ObjectBox Admin

The ObjectBox Admin web app (formerly Data Browser) is an easy way to view what's happening in your database of your app using a web browser. Browse your app's data and gain insights.

ObjectBox Admin Web App

The ObjectBox Admin web app allows you to

• view data objects and schema of your database inside a regular web browser,

• display additional information,

• and download objects in JSON format.

Admin comes in two variants: as a standalone desktop app (Docker image) and embedded in the Android library.

The web app runs directly on your device or on your development machine. Behind the scenes, this is done by embedding a lightweight HTTP server into ObjectBox. It runs completely local (no Cloud whatsoever) and you can simply open the Admin in your Browser.

The Admin web app with the Data page open.

Run via Docker

To run Admin on a desktop operating system, e.g. your development machine, you can launch ObjectBox Admin instantaneously using the official ObjectBox Admin Docker image objectboxio/admin. This requires a running Docker Engine or Docker Desktop. If not done, install and start Docker Engine (Linux, Windows/WSL2) or Docker Desktop (Windows, macOS) capable of running a Linux/x86_64 image.

Bash Shell script

Recommended, but the below script needs to be run from a Linux distribution (for example Ubuntu through WSL2 on Windows) or macOS. To run from Windows PowerShell, see the "Run Docker manually" tab.

2KB

objectbox-admin.sh

objectbox-admin.sh Shell Front-End for ObjectBox Admin Docker Image

Download the script objectbox-admin.sh via the link above. Make it executable (e.g. chmod +x objectbox-admin.sh). Copy it to some place (e.g./usr/local/bin) and then run it.

Then you can have a quick look at the options of the script:

$ objectbox-admin.sh --help

usage: objectbox-admin.sh [options] [<database-directory>]

<database-directory> ( defaults to ./objectbox ) should contain an objectbox "data.mdb" file.

Available (optional) options:
 [--port <port-number>] Mapped bind port to localhost (defaults to 8081)

Basically you can optionally select the path to an ObjectBox database and the mapping of the local HTTP port (e.g. to open multiple Admins to analyze multiple databases).

So to run the script, either change to the directory where the objectbox directory with the database file data.mdb exists:

cd objectbox-c/examples/cpp-gen
objectbox-admin.sh

Or pass the path to it as an argument:

objectbox-admin.sh objectbox-c/examples/cpp-gen

If you see the error failed: port is already allocated. try to use a different local port. E.g. to use port 8082:

objectbox-admin.sh --port 8082

Note: If you run the script for the first time Docker will download the ObjectBox Admin image automatically from Docker Hub. If run again the download is skipped as the image has been cached in your local image repository.

Run Docker manually

The Docker image is available at objectboxio/admin on Docker Hub. We recommend to use the latest tag.

Linux/macOS/Windows WSL2 command line

docker run --rm -it --volume /path/to/db:/db -u $(id -u):$(id -g) --publish 8081:8081 objectboxio/admin:latest

Replace /path/to/db with the actual path to the directory containing the data.mdb file.

If you need to use a different local port other than 8081, modify the first number of -p accordingly. E.g. -p 8082:8081 lets you open the web-app at http://localhost:8082.

Windows PowerShell/Command Prompt

Note: Make sure Docker Desktop runs with WSL2 instead of Hyper-V.

docker run --rm -it --volume C:\path\to\db:/db --publish 8081:8081 objectboxio/admin:latest

Replace C:\path\to\db with the actual path to the directory containing the data.mdb file. Note this uses Windows-style backslashes.

Note the user id (-u) mapping is omitted on Windows. The port can be changed as written above.

Once Admin has started, open the local URL printed by the script (typically http://127.0.0.1:8081) in your browser. You should see the Data page for an entity type.

To see changes to the database, on macOS and Windows Admin needs to be restarted.

Admin for Android

Works for Android apps built with ObjectBox for Java or Flutter

We strongly recommend using Admin only for debug builds as it ships with additional resources and configuration not intended for production code.

Java

Modify the app's Gradle build file to add the dependency and change the “io.objectbox” plugin to be applied after the dependencies block:

app/build.gradle

dependencies {
    // Manually add objectbox-android-objectbrowser only for debug builds,
    // and objectbox-android for release builds.
    debugImplementation("io.objectbox:objectbox-android-objectbrowser:$objectboxVersion")
    releaseImplementation("io.objectbox:objectbox-android:$objectboxVersion")
}

// Apply the plugin after the dependencies block so it picks up 
// and does not add objectbox-android.
apply plugin: 'io.objectbox'
// Or using Kotlin DSL:
apply(plugin = "io.objectbox")

If the plugin is not applied afterwards, the build will fail with a duplicate files error (like Duplicate files copied in APK lib/armeabi-v7a/libobjectbox.so) because the plugin fails to detect and adds the objectbox-android library.

Flutter

Modify the Gradle build file of the Flutter Android app to add the dependency:

android/app/build.gradle

// Tell Gradle to exclude the Android library (without Admin)
// that is added by the objectbox_flutter_libs package for debug builds.
configurations {
    debugImplementation {
        exclude group: 'io.objectbox', module: 'objectbox-android'
    }
}

dependencies {
    // Add the Android library with ObjectBox Admin only for debug builds.
    // Note: when the objectbox package updates, check if the Android
    // library below needs to be updated as well.
    // TODO Replace <version> with the one noted in the release notes (https://github.com/objectbox/objectbox-dart/releases)
    debugImplementation("io.objectbox:objectbox-android-objectbrowser:<version>")
}

To avoid a version mismatch on updates, we suggest to change the dependency on the objectbox Dart package from a range of versions to a concrete version:

dependencies:
  # Note: when updating objectbox, check the release notes (https://github.com/objectbox/objectbox-dart/releases)
  # if objectbox-android-objectbrowser in android/app/build.gradle has to be updated.
  objectbox: x.y.z # TODO Replace with valid version
  objectbox_flutter_libs: any

Finally, after creating the store, to start Admin:

Java

Create an Admin instance and call start:

boxStore = MyObjectBox.builder().androidContext(this).build();
if (BuildConfig.DEBUG) {
    boolean started = new Admin(boxStore).start(this);
    Log.i("ObjectBoxAdmin", "Started: " + started);
}

Flutter

Create an Admin instance and keep a reference, optionally close it once done using the web app:

if (Admin.isAvailable()) {
  // Keep a reference until no longer needed or manually closed.
  admin = Admin(store);
}

// (Optional) Close at some later point.
admin.close();

Info: added Android manifest permissions

For your information, these are the permissions the objectbox-android-objectbrowser dependency automatically adds to AndroidManifest.xml:

<!-- Required to provide the web interface -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<!-- Required to run keep-alive service when targeting API 28 or higher -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE"/>
<!-- When targeting API level 33 or higher to post the initial Admin notification -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS"/>

If the dependency is only used in debug builds as recommended above, these permissions will not be added to your release build.

Browse data on your test device

When Admin is started it will print the URL where to access the web app to the logs, e.g. something like:

ObjectBox Admin running at URL: http://127.0.0.1:8090/index.html

The URL can be opened on the device or emulator. To open the web app on your dev machine, see the instructions below.

For ObjectBox for Java, the app also displays a notification to access Admin. (Don't see the notification on Android 13 or newer? Try to manually turn on notifications for the app!) Tapping it will launch a service to keep the app alive and opens the Admin web app in the web browser on the device.

Stop the keep-alive service from the notification.

Browse data on your dev machine

To open the web app on your development machine find the Admin URL log message as noted above.

Then, on your dev machine, use the ADB command to forward the port (or whichever you like) to that port of your device. If the default port 8090 is used, the command looks like this:

adb forward tcp:8090 tcp:8090

Then open the web app URL in a web browser on your dev machine.

Download Objects

To download all objects of the currently viewed box tap the download all button at the very bottom. The exported data is in JSON format.

The download option for objects.