March 2017 Summaries

The Couchbase Mobile stack has been updated to version 1.4, which includes the first release of Sync Gateway Accelerator into general availability. This new feature is described in a short video that explains its technical details and how it can be used. The latest update also includes other new features and improvements, making it an exciting time for developers who use Couchbase Mobile. With the release of version 1.4, users are encouraged to try out the new features and provide feedback through various channels such as Twitter, forums, and Stack Overflow.

Couchbase's Partner Marketing and Development is highlighting the upcoming Couchbase Connect New York event on May 23, 2017, at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel as an excellent opportunity for collaboration and networking within the Couchbase community. The event will feature 400 attendees, including developers, administrators, architects, and executives from major companies like Citigroup, Comcast, and LinkedIn. The day-long program consists of 24 sessions across four tracks, keynotes, interactive breaks, and a networking event, with sponsorship options available at three levels—Exhibitor, Silver, and Gold. Sponsors can enhance their brand visibility by sponsoring various items, and booth selections are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Couchbase 5.0, as of its March 2017 Developer build, introduced significant performance enhancements to N1QL, particularly through index projection, improved handling of COUNT(DISTINCT), and the integration of ORDER BY, LIMIT, and OFFSET operators. Index projection allows queries to focus on specific keys within an index, reducing the need for additional network, CPU, and memory resources. This change marks a departure from previous versions where all keys were considered regardless of necessity, enhancing efficiency. For COUNT(DISTINCT) operations, processing is now offloaded to the indexer rather than the N1QL service, yielding performance benefits. Moreover, the inclusion of ORDER BY and OFFSET in the indexer, alongside LIMIT, streamlines operations by limiting the need to process unnecessary data. These advancements collectively aim to improve the scalability and performance of Couchbase Server clusters.

In this video, the author demonstrates how to use Couchbase data structures with .NET. The video covers list, queue, and dictionary concepts in action. The source code used in the video is available on GitHub and can be used with both .NET Core and .NET frameworks. For more information about Couchbase and .NET, the author recommends checking out the Couchbase Developer Portal and participating in the Couchbase .NET Forums.

Shivansh Srivastava, a polyglot developer and senior software engineer based in Delhi, India, is passionate about open-source contributions and community building, particularly through his initiative Internity aimed at enhancing college learning in India. He works at Chirpanywhere Inc, an IoT startup, where he handles tasks ranging from programming to solution design and deployment. Srivastava is an advocate for Couchbase, praising its user-friendly interface, in-memory capabilities, and full-text search features, which have been instrumental in his projects, such as integrating real-time queries with Spark and facilitating data transfers to ElasticSearch. He emphasizes the importance of nearly achieving ACID properties in NoSQL databases and expresses a desire for Couchbase to improve data writing speeds, develop advanced compression algorithms, and expand its open-source initiatives. In his free time, he enjoys contributing to platforms like StackOverflow, writing blogs, and engaging with online courses, with a personal interest in books on artificial intelligence and autobiographies.

Couchbase Lite Developer Build 003 offers improved database queries, a new query API with two styles - builder and fluent, for development platforms such as Objective C, Swift, and .NET. The new API provides more flexibility and safety features, including subdocument accessors and blob data type support. The release also includes changes to CRUD operations, document change notifications, and thread safety checking. With the introduction of a simplified API, developers can easily interact with Couchbase Lite and take advantage of its features, such as database and document change notifications.

The author discusses their decision to create a video tutorial on flattening and querying arrays in Couchbase using N1QL, following the publication of an article inspired by a frequently asked question on the Couchbase Forums. They believe that the video, which demonstrates various queries on array data, complements the original article and enhances understanding. The author suggests that readers explore both the write-up and video to better grasp N1QL's capabilities and recommends visiting the Couchbase Developer Portal for additional resources on using N1QL and Couchbase.

The latest episode of The NoSQL Database Podcast, titled "The Mean Stack for Application Development," features Jonathan Casarrubias discussing the MEAN development stack, which consists of MongoDB, Express Framework, Angular, and Node.js, all of which are interconnected through JavaScript. This stack is particularly popular among JavaScript developers due to its cohesive nature. The episode is available on major podcast platforms such as iTunes and Pocket Casts, and listeners can also engage with Jonathan on Twitter or his website. Additionally, the podcast provides resources for learning more about Couchbase through its Developer Portal.

Aaron Benton, an experienced architect, specializes in creative mobile application development with over 10 years of experience in full stack development. He currently works as an Applications Architect for Shop.com in Greensboro, North Carolina and is a Couchbase Community Champion. Definitions are used to create reusable sets of code within models, allowing for smaller and more efficient models. By defining definitions at the root of the model and referencing them using $ref, developers can reduce code duplication and make their models more maintainable. In this example, Aaron uses definitions to streamline his FakeIt model by creating a Phone definition that contains 3 properties: type, phone_number, and extension. He then uses this definition in two different places within his Users model to generate phones for the main phone number and additional phones. This approach allows developers to take advantage of definitions to create more efficient models while reducing code duplication.

This week Couchbase was at Devoxx US, a conference series well known in Europe that is now taking place in the United States for the first time. During the event, Plushcap had the opportunity to discuss Codenvy with a group of developers, who allow users to quickly set up development stacks based on Docker containers. These stacks can be customized and extended by adding new Docker images, enabling collaboration directly between developers. The platform hosts everything in the cloud, making it possible to collaborate on full-featured backend systems at any time. Plushcap plans to use Codenvy for blogging, building a sample project that allows readers to try out code directly, and is excited to explore more features of the platform, including setting up a complete Couchbase Mobile stack. The developer has created a sample app using Codenvy's Eclipse Che editor, which provides a full-featured browser-based editor, and plans to expand on this setup in the future.

The author recently installed Linux on Hyper-V in Windows 10 to run internal builds of Couchbase Server, which can't be run on Windows. They chose Ubuntu Desktop as their go-to Linux distro and followed a step-by-step guide to create a virtual machine using Hyper-V, including enabling Hyper-V, creating a virtual switch, allocating memory and storage, and installing Ubuntu and Couchbase Server. The author notes that there are many great Linux distros available, but for Hyper-V and Linux, Ubuntu Desktop is their preferred choice. They also provide guidance on how to troubleshoot issues with Couchbase Server installation, such as the error "Dependency is not satisfiable libncurses5(>=6)" and offer alternatives like downloading from couchbase.com. Additionally, they respond to a user's question about running Docker images on Hyper-V using Windows VMs created with Docker-machine command.

Abbas Ahmed, a Couchbase Community Champion based in Manchester, U.K., balances his professional role at Rentalcars.com with family life and a passion for electronics and public speaking. With a background in computing and a career that began in academia, Ahmed has experience with various databases, ultimately favoring MySQL early in his career and later Couchbase for its caching capabilities and ease of management. At Rentalcars.com, he focuses on planning and executing projects involving database layers and microservices, while also promoting a DevOps culture to automate recurring tasks. Couchbase was chosen for its efficient caching and JSON document database solutions, which have significantly improved user experience and operational efficiency at Rentalcars.com. Ahmed appreciates Couchbase's rack awareness feature for data security and expresses a desire for enhancements such as partial updates on XDCR and additional monitoring tools. In his personal reading, he values books like "Next Generation Databases" by Guy Harrison for their clear and educational presentation of concepts.

The March developer build of Couchbase Server 5.0 introduces significant updates to Role Based Access Control (RBAC), emphasizing improved authentication and authorization processes. The updates include the introduction of first-class user features, allowing more granular control over user permissions. Users can now be assigned specific roles, such as Full Text Search (FTS) Admin or FTS Searcher, with permissions tailored to their roles, exemplified by the ability to create or execute searches within designated buckets. While the new features are promising, users are encouraged to provide feedback as some elements remain in development, and bugs are expected. The post provides a detailed look at using the REST API for managing these roles, given current UI limitations, and highlights the importance of these advancements for enhancing security and flexibility in user management.

N1QL is a powerful language for querying, transforming, and manipulating JSON data, designed to give developers an expressive and complete way to solve real-world problems. A compilation of articles on N1QL features, optimization techniques, tools, and use cases by the Couchbase R&D team and solution team, this guide aims to help users get the most out of N1QL, with resources now available for both the 2nd Edition and a Special Edition focused on Couchbase 5.5.

With the recent March 2017 Developer build of Couchbase, there were several bug fixes and feature enhancements, including improvements to core technologies like N1QL. One notable enhancement is simplified array indexing in Couchbase Server 5.0, which simplifies the syntax for creating indexes on array elements. This allows for more flexibility and ease of use when working with arrays. Additionally, relaxed variable match requirements for array indexes enable using different variable names in SELECT queries compared to CREATE INDEX statements. Furthermore, a relaxed whole array index key requirement for array indexes allows for covering array indexes without requiring the entire array attribute as an index-key. The new feature also enables indexing document meta information, such as the `cas` and `expiration` properties, which can be used to create more efficient queries. Overall, these enhancements bring power and efficiency to Couchbase's N1QL query language.

Aaron Benton, an experienced architect, has been working with FakeIt, a tool that generates random data based on YAML files, and Couchbase Server. He created three models: Users, Products, and Orders, each with dependencies on other models. The Users model has no dependencies, while the Products model depends on itself, and the Orders model depends on both the Users and Products models. The FakeIt tool allows for multiple models to be generated with dependencies, making it unique in its ability to handle complex data relationships. Aaron created YAML files for each model, specifying their properties and build functions, and then used FakeIt to generate random data for each model, which was then output to Couchbase Server. With these three models, developers can now generate related document models and stream them into Couchbase Server, allowing for more realistic testing scenarios and improved performance with N1QL queries.

The latest developer build of Couchbase Server has been released, featuring updates for N1QL query monitoring and profiling. The March release includes visual changes to the "Plan" view in Query Results, making it easier to identify expensive operations in query plans. Profiling complex queries is also improved with a new color-coding system that highlights the most costly parts of the plan based on percentages and thresholds. Users can provide feedback directly from within the Couchbase Web Console or submit issues through JIRA or the Forums. The development team encourages user engagement to shape the future of Couchbase Server.

The March 2017 developer build for Couchbase 5.0 introduces a range of new features and enhancements, particularly focusing on improvements to the N1QL query language, profiling, monitoring, and authentication with role-based access control (RBAC). This build marks another step towards the stable release of Couchbase 5.0 and addresses numerous bugs tracked on their Jira issue tracker, such as issues with index scanning, UI elements, and query failures. Developers are encouraged to download the build from the Couchbase downloads page and stay updated with further blog posts detailing these updates. The company is also working on its fifth album, with previews of Couchbase 5.0 available for those interested in exploring the latest developments.

The latest episode of The NoSQL Database Podcast, titled "Cassandra and the Tabular Database," features a discussion between host Jonathan and special guest Tim Berglund, a VP at DataStax, on the role of Cassandra as a NoSQL database solution. Tim Berglund, known for his expertise on Cassandra and DataStax, returns to the podcast after previously discussing NoSQL in the very first episode. Episode #15 is available for download on platforms like iTunes and Pocket Casts, and listeners can also access it directly online. For those interested in a deeper dive into NoSQL and Couchbase, the Couchbase Developer Portal offers extensive resources on querying, architecture, and developer SDKs. Jonathan can be followed on Twitter or through his website for further engagement.

Aaron Benton is an experienced architect with over 10 years of experience in full stack development, including ColdFusion, SQL, NoSQL, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. He currently works as an Applications Architect for Shop.com in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is a Couchbase Community Champion. FakeIt is a NodeJS project that generates fake data in various formats such as JSON, YAML, cson, or CSV based on models defined in YAML. The generated data can be output to the console, saved into directories, or imported into Couchbase Server. FakeIt supports 5 different ways to generate values: pre-build, build, fake, value, and post-build functions. These functions are passed variables such as documents, globals, inputs, faker, chance, document_index, and require. The tool is designed to ease development and testing of Couchbase deployments by generating large amounts of random data based on a single YAML file. FakeIt can also be used to save repeatable datasets for easy reuse by developers.

Ian Merrington, a member of the OTT Persistence engineering team at Sky U.K., plays a key role in ensuring the successful management of Couchbase across the company by developing necessary tools and serving as an escalation point for related issues. Based at Sky’s Osterley Campus in London, Ian's background as an Oracle DBA and his experience with projects like migrating the Sky Identity platform to a new data center using Couchbase's XDCR feature have solidified his preference for Couchbase due to its simplicity and effective replication capabilities. Outside of his professional life, Ian is a music enthusiast who enjoys playing the guitar and attending local music venues. He appreciates Couchbase for its audit log and user roles that align with traditional RDBMS standards and suggests improvements like more granular metric windows and additional monitoring plugins. Additionally, Ian admires authors Douglas Adams and Douglas Coupland, with a particular fondness for Adams' humorous and insightful sci-fi narratives and Coupland's book "Microserfs," which captures the essence of workplace camaraderie.

Rafael Ugolini, a full stack developer based in Brussels, proposes an offline-first development approach using Couchbase as the communication bridge between the frontend and backend, allowing for a fully functional offline application. The concept leverages Couchbase Lite and Couchbase Sync Gateway to manage state synchronization and updates, enabling applications to render based on current status without direct backend calls. The model employs web hooks that trigger HTTP calls for document updates, integrating with a web app capable of performing various tasks such as data retrieval or analysis. An example implementation includes a simple Flask web application that dispatches tasks to Celery, querying a Star Wars character API to update documents, while a PouchDB client prints database changes to the console. This solution showcases how Couchbase can handle application communication effectively, enhancing user experience even when offline.

The blog provides a comprehensive guide on implementing service discovery for a simple Java application interacting with a database within a Kubernetes environment. It specifically demonstrates setting up a one-node Kubernetes cluster using Minikube, defines application components with WildFly as the application server and Couchbase as the database, and details the deployment process, including the configuration of a Couchbase service and a WildFly replica set. The central focus is on utilizing the COUCHBASE_URI environment variable within the WildFly setup to enable dynamic service discovery, allowing seamless communication with the database. The blog also covers practical aspects like obtaining application logs, deploying the application via Kubernetes commands, and accessing the application through a Kubernetes proxy. The article concludes by highlighting the benefits of service discovery in Kubernetes and provides additional resources for further learning.

Visual Studio 2017 introduces a new feature called Visual Studio Live Unit Testing, which allows developers to write unit tests and integration tests while coding. This feature is available in the Enterprise edition of Visual Studio 2017 and can be used with NUnit, xUnit, or MSTest testing frameworks. With Visual Studio Live Unit Testing, developers can run their unit tests automatically while coding, providing immediate feedback on whether their code makes test failures or passes. The feature also encourages developers to write more tests by allowing them to see the green checkmarks that indicate successful test runs and covering code. However, integration tests may not be suitable for automated testing due to potential issues with external dependencies such as databases or web services. To exclude integration tests from automated testing, developers can use a custom attribute called `IgnoreForLiveTesting`. This feature is a great addition to Visual Studio 2017, but it has some limitations and requires the use of a specific NUnit attribute.

Offline-first is an approach to software development that prioritizes storing data locally and synchronizing with a server when online. To implement this, developers use client-side databases such as PouchDB and Couchbase Sync Gateway. In this example, a web app was built using Bootstrap, jQuery, PouchDB, and Couchbase Sync Gateway to store contacts offline and synchronize them in real-time when the user is online. The app uses Hoodie Store-client for data persistence and offline sync, allowing users to save data locally first and then push changes to the server. With Sync Gateway installed, the app can synchronize its database with a remote server, enabling cross-device synchronization without an internet connection. This approach provides a good way to ensure that data is available when offline and keeps all connected browser clients in-sync.

The article provides an in-depth look at a tool designed to monitor Couchbase Mobile Sync Gateway's changes feed, offering insights into its implementation using JavaFX and various Java libraries. The tool is intended to help developers write sophisticated business logic by examining the changes feed, and it includes a detailed walkthrough of the code structure, including major classes and methods. The application features a Controller class that integrates UI components with backend functionality, utilizing listeners for real-time updates and synchronization. The text explains how the tool manages document lists, live queries, and user interactions, while also discussing the use of a database helper class for replication and authentication tasks. Additionally, a Sync Gateway Monitor class is highlighted for tracking changes feed using OkHttp, emphasizing the importance of capturing sequence values for efficient feed monitoring. The article serves not only as a technical guide for building and understanding the app but also as a resource for developers seeking to enhance their proficiency with Couchbase Mobile and JavaFX.

This blog post explains how a simple Java application can communicate with a database using service discovery in the DC/OS environment. It highlights the importance of service discovery in multi-container applications, which consist of various components like application servers and databases that may have multiple replicas running as containers. Since containers can be ephemeral and get reassigned different IP addresses when rescheduled, service discovery assigns logical names to components, allowing applications to interact with services by name rather than IP address. The blog demonstrates setting up a DC/OS cluster and using the Marathon framework to define and deploy a Java EE application with a WildFly server and Couchbase database, illustrating the configuration for service discovery and load balancing. The post provides a step-by-step guide on deploying the application using the dcos-maven-plugin and shares the complete source code at a GitHub repository, emphasizing the dynamic and scalable nature of service discovery in container orchestration frameworks.

The text discusses the process of migrating a Node.js application from MongoDB to Couchbase, emphasizing the advantages of using Couchbase's N1QL query language over MongoDB's query language. It highlights the challenges developers face with MongoDB, such as complex aggregation queries, and contrasts this with the simpler and more efficient N1QL queries in Couchbase, which allow for SQL-like operations on JSON data. The tutorial provides a detailed guide on setting up a new Node.js project using Couchbase, replicating the structure and functionality of a MongoDB application, and demonstrates how to create database models and API routes that utilize Couchbase's capabilities. The text also mentions the superior scalability and performance of Couchbase, making it an attractive alternative for developers seeking to simplify and maintain their codebase.

The Couchbase Lite replication process runs in the background, using threads to sync data between devices. To accurately detect the state of a replication, developers should use a change listener instead of relying on the `isRunning()` property or other convenience methods, which can lead to unexpected results due to asynchronous changes. A recommended approach involves implementing an interface that defines a callback pattern for handling changes, allowing for separation of concerns between the database helper class and the client class. This design enables clients to register listeners and receive notifications when replication state changes, such as when a replication starts or stops running.

In the blog post "Moving from SQL Server to Couchbase Part 3: App Migration," the author discusses the transition from Microsoft SQL Server to Couchbase Server, emphasizing considerations for application migration. While Couchbase offers advantages like flexible data modeling and fast data access, the transition may require significant application restructuring depending on the existing architecture's coupling with the database. The post highlights the similarities between SQL and N1QL, Couchbase's query language, and suggests using a service tier to replace stored procedures and triggers, which are not directly supported in Couchbase. It also reviews key changes in application coding, including serialization, security, and concurrency in Couchbase, as well as the use of ODMs (Object Document Models) in place of OR/Ms (Object-Relational Mappers) for managing data models. Additionally, the potential benefits of using Couchbase with Kafka, Spark, and Hadoop for data processing and analytics are mentioned, along with a call for feedback to improve the transition process.

Couchbase Mobile 1.4 has been released to support millions of devices and users, enabling on-demand scaling for companies like GE, Becton Dickinson, Doddle, and others, with features such as Sync Gateway Accelerator which can increase system capacity by up to 6x through horizontal scaling. Additionally, Couchbase Lite now supports LINQ queries in .NET, while also addressing various bugs and making minor enhancements. The release includes new documentation and a product webinar for further information and getting started.

A recent workshop at DevNexus 2017 in Atlanta focused on creating full stack applications using technologies such as Java, Angular, Docker, Couchbase, and JavaFX. The workshop was divided into six parts, including deploying a Couchbase Cluster with Docker, developing a RESTful API with Java, designing client front-end applications using Angular and JavaFX, synchronizing JavaFX applications with Couchbase Mobile, and integrating REST and sync capabilities. Participants found the workshop successful, and its materials, including instructions and slides, are now freely available on GitHub. For additional resources on developing with Couchbase, developers are encouraged to visit the Couchbase Developer Portal.

Ratnopam Chakrabarti, a software developer at Ericsson Inc., explores the integration of full-text search into applications using the Couchbase Java SDK. Focusing on IoT and smart city technologies, Chakrabarti details how this feature, part of Couchbase Server 4.5, enhances search capabilities by indexing and querying datasets, such as conference data, through various search methods including fuzzy, regular expression, prefix, phrase, range, and combination queries. The tutorial outlines the process of setting up a Couchbase environment within a Spring Boot application, creating search indices, and executing search operations using Java code. The post emphasizes the flexibility offered by Couchbase's full-text search service, suitable for diverse applications ranging from résumés to tweets, and provides a practical demonstration of its use in real-world scenarios.