June 2019 Summaries

Michael Aboagye, a backend software and security engineer in Ghana, presents a tutorial on building a simple diary web application using the Flask framework and Couchbase as the backend server. The guide covers the installation and configuration of the necessary components, including Flask, Jinja templates, and Couchbase Server, and emphasizes the use of Docker to run Couchbase Server. It details the creation of a virtual environment, the installation of required packages, and the setup of Couchbase Server, including the configuration of clusters and buckets. The tutorial also provides code snippets for creating server-side routes to handle user data submission and retrieval, and guides users through setting up HTML templates for the application's user interface. The project can be cloned from GitHub, offering a practical introduction to integrating Flask with Couchbase for secure backend service development.

Nic Raboy has been recognized as a Couchbase Community Champion due to his contributions as a Developer Evangelist in the maps and location industry, where he creates demos for various platforms. Based in Tracy, CA, Raboy enjoys spending time with his family, working on his side projects, and playing video games in his spare time. Despite being a former Couchbase employee, he continues to use the product for its reliability and relevance, particularly appreciating N1QL, Couchbase's SQL-based query language for JSON. He has created tutorials integrating Couchbase with other technologies and expresses wishes for Couchbase to expand onto IoT hardware, offer a cloud solution, and modernize its SDKs. Additionally, Raboy prefers consuming information through online blogs rather than traditional books. The Couchbase Champion program is open to those actively engaging with the community through forums, meetups, blogging, and speaking at events.

The Couchbase 6.5 release is a significant one, bringing Enterprise Database functionalities to the N1QL Query service. This update expands N1QL with additional functions to support Enterprise Application requirements, aiming to improve developer productivity. Key features include full-text search capabilities, window and analytical functions, common table expressions, user-defined functions, subquery joins, and an Index Advisor tool. These enhancements enable more complex business questions, intuitive query constructs, and optimized query performance. The release includes Developer Preview features, such as Index Advisor, which allows users to create the most optimum indexes for their queries.

Luca Christille is a developer with five years of experience as a freelancer, focusing on mobile and front-end development. He has worked with various technologies, including Flutter and Couchbase, and has led the development of long-term projects. Luca is based in northern Italy and enjoys spending time with his family and developing side projects. He chose Couchbase due to its offline-first capabilities, flexibility, and syncing data features. Luca uses various Couchbase features, including Eventing service, webhooks/polling, and N1QL. As a future goal, he wishes for greater understanding and adoption of Couchbase, as well as integration with progressive web applications and IoT solutions. Luca is interested in the Couchbase Community program and wants to get involved by engaging with the community through various activities such as blogging, tweeting, and speaking at events.

The Couchbase Mobile 2.5 release introduced enhanced stats reporting capabilities for the Sync Gateway, which can be monitored using Prometheus and visualized with Grafana. This setup enables users to gain insights into the health of their Couchbase Mobile deployment. The process involves deploying a Sync Gateway Exporter to convert Sync Gateway stats into Prometheus metrics, setting up Prometheus to poll the Exporter for data, and using Grafana to display these metrics on customizable dashboards. The Exporter is open-source and available on GitHub, compatible with Couchbase Sync Gateway 2.5, and the entire deployment can be managed using Docker containers. Additionally, the article provides a default Grafana dashboard and outlines steps for customizing it, while also hinting at future content for deploying the Exporter on a Kubernetes cluster.

Lentiq chose Couchbase as its primary database due to its previous experience with it from their parent company Bigstep, where they had already tested and used Couchbase for performance. The team needed a fast, reliable, and scalable database that could support a microservices-based architecture, and Couchbase met all these requirements. They allocated separate buckets for each microservice, allowing each service to have its own user and access credentials. This approach also assisted with scaling and reliability. The Spring data Couchbase library made it easy to connect to and use Couchbase for reading and writing data. Lentiq uses pessimistic locking, specifically `getAndLock` and `unlock`, to ensure exclusive access to certain documents while performing critical operations like physical resources checks. They integrated the lock document creation and deletion with the environment's creation and deletion flows to solve the issue of atomic getOrCreateAndLock. Overall, Couchbase has proven to be a reliable and fast storage layer for Lentiq's internal microservices, meeting all their requirements and enabling them to implement a successful NoSQL database solution.

The author of the text is excited to announce the release of Alpha versions of their upcoming Node.js 3.0 SDK, which aims to provide stable and cross-compatible APIs while leveraging new features in ECMAScript 6. The new version introduces built-in support for Promises throughout the APIs, enabling non-blocking serially written code using Async/Await features. The Cluster and Bucket objects are also back in SDK 3.0, with improvements in authenticating parameters. Key/Value operations now exist on the Collections level, which is always a member of exactly one scope. Additionally, the SDK introduces Scope and Collections with Developer Preview mode, allowing for more intuitive data access and organization. The querying APIs have also been improved, with N1QL queries scoped to the Cluster object. The release is available through npm, and the author is seeking feedback on Promises and Async/Await support in NodeJS, with no current plan for production availability.

Couchbase has introduced a new Scala SDK, currently in pre-release alpha form, designed to seamlessly integrate with the company's existing infrastructure while offering a native Scala interface. Built on the stable core of the Java SDK 3.x, the Scala SDK offers functional error handling using Scala's Try type, allowing developers to manage errors without exceptions and to use pattern matching for clean error resolution. It supports the latest features such as stronger durability and collections in Couchbase Server 6.5, and it offers three APIs: synchronous, reactive, and asynchronous, to accommodate different programming needs. The SDK is also compatible with multiple popular Scala JSON libraries, providing flexibility in JSON handling, and includes a built-in JSON library called JsonObject. Moreover, it offers direct support for Scala case classes, allowing seamless serialization and deserialization. The SDK simplifies querying with Couchbase Analytics, N1QL, and Full Text Search, and it supports OpenTelemetry for tracing in distributed systems. As the SDK is in its early stages, users are encouraged to provide feedback to help refine its features before the general availability release.

The Android app tutorial introduces the use of prebuilt Couchbase Lite databases within mobile apps, reducing bandwidth and improving user experience. It builds upon the previous tutorial's basics of CRUD operations using Couchbase Lite, exploring advanced features such as multiple local instances of Couchbase Lite, Full-Text-Search capabilities, and powerful Query API with SQL-like semantics. The tutorial extends an existing app to incorporate a prebuilt "University" database, allowing users to query and retrieve information from the local database, persisting user profile data in the process. By using prebuilt Couchbase Lite databases, developers can streamline their apps' functionality and improve performance, making it suitable for data that does not change frequently.

The Couchbase Go SDK 2.0 Alpha introduces significant changes to its API, aiming for simplicity, future-proofing, and integration with the latest ecosystem developments. The new SDK aligns with features in Couchbase Server, such as Scopes and Collections, which provide a more efficient way of managing multi-tenancy. The updated API has been revamped to simplify key-value operations, N1QL queries, search, analytics, and views, while also introducing context support for cancellation. Additionally, error handling has been improved with the introduction of type-safe errors and helper functions. The SDK is now available for Go development and can be used by connecting to a Couchbase cluster, opening a bucket, and using the default collection.

Couchbase has announced the rollout of new and improved Software Development Kits (SDKs) that feature faster performance, simpler APIs, and enhanced integration with various framework ecosystems. A notable addition is the introduction of a new Scala SDK, which aims to facilitate seamless integration into the Scala ecosystem. The revamped APIs across all SDKs have been streamlined to improve usability, eliminating the old Document concept and consolidating optional properties into a single options parameter, thereby reducing overloads. Specifically for the Java SDK, enhancements include adopting Java 8 as the baseline, transitioning from RxJava to Reactor for reactive APIs, and offering three API types—blocking, reactive, and async—to provide developers with greater control. Furthermore, these reactive query APIs now support backpressure, optimizing performance when handling large datasets. Developers can access the pre-release versions from the Couchbase Maven repository and are encouraged to provide feedback to refine the SDKs further.

The first alpha of Couchbase Python Client 3.0 has been released, featuring a harmonized and revised API that shares advanced internals with its predecessor. The new version includes support for collections, synchronous durability, and automated provision of libcouchbase. It also introduces extensive type hints for improved discoverability and reliability. The SDK is available to download in pre-release alpha form and is compatible with Python 3, while supporting Python 2.7 for now due to its EOL status.

The text discusses how software development is like plant growth, where well-used and loved software adapts to changing environments and objectives by introducing new features and evolving its ecosystem. This process is referred to as "SDK 3" in the context of Couchbase Server SDKs, which follow a de-facto Semantic Versioning standard. The growth of the software ecosystem includes updates for various platforms such as Node.js, Java, Python, Scala, PHP, and .NET, with the goal of making the software more attractive and user-friendly. However, this growth also requires pruning and removal of less useful features, resulting in a more efficient and compatible software base. The text also highlights some maintenance releases that had to address bugs and compatibility issues, such as the year 2038 bug in SDK Java, and invites developers to provide feedback on the alpha releases through blogs and forums.

The N1QL query language, used for querying and managing data in Couchbase, is designed to be flexible and powerful. While its syntax can be limited, it offers unlimited query possibilities. Understanding the default execution flow of a query is essential, as it can significantly impact performance. The query plan structure and data flow can be visualized using the built-in `visual explain` feature, which provides an interactive way to understand the order of execution and optimize for performance by creating indexes. By analyzing the query plan, developers can identify areas where optimization is needed, such as reducing the number of scans or minimizing the amount of work done by each operator.

Couchbase is showing its support for Pride Month by debuting a stylized profile image across all social media channels and distributing pride pins to employees worldwide. The company aims to foster an inclusive environment where employees can be their authentic selves, reflecting Couchbase's commitment to building a diverse workforce that sparks innovation and fulfillment. This effort highlights Couchbase's dedication to recognizing the impact of the LGBT community and promoting equality and inclusion in its workplace.

Nic Raboy discusses modern web and mobile development technologies, focusing on automation's role in the future. He introduces a tutorial on creating a chatbot using Amazon Lex for conversational interfaces, Couchbase NoSQL for database management, and Node.js for database interaction. The tutorial guides users through setting up intents such as AboutIntent, GetProfileIntent, and UpgradeServiceIntent to manage information and service upgrades, demonstrating how to leverage automation tools to reduce human workload. Raboy provides detailed instructions for configuring Amazon Lex, developing AWS Lambda logic, and integrating Couchbase, while highlighting the importance of secure data handling in production scenarios. This example illustrates how chatbots can potentially replace human roles in customer support, emphasizing the need for data validation and security in real-world applications.

The text discusses the issue of sticky sessions in web applications and how it can be avoided by storing user sessions in a database instead of using the server's memory. It highlights Couchbase as a suitable solution for this purpose, leveraging its internal key-value engine and cache layer to store recently used sessions in memory. The article then provides an example implementation using Spring Session, demonstrating how to add dependencies, enable Couchbase HTTP session, and configure session settings such as type name, type value, and maximum inactive interval. Additionally, it covers querying the user's session by decoding JSON-encoded objects stored in the `_attr` attribute and provides a sample N1QL query to retrieve session data.