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Major new release of DataHelix open source data generator

20 January 2020

Generating realistic test and simulation data is a challenging, time-consuming task faced by development teams, with a high potential to impede delivery. Typically, the solutions introduced to address this challenge are costly to implement or subject to a range of significant limitations.

That’s why Scott Logic has developed and open-sourced DataHelix.

DataHelix is a free application which allows you to quickly generate rich and realistic data for simulation and testing. It is based on a JSON profile that defines fields and the relationships between them. Although DataHelix was created to address a specific challenge in the financial services industry, organisations will find it a useful tool for the generation of realistic data for simulation and testing, regardless of industry sector.

This week, Scott Logic issued the second major release of DataHelix, which now offers:

  • a Playground feature which allows you to try out the tool
  • a large catalogue of built-in field types
  • a ‘Getting Started’ summary guide to DataHelix, featuring a practical example
  • a comprehensive user guide

Click here to visit DataHelix

DataHelix is a confirmed contribution to the FINOS community. We welcome feedback via GitHub to help us to keep on improving DataHelix.

Scott Logic is a very active participant in the open source community. In addition to DataHelix, we have recently developed and open sourced the following applications:

  • OpenFin React Hooks – provides a consistent user experience across OpenFin applications, wrapping up the OpenFin API in a higher-level hooks abstraction. React Hooks is another confirmed contribution to the FINOS community – visit OpenFin React Hooks on GitHub
  • StockFlux – a reference implementation of the OpenFin API which offers a powerful charting application for global equities markets, and allows users to explore the price and performance of various stocks via a novel desktop interface – visit StockFlux on GitHub
  • D3FC – a collection of components that make it easy to build interactive charts with D3 which we have recently integrated with JP Morgan’s Perspective library – visit D3FC on GitHub

In addition to our software contributions to FINOS, we also partner with them in running open source fintech meetup groups in Edinburgh and London. These groups aim to expand contributions to and consumption of open source technologies, while growing a healthy engineering community in the financial services industry. You can find out more and join these groups on Meetup by following the links below: