# NAME Database::BI - Web-based Business Intelligence viewer for flat data files # VERSION 0.007.0 # DESCRIPTION `Database::BI` is a self-contained [Mojolicious](https://metacpan.org/pod/Mojolicious) web application that reads arbitrary flat data files (CSV, PSV, SQLite, XML, XLSX, etc.) via [Database::Abstraction](https://metacpan.org/pod/Database%3A%3AAbstraction) and presents them as styled, sortable, reorderable HTML tables. It has no persistent database of its own -- it reads your files on every request. Users navigate to pick a file, open the filesystem browser to navigate anywhere on disk, drag-and-drop files to upload, join multiple tables in memory, apply server-side filters, and export results as CSV, SQLite, or JSON. D3.js visualisations (line chart, pie chart) are available from the toolbar. Key features: - **File picker** -- the home page scans `data_dir` and shows a card for every supported file. Recently opened filesystem files appear in a "Recently opened" section powered by `localStorage`. - **Filesystem browser** -- `/browse` lets the user navigate the entire filesystem and open any supported data file, not just files in `data_dir`. - **Column sort and reorder** -- clicking a header sorts the table; headers are draggable to reorder. Both settings are persisted in `localStorage` by column name and survive page reloads. - **Left join** -- the "Merge data" panel on any table view lets the user join one or more additional tables on a shared key via [Database::Join](https://metacpan.org/pod/Database%3A%3AJoin). Every left row is kept; right-table columns are appended for matching rows. Multiple joins can be chained. - **Quick-filter bar** -- a column/operator/value row below the toolbar lets the user add filter conditions without opening any panel. Pressing Enter applies the filter. Each active filter chip has an individual remove (x) button so conditions can be dropped one at a time. Operators: `eq`, `ne`, `contains`, `starts`, `lt`, `le`, `gt`, `ge`, `empty`, `notempty`. Filters are applied server-side after all joins. - **Combine (UNION ALL)** -- the "Combine data" panel stacks rows from a second (or further) file beneath the current rows, using a unified column set and leaving blanks where a source file lacks a column. - **Charts** -- the toolbar offers a line chart ([HTML::D3](https://metacpan.org/pod/HTML%3A%3AD3) `render_zoomable_line_chart_snippet`; brush-to-zoom, reference lines for min/avg/max) and a pie chart (`render_pie_chart_snippet`; animated, sorted by value, capped at 12 slices, click-a-slice to filter the table). - **Drag-and-drop upload** -- any supported data file can be dropped directly onto the application. The file is opened immediately; when the "Combine data" panel is open the dropped file populates the right-table path field. - **Export** -- the toolbar export panel writes the current logical view (after joins, filters, and dedup) to a chosen filesystem path as CSV (`.csv`), SQLite (`.sql`), or JSON (`.json`). - **URL import** -- `/import` fetches an HTML table from any public URL and renders it in the browser without saving to disk. ## UTF-8 and Encoding All file data is returned as Perl character strings. CSV/PSV files are read by [Text::xSV::Slurp](https://metacpan.org/pod/Text%3A%3AxSV%3A%3ASlurp) or [DBD::CSV](https://metacpan.org/pod/DBD%3A%3ACSV), both of which pass bytes through without re-encoding; the application serves the resulting page as `text/html; charset=UTF-8`, so full Unicode is displayed correctly as long as the source file itself is UTF-8. Filter values (`f=col:op:val`) are decoded from the URL by Mojolicious before reaching the controller and are compared against cell values as Perl character strings. Unicode characters in filter values are therefore supported transparently. URL-imported HTML tables are fetched with [LWP::UserAgent::Cached](https://metacpan.org/pod/LWP%3A%3AUserAgent%3A%3ACached); [Database::Abstraction](https://metacpan.org/pod/Database%3A%3AAbstraction) uses the page's own charset declaration to decode the body. If the remote page declares an incorrect charset, cell values may contain mojibake -- this is a limitation of the source data, not the application. # SYNOPSIS **Start the development server (restarts automatically when you edit a file):** morbo script/database-bi **Start the production server:** hypnotoad script/database-bi **Use a different data directory:** # In database_bi.conf (create this file in the same folder as script/): { data_dir => '/home/user/data' } **Change the language used for templates:** # In database_bi.conf: { data_dir => 'data', language => 'fr', platform => 'web' } # Then create templates/web/fr/ and put your French .html.tt files there. **Run the test suite to verify everything is working:** make test **Generate the Makefile for the first time or after editing Makefile.PL:** perl Makefile.PL # ROUTES - `GET /` Scans `data_dir`, renders a card grid of available tables. - `GET /view/:table` Opens the named table from `data_dir`. Accepts `?f=col:op:val` (repeatable) to pre-filter results. - `GET /browse` Filesystem navigator. Accepts `?path=` to set the starting directory (defaults to `$HOME`). - `GET /open` Opens any supported file by absolute path (`?path=`). Accepts `?f=` filters. - `GET /join` Performs one or more left joins and renders the merged table. Parameters: l= left table: "table:name" or "path:/abs/path" j=|| join step (repeatable): right-spec, left key, right key f=:: result filter (repeatable) - `GET /api/columns` Returns `{ "columns": [...] }` for a table (`?table=name`) or file (`?path=/abs/path`). Used by the join UI to populate the right-key dropdown without a page reload. - `GET /export` Exports the current logical view (same `l=`, `j=`, `f=` parameters as `/join`) as a file download. Additional parameter: format=csv (default) - RFC 4180 CSV; UTF-8; CRLF line endings format=sqlite - SQLite 3 database with a single table named "data" The download filename is derived from the left table label with non-alphanumeric characters replaced by underscores. - `POST /export` Writes the current logical view to a chosen filesystem path. Body params: `l=`, `j=`, `f=` (same as GET), plus `dir=` (target directory) and `filename=` (name including extension; extension determines format: `.csv` or `.sql`). Returns JSON `{ saved: "/abs/path" }` or `{ error: "..." }`. - `GET /api/dirs` Returns a JSON directory listing (subdirectories only) for the export panel's inline directory browser. Accepts `?path=` (defaults to `$HOME`). Returns `{ path, parent, dirs: [{name, path}] }`. - `GET /api/stat` Returns filesystem metadata for a file path (`?path=`). Returns `{ exists, path, mtime, size }`. If the file does not exist, `exists` is `false` and the remaining fields are absent (HTTP 200). Returns HTTP 400 when `path` is missing. - `POST /upload` Accepts a multipart file upload (field name: `file`), validates the extension, saves to a managed `.uploads/` subdirectory under the app home, and returns JSON `{ url, path }`. - `GET /import` Fetches an HTML table from a public URL (`?url=`) and renders it as a data grid. An optional `?t=` parameter (zero-based integer) selects which HTML table on the page to display when the page contains multiple tables. - `GET /combine` Stacks rows from two or more tables vertically (UNION ALL) into a unified view. All columns from all sources appear as headers; cells are blank where a source file lacks a column. Parameters: l= left table: "table:name" or "path:/abs/path" c= additional table to stack (repeatable) f=:: result filter applied after combining (repeatable) - `GET /graph` Renders a D3.js v7 zoomable line chart of any two columns. Parameters: l= left table (required) x= X-axis column name (required; any type, shown as labels) y= Y-axis column name (required; must be numeric after stripping currency symbols and commas; accounting-notation negatives like (1,234.56) are handled automatically) back= URL for the "Back to table" link (optional; default "/") j=, f=, d= pipeline params (same as /join) - `GET /pie` Renders a D3.js v7 animated pie chart grouped by a category column. Clicking a slice or legend entry navigates to the table view filtered to that category. Parameters: l= left table (required) cat= category column to group by (required) val= numeric column to sum per category (required) donut=1 show a hole in the centre (optional) back= URL for the "Back to table" link (optional; default "/") f= result filters applied before aggregating (repeatable) - `POST /uploads/clear` Deletes every file from the `.uploads/` staging directory. Returns JSON `{ "freed": }>. No request body is needed. # CONFIGURATION Place a `database_bi.conf` file in the application root to override defaults: { data_dir => 'data', # directory scanned for data files on the home page platform => 'web', # VWF template dimension language => 'en', # VWF template dimension } # COMMON PITFALLS - **The configuration file is optional but must be valid Perl if present** `database_bi.conf` is loaded by `Mojolicious::Plugin::Config`, which evaluates it as a Perl data structure. If the file exists but contains a syntax error, the application will refuse to start. If the file does not exist, built-in defaults are used and no error occurs. The file must return a hashref: # database_bi.conf -- correct { data_dir => 'data', platform => 'web', language => 'en' } # WRONG -- missing braces data_dir => 'data' - **data\_dir is relative to the application home directory, not the process cwd** Setting `data_dir => 'data'` looks for a folder called `data/` in the same directory as the `script/database-bi` launcher, regardless of where you run the server from. An absolute path works on any system: { data_dir => '/var/db/mydata' } - **The download\_dir default is computed once at startup** When the application starts, it picks the export directory in this order: `~/Downloads` (if it exists), then `$HOME`, then the system temp directory. This value is fixed for the life of the process. Renaming or creating `~/Downloads` after the server starts has no effect. To force a different default, set it before starting: { data_dir => 'data' } # and create ~/Downloads before starting the server - **Adding a new language requires a template directory, not just a config change** Setting `language => 'de'` in `database_bi.conf` tells the controller to look for templates in `templates/web/de/`. If that directory does not exist, the controller automatically falls back to the default language. To add German support: (1) create `templates/web/de/`, (2) copy and translate the `.html.tt` files from `templates/web/en/`, then (3) set the config. - **Supported data file extensions are: csv, db, sql, xml, psv, xlsx** The application calls `Database::Abstraction` which recognises exactly these extensions. A file called `inventory.sqlite` is **not** recognised -- it must be renamed to `inventory.sql`. Excel `.xlsx` files are supported directly via `DBD::Excel`; each worksheet becomes a separate table. URLs will work. For example enter [https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country) into the `Import from a web page` field on the dashboard. - **The open\_table helper lowercases the table name** When the router matches `GET /view/Sales` or `GET /view/SALES`, the table name is lowercased to `sales` before being passed to the helper. The data file on disk must therefore also be lowercase (`sales.csv`, not `Sales.csv`). # LIMITATIONS - Only read operations on data files are supported. Write-back (editing cell values in the browser and saving them to the data file) is not implemented. - Multi-table left joins are performed in memory by [Database::Join](https://metacpan.org/pod/Database%3A%3AJoin). All component tables are fetched into RAM before the merge; this is not suitable for files that do not fit in the process's available memory. - Upload staging is managed automatically. On every server startup, `Database::BI` evicts upload subdirectories whose modification time is older than 24 hours. The "Clear upload cache" button (`POST /uploads/clear`) triggers an immediate full purge regardless of age. - `Sub::Protected`/:Protected enforcement relies on the CHECK compilation phase. When a module is loaded dynamically at test time (e.g. via `Test::Mojo-`new(...)>), the CHECK phase has already passed and the "Too late to run CHECK block" warning is emitted -- the access restriction is not enforced in that test context. This does not affect production (morbo/hypnotoad) deployments where modules are compiled on startup. Unlike the former `Sub::Private` approach, `Sub::Protected` does not delete stash entries, so OO dispatch `$self->_method()` works correctly in production without any special workarounds. # SEE ALSO - [Test Dashboard](https://nigelhorne.github.io/Database-BI/coverage/) # REPOSITORY [https://github.com/nigelhorne/Database-BI](https://github.com/nigelhorne/Database-BI) # SUPPORT This module is provided as-is without any warranty. # AUTHOR Nigel Horne `` # LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright 2026 Nigel Horne. Usage is subject to the GPL2 licence terms. If you use it, please let me know.