Data Objects

The objects needed to define a Run, the core data structure in DBNL

The core object for recording and studying an app’s behavior is the run, which contains:

• a table where each row holds the outcomes from a single app usage,

• structural information about the components of the app and how they relate, and

• user-defined metadata for remembering the context of a run.

Runs live within a selected project, which serves as an organizing tool for the runs created for a single app.

The structure of a run is defined by its Run Configuration, or RunConfig. This informs dbnl about what information will be stored in each result (the columns) and how the app is organized (the components). A Component is a mechanism for grouping columns based on their role within the app; this information is stored in the run configuration.

Using the row_id functionality within the run configuration, you also have the ability to designate Unique Identifiers – specific columns which uniquely identify matching results between runs. Adding this information enables specific tests of individual result behavior.

The data associated with each run is passed to dbnl through the SDK as a pandas dataframe.