March 2019 Summaries

Couchbase Lite 2.0 is a powerful NoSQL embedded data store that provides database and document CRUD operations, Query API with SQL-like semantics, and Full-Text-Search capabilities for iOS, Android, and .Net Mobile Platforms. The Couchbase.Lite and Couchbase.Lite.Enterprise Nuget packages offer extensibility benefits by allowing developers to create and maintain projects that supplement existing Couchbase Lite features. A new Nuget package, Couchbase.Lite.Mapping, is being introduced to help decrease the amount of code written for mapping model objects to and from MutableDocument objects, providing a more efficient way to convert between object representations. The library is open-source, maintained by Couchbase Labs, and can be found on Nuget.org.

Egor Kovalchuk, a deployment manager at MegaFon, one of Russia's leading telecommunications companies, discusses the company's digital transformation journey facilitated by Couchbase Server, a NoSQL database. MegaFon leverages Couchbase for its high performance and flexibility in managing large-scale data processes, including simple and write-through caching, which has notably reduced service reinstatement times for prepaid accounts from 90 to 30 seconds. The database's key-value storage, JSON data format, and high availability features like intra-cluster data replication are crucial for meeting MegaFon's performance requirements, such as processing up to 200,000 requests per second with minimal latency. The use of Couchbase has enabled horizontal scaling, enhanced information security, and simplified upgrades, contributing to cost reduction and improved customer satisfaction. Challenges faced during upgrades, like issues with views and compaction in older versions, have been addressed in newer versions, highlighting the platform's adaptability to evolving business needs. Overall, Couchbase's robust architecture and scalability make it a preferred choice for MegaFon's dynamic and extensive telecommunication operations.

As NoSQL adoption grows, developers and enterprises require a general-purpose database to replatform their mission-critical applications and services. MongoDB provides a procedural method to query data, but this approach has limitations such as proprietary syntax, complexity, limited expressive power, and poor query optimization. In contrast, Couchbase adopts an open-standard SQL approach with its N1QL language, offering support for ANSI join constructs, advanced query optimization, and indexing capabilities that scale to meet the performance requirements of critical business applications.

Rob Hedgpeth, a developer advocate who recently joined Couchbase with a focus on mobile and IoT, introduces himself and shares his enthusiasm for technology. With a coding career starting in the early 2000s, he has evolved from creating basic websites to contributing to over 100 mobile apps across major platforms, incorporating emerging technologies like AI, ML, and augmented reality. Despite the challenges of keeping up with rapid technological advancements, Rob is eager to assist the development community in navigating these changes. He is actively learning about Couchbase technologies through various resources and is excited about their potential. Outside of work, he enjoys experimenting with new tech, playing video games, and spending time with his dogs.

Forrester Research has recognized Couchbase as a Leader in its "The Forrester Wave: Big Data NoSQL, Q1 2019" report. This recognition is a great honor and a testament to the team's hard work and dedication at Couchbase. The company received top scores in several areas, including ability to execute, open source, technical support, market awareness, and reach. Couchbase's mission is to revolutionize digital innovation by simplifying and automating complex challenges for customers, particularly in supporting high-performance, scalable, and easy data access for business-critical applications. The NoSQL database space has become critical for businesses, with each enterprise having unique requirements that cannot be met by a single-size-fits-all approach. Couchbase is proud to be the most powerful NoSQL technology, delivering unparalleled performance at scale from the cloud to the edge, with unmatched agility, manageability, and cloud portability. This recognition from Forrester validates Couchbase's position as a leader in the industry and makes it an exciting time to be part of the company.

Couchbase N1QL's 6.5 release introduces support for window functions and common table expressions (CTE), enabling developers and data analysts to handle complex business queries more efficiently without relying on external tools like Excel. The text illustrates two examples of how these features can be used: first, by evaluating the duration of sales activities per customer in January 2019, which involves calculating total time spent and time spent by each account; and second, by analyzing month-over-month changes in sales tasks for 2018, utilizing the LAG window function to compare current and previous month task counts. These capabilities enhance the analytical power available to users, allowing for more nuanced data insights directly within the Couchbase environment.

Couchbase is enhancing user interactions by upgrading its Forums and Community Directory, notably by removing the OneLogin single sign-on option as of March 11, 2019. Users will now be able to log into these systems using their Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, or GitHub IDs. To ensure a smooth transition and retention of forum history, users are advised to re-login on March 12, using the same email or username they previously registered with. Should any issues arise during the login process, users are encouraged to contact their chosen login provider directly or reach out to Couchbase support for assistance.

IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service offers a secure and user-friendly native Kubernetes experience with features like intelligent scheduling, self-healing, and automated rollouts, and it is recognized as a Certified Kubernetes Hosted Platform by CNCF. The blog outlines a detailed process for deploying Couchbase Autonomous Operator on this service using Persistent Storage, highlighting how persistent volumes enhance data resilience and deployment flexibility by decoupling data from pods, allowing seamless pod movement without downtime. The steps include setting up an IBM Cloud account, creating a Kubernetes cluster, and installing the Couchbase Autonomous Operator, which monitors the cluster for failures and automatically recovers by creating new instances with the same persistent volumes. The guide emphasizes the resilience and efficiency of the Couchbase setup on IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, ensuring that clusters maintain desired configurations without data loss during recovery scenarios.

The Couchbase Autonomous Operator simplifies the management of Couchbase Server deployments on Kubernetes clusters across various cloud platforms, although the deployment of a Sync Gateway cluster, essential for Couchbase Mobile, is not managed by the operator. Deploying a Sync Gateway cluster on Kubernetes, however, is straightforward and involves using the Kubernetes Deployment Controller, storing configuration files as secrets, and setting up a Load Balancer with an external IP for client connections. The Sync Gateway and Couchbase Server must reside on the same Kubernetes cluster, with namespaces and resource limits ensuring separation and preventing resource contention. A step-by-step tutorial is available for deploying a Sync Gateway cluster on Kubernetes, applicable across different cloud environments, with platform-specific variations primarily affecting command-line tools and RBAC configurations. For further assistance, readers are encouraged to reach out via social media or email, with acknowledgments given to contributors Matt Carabine and James Nocentini.

Today's businesses operate in a digital economy where downtime can be fatal, and modern databases must handle massive amounts of business-critical data while meeting demanding requirements for high availability, high performance, and disaster recovery. Enterprises now deploy multi-master databases across diverse geographies to ensure business continuity, with replication playing a key role in their effectiveness. In contrast to MongoDB's shortcomings, Couchbase's cross-datacenter replication (XDCR) technology provides a robust and flexible solution with peer-to-peer architecture, active-active configurations, independently scalable clusters, and simplified administration. Several customers are using Couchbase for complex global deployments that take advantage of multi-master bidirectional ring topology, and real-world examples demonstrate the elegance of XCR in action.

Tayeb Chlyah is a Java lead architect with expertise in performance, large-scale applications, microservices, and NoSQL databases. He has developed open-source Java libraries for Couchbase. JHipster is a Yeoman generator that helps Java full-stack developers quickly understand new technologies by generating complete applications combining Spring Boot backend and Angular or React frontend. It provides options for various architectures, databases, security, and more, allowing developers to try different combinations for their use cases. The focus of this article is on microservices and NoSQL with Couchbase. Couchbase is a document-oriented database that offers fast key-value store, powerful query engine, built-in indexers, and full-text search capabilities. Microservices architecture enables easier continuous delivery, better testability, scalability, and fault isolation by breaking down applications into small, modular services. JHipster handles complexities of microservices through service discovery, configuration, load balancing, fault tolerance, and centralized logging and monitoring. The article guides developers in creating a brewery microservice using Docker, Couchbase, and JHipster. It explains how to generate an API Gateway, configure JHipster Registry, and populate data with Couchbase Sample Buckets. The source code for the generated application is available at tchlyah/couchbase-jhipster-microservices-example.