| Graph Databases - Neo4j and OrientDB |
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Saturday, August 15th, 2015 17:52:30 GMT |
| Programming |
Lately, I've been feeling increasingly stifled by ordinary SQL databases, and have been wishing I had an easier, more natural and intuitive way to deal with very interconnected data.
So, I started reading about NoSQL and MongoDB, and soon stumbled across the concept of graph databases, which seem like a huge improvement on SQL in a lot of ways. (MongoDB isn't graph database software, but it might be useful too somehow - I'm still considering using it for something.)
Graph database maps look very similar to maps from the wonderful VUE concept mapping software, which I love. So, that gave me the idea that perhaps VUE could be modified to serve as a GUI for viewing and maybe even editing graph databases. I posted that idea here on the official VUE forum. I'm a Java newbie, as well as a graph database newbie, so I don't expect at all to be able to figure out how to build that myself in the near future - but, hopefully others will like the idea enough to do something with it.
I've scarcely used either one for anything yet, but, they're both really cool, and I'm thinking maybe a graph database is exactly what I need for my imagined CMS (content management system, for lack of a better term), among other projects.
So, hopefully I'm now at least one step closer to having a satisfactory CMS and being able to give all my websites a much-needed renovation.
It might be good, but, I'm terribly picky, so no matter how good it is, I probably will still want to write my own CMS.
The graph database software I've looked at most closely so far are Neo4j and OrientDB. Both are Java software, and free, libre, and open source (with a commercial version). Neo4j is just for graph databases, while OrientDB supports additional kinds of databases.
I found a CMS called Structr which uses Neo4j, but I haven't yet tried it.
The official Neo4j website currently is providing legally free (as in price) downloads of the book Graph Databases, 2nd edition, by Ian Robinson, Jim Webber, and Emil Eifrém, published by O'Reilly Media: