CODEWITHSUNDEEP
scalanosqlplayframework
ace
ace

Reputation: 12044

What NoSQL database to use as replacement for MySQL?

When it comes to NoSQL, there are bewildering number of choices to select a specific NoSQL database as is clear in the NoSQL wiki.

In my application I want to replace mysql with NOSQL alternative. In my application I have user table which has one to many relation with large number of other tables. Some of these tables are in turn related to yet other tables. Also I have a user connected to another user if they are friends.

I do not have documents to store, so this eliminates document oriented NoSQL databases. I want very high performance. The NOSQL database should work very well with Play Framework and scala language. It should be open source and free.

So given above, what NoSQL database I should use?

Upvotes: 7

Views: 5339

Answers (4)

Janx
Janx

Reputation: 3333

I think you may be misunderstanding the nature of "document databases". As such, I would recommend MongoDB, which is a document database, but I think you'll like it.

MongoDB stores "documents" which are basically JSON records. The cool part is it understands the internals of the documents it stores. So given a document like this:

{
  "name": "Gregg",
  "fave-lang": "Scala",
  "fave-colors": ["red", "blue"]
}

You can query on "fave-lang" or "fave-colors". You can even index on either of those fields, even the array "fave-colors", which would necessitate a many-to-many in relational land.

Play offers a MongoDB plugin which I have not used. You can also use the Casbah driver for MongoDB, which I have used a great deal and is excellent. The Rogue query DSL for MongoDB, written by FourSquare is also worth looking at if you like MongoDB.

MongoDB is extremely fast. In addition you will save yourself the hassle of writing schemas because any record can have any fields you want, and they are still searchable and indexable. Your data model will probably look much like it does now, with a users "collection" (like a table) and other collections with records referencing a user ID as needed. But if you need to add a field to one of your collections, you can do so at any time without worrying about the older records or data migration. There is technically no schema to MongoDB records, but you do end up organizing similar records into collections.

MongoDB is one of the most fun technologies I have happened to come across in the past few years. In that one happy Saturday I decided to check it out and within 15 minutes was productive and felt like I "got it". I routinely give a demo at work where I show people how to get started with MongoDB and Scala in 15 minutes and that includes installing MongoDB. Shameless plug if you're into web services, here's my blog post on getting started with MongoDB and Scalatra using Casbah: http://janxspirit.blogspot.com/2011/01/quick-webb-app-with-scala-mongodb.html

You should at the very least go to http://try.mongodb.org

That's what got me started.

Good luck!

Upvotes: 9

VonC
VonC

Reputation: 1328982

Regarding MongoDB or Cassendra, you now (Dec. 2016, 5 years late) try longevityframework.org.

Build your domain model using standard Scala idioms such as case classes, companion objects, options, and immutable collections. Tell us about the types in your model, and we provide the persistence.

See "More Longevity Awesomeness with Macro Annotations! " from John Sullivan.
He provides an example on GitHub.

If you've looked at longevity before, you will be amazed at how easy it has become to start persisting your domain objects. And the best part is that everything persistence related is tucked away in the annotations. Your domain classes are completely free of persistence concerns, expressing your domain model perfectly, and ready for use in all portions of your application.

Upvotes: 0

Vagif Verdi
Vagif Verdi

Reputation: 4906

Hmm, You want very high performance of traversal and you use the word "friends". The first thing that comes to mind is Graph Databases. They are specifically made for this exact case.

Try Neo4j http://neo4j.org/

It's is free, open source, but also has commercial support and commercial licensing, has excellent documentation and can be accessed from many languages (REST interface).

It is written in java, so you have native libraries or you can embedd it into your java/scala app.

Upvotes: 2

Goran Jovic
Goran Jovic

Reputation: 9518

At this point the answer is none, I'm afraid.

You can't just convert your relational model with joins to a key-value store design and expect it to be a 1:1 mapping. From what you said it seems that you do have joins, some of them recursive, i.e. referencing another row from the same table.

You might start by denormalizing your existing relational schema to move it closer to a design you wish to achieve. Then, you could see more easily if what you are trying to do can be done in a practical way, and which technology to choose. You may even choose to continue using MySQL. Just because you can have joins doesn't mean that you have to, which makes it possible to have a non-relational design in a relational DBMS like MySQL.

Also, keep in mind - non-relational databases were designed for scalability - not performance! If you don't have thousands of users and a server farm a traditional relational database may actually work better for you.

Upvotes: 2

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