, would be awesome. The biggest
requirement is that it should be web based, to allow reasonnably secure
access to our production database without too much hassle (also, we use
Windows, OSX and Linux, which makes desktop apps impractical). Paying for a
commercial product is an option.
However, even after spending days with research and testing, we have come
up with nothing really usable. I can see that a lot of people apparently
have spent a lot of time implementing GUIs, though...
Yes, I do know http://docs.mongodb.org/**ecosystem/tools/**
administration-interfaces/<http://docs.mongodb.org/ecosystem/tools/administration-interfaces/>,
Desktop apps
Abandoned since 2011
Website dead
Even the latest beta does not seem to work properly with authentication,
exceptions all over the place. No progress since half a year.
No auth support
Uses eval extensively, which breaks with Mongo 2.4 user accounts that
don't have global rights to do everything (not acceptable on production
DBs). PHP.
Rather simplistic, but has all the functionality we want; but stores
credentials unencrypted in Cookies, which is a show-stopper. PHP or Ruby.
Not tested, Node.js app (we don't want yet another web stack...)
The PHP driver cannot properly destinguish between arrays and objects.
Thus, it silently converts {} into [] (and, as far as I understand it, also
something like {"0": "a", "1": "b", "2": "c"} into ["a", "b", "c"]. Which
is just unacceptable for a tool that should work on production data. We
have made this painful experience with Rockmongo, where we broke some user
accounts because of this issue.
By the looks of it (https://jira.mongodb.org/**browse/PHP-550<https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/PHP-550>),
this problem is not going to be resolved anytime soon.
Why am I writing this? First, I hope it helps other people who are in the
same situation.
* Did I miss something?
* Does the-company-formerly-known-as-**10gen intend to develop someting
in that direction?
Thanks!
--

Silviu Dicu

2013-09-08 23:35:19 UTC

Permalink

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