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Introduction to NoSQL Architecture with MongoDB
Introduction to NoSQL Architecture with MongoDB
Using MongoDB is a good way to get started with NoSQL. Using MongoDB concepts introduces concepts that are common in other NoSQL solutions.
From no NoSQL to sure why not
The first time I heard of something that actually could be classified as NoSQL was from Warner Onstine, he is currently working on some CouchDB articles for InfoQ. Warner was going on and on about how great CouchDB was. This was before the term NoSQL was coined. I was skeptical, and had just been on a project that was converted from an XML Document Database back to Oracle due to issues with the XML Database implementation. I did the conversion. I did not pick the XML Database solution, or decide to convert it to Oracle. I was just the consultant guy on the project (circa 2005) who did the work after the guy who picked the XML Database moved on and the production issues started to happen.
This was my first document database. This bred skepticism and distrust of databases that were not established RDBMS (Oracle, MySQL, etc.). This incident did not create the skepticism. Let me explain.
First there were all of the Object Oriented Database (OODB) folks for years preaching how it was going to be the next big thing. It did not happen yet. I hear 2013 will be the year of the OODB just like it was going to be 1997. Then there were the XML Database people preaching something very similar, which did not seem to happen either at least at the pervasive scale that NoSQL is happening.
My take was, ignore this document oriented approach and NoSQL, see if it goes away. To be successful, it needs some community behind it, some clear use case wins, and some corporate muscle/marketing, and I will wait until then. Sure the big guys need something like Dynamo and BigTable, but it is a niche I assumed. Then there was BigTable, MapReduce, Google App Engine, Dynamo in the news with white papers. Then Hadoop, Cassandra, MongoDB, Membase, HBase, and the constant small but growing drum beat of change and innovation. Even skeptics have limits.
Then in 2009, Eric Evans coined the term NoSQL to describe the growing list of open-source distributed databases. Now there is this NoSQL movement-three years in and counting. LikeAjax, giving something a name seems to inspire its growth, or perhaps we don't name movements until there is already a ground swell. Either way having a name like NoSQL with a common vision is important to changing the world, and you can see the community, use case wins, and corporate marketing muscle behind NoSQL. It has gone beyond the buzz stage. Also in 2009 was the first project that I worked on that had mass scale out requirements that was using something that is classified as part of NoSQL.
2009 was when MongoDB was released from 10Gen, the NoSQL movement was in full swing. Somehow MongoDB managed to move to the front of the pack in terms of mindshare followed closely by Cassandra and others (see figure 1). MongoDB is listed as a top job trend onIndeed.com, #2 to be exact (behind HTML 5 and before iOS), which is fairly impressive given MongoDB was a relativly latecomer to the NoSQL party.
Figure 1: MongoDB leads the NoSQL pack
MongoDB is a distributed document-oriented, schema-less storage solution similar to CouchBase and CouchDB. MongoDB uses JSON-style documents to represent, query and modify data. Internally data is stored in BSON (binary JSON). MongoDB's closest cousins seem to be CouchDB/Couchbase. MongoDB supports many clients/languages, namely, Python, PHP, Java, Ruby, C++, etc. This article is going to introduce key MongoDB concepts and then show basic CRUD/Query examples in JavaScript (part of MongoDB console application), Java, PHP and Python.
Disclaimer: I have no ties with the MongoDB community and no vested interests in their success or failure. I am not an advocate. I merely started to write about MongoDB because they seem to be the most successful, seem to have the most momentum for now, and in many ways typify the very diverse NoSQL market. MongoDB success is largely due to having easy-to-use, familiar tools. I'd love to write about CouchDB, Cassandra, CouchBase, Redis, HBase or number of NoSQL solution if there was just more hours in the day or stronger coffee or if coffee somehow extended how much time I had. Redis seems truly fascinating.
MongoDB seems to have the right mix of features and ease-of-use, and has become a prototypical example of what a NoSQL solution should look like. MongoDB can be used as sort of base of knowledge to understand other solutions (compare/contrast). This article is not an endorsement. Other than this, if you want to get started with NoSQL, MongoDB is a great choice.
If you would like to learn more about MongoDB consider the following resources:
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