Ritt database format

The Ritt database (.ritt files) uses the SQlite file format. It can be opened with any SQLite database viewer, such as SQLite Viewer Web App. There are several tables, the most important of which are RittMetadata and RittMainGraph. The rest of the tables are used for caching.

RittMetadata table

There are four rows in this table, with IDs 100 to 400. The first row stores previously used tag icons (“if”) and previous searches (“sh”). The second row stores metadata related to the graph such as ID and version. The third row contains the graph hash and the fourth row contains the last edit time.

RittMainGraph table

Each row of this table contains one vertex of the Ritt graph. The information of each vertex, such as its name, type, and neighboring vertices is expressed as a JSON string.

Ritt Graph

Ritt uses a directed graph structure that consists of vertices and edges to store data.

Vertices

There are three types of vertices.

  1. Space. A root vertex. There is only one space vertex per Ritt database.
  2. Link. A vertex that links to user data such as files, folders and tasks.
  3. Tag. A vertex that stores information of a tag.

Edges

There are five types of directed edges.

  1. Parent. Together with the Child edge, this defines a directed acyclic graph between vertices of the same type. Parent edges of a particular vertex point to the parents of the said vertex.
  2. Child. Similar to above, child edges of a particular vertex point to the children of the said vertex.
  3. Space. Points to the associated Space.
  4. Tag. Points to the associated Tags.
  5. Link. Points to the associated Links.

Information on the edges is stored with the originating vertices as lists.

Edges are always bidirectional. For example, if vertex A is the parent of vertex B, then A will have a Child edge pointing toward B, and B will have a Parent edge pointing toward A.

Similarly, if link A has a tag B, then A will have a tag edge pointing toward B, and B will have a link edge pointing toward A.

Example graph

An example graph of a small Ritt database is shown below. The Space, Link and Tag vertices and internal Parent/Child edges (directed arrows) are shown in green, orange and blue respectively. Edges connecting two vertices of two different types are shown as non-directed lines in gray.

Small Example Graph

The full database file (in plain-text) that generated the above graph can be downloaded here.

Example Vertex 

{
    "p": [ // Indices of Parent vertices
        1
    ],
    "c": [ // Indices of Children vertices
        17
    ],
    "s": [], // Indices of Space vertices
    "t": [], // Indices of Tag vertices
    "l": [], // Indices of Link vertices
    "m": { // Metadata of this vertex
        "t": 2, // Vertex type, see below for details
        "n": "Work", // Name
        "c": { // Content
            "t": 2, // Content type, see below for details
            "id": "373963cd-9d3f-4305-b577-4959888b9a10" // Content ID. Used to identify and track Sources
        },
        "i": "", // Icon for tags
        "a": {} // Attribute dictionary, see below for details
    },
    "i": 14 // Index of this vertex
}

Vertex Type

Type of vertex. See the previous section for details.

Value Name
0 Space
1 Tag
2 Link

Content Type

Used in Link vertices to indicate the type of content they hold.

Value Name
0 None
1 File
2 Folder
3 Task
4 Task Folder
5 StorageItemPlaceholder (For internal use)

Attributes

Some vertices have special attributes, which are stored in key-value pairs in an attribute dictionary.

Key Attribute Name Description
2848 Hidden Hidden tags.
3217 Encapulate Encapsulating tags
4626 Badge Badge tags
4712 Separator Tag tree separator
5183 HotKey Tagging hotkey
35528 ToDoState State (completed or not) of a task
50258 DateCreated Date created
54234 DateModified Date modified