Error occurs when creating a new database under Neo4j 4.0

Question

I'm using Debian 9.9 and the version of Neo4j is 4.0. I'm having problems creating a new database using the neo4j browser. The instruction I followed is this.

I have tried the following Cypher command:

create database myNewDatabase

However, an error pops up like this:

Neo.ClientError.Statement.NotSystemDatabaseError
Unsupported administration command: create database myNewDatabase

Please let me know what the error message means and how I can solve it. Thx in advance:-)

Answer 1

In v. 4 (release Feb. 2020) of the professional version of Neo4j, it's easy to create new databases. Documentation

In the community edition, it takes a hack:

1. Edit the file  NEO4J_HOME\conf\neo4j.conf

2. Un-comment the line:  dbms.default_database=neo4j

3. Change the neo4j  to whatever database name you want for a new database.  Note: names must have between 3 and 63 characters.   For example:   dbms.default_database=mydatabase

4. Save the file

5. (If applicable) Kill the database server, and close the browser window with the Neo4j UI

6. Start the neo4j server, and open a new browser window, pointed as usual to http://localhost:7474/

7. Both the old (default) database, "neo4j" and the one you just created will show up.  However, attempting to switch between them causes an error.   If a switch is desired, repeat the above steps starting from (3)

Note: the above steps will create a folder named mydatabase (or whatever name you used), in NEO4J_HOME\data\databases , and it will populate its contents.

I personally think that switching between databases is such a BASIC operation that Neo4j ought to make it easily accessible in the Community edition!