July 2012 Summaries

The DataNucleus v3.1.0-m1 plugin for Neo4j has been released, introducing several new features including support for embedded and nested fields, querying of those fields, use of Neo4j node id as a global object identity, and JDOQL/JPQL ordering in Cypher. The plugin now offers improved functionality for working with Neo4j data using Java Persistence API (JPA) or Java Data Objects (JDO).

AWS has introduced new software competencies for various areas, including financial services, auto, genAI, and ML. These competencies are supported by Neo4j, a graph database that offers self or fully-managed deployment options. Neo4j AuraDB is a fully-managed graph database as a service, while Graph Data Science provides graph analytics and modeling platforms. The platform also includes Deployment Center, which allows users to download, integrate, and deploy Neo4j. Additionally, Neo4j supports generative AI, enabling businesses to back their large language models with knowledge graphs for better business intelligence. The platform has various industries and use cases, including fraud detection, financial services, and more. Customers can learn from success stories and join online courses and certifications through GraphAcademy, which offers free online courses and certifications to over 100K Neo4j experts.

The topic of rolling upgrades in database management is discussed, with the goal of upgrading a cluster without disrupting its operation. The development of rolling upgrades was prompted by the need to address breaking changes in protocol used between instances, particularly when upgrading from 1.5.3 to 1.7 series. A rolling upgrade allows each version to gracefully coordinate and continue serving requests while other versions are being upgraded or brought online. Each slave is detected as it's brought up, and falls back into a compatibility mode that prevents it from becoming the master but still executes transactions. The order of upgrades matters, with slaves typically started first and then the master. This approach has been implemented in Neo4j 1.8.M06, which offers immediate download, provisioning on Heroku, discussion on the Google Group, and questions on Stack Overflow.

The Neo4j JDBC driver has been successfully tested with various tools and applications, including Aqua Data Studio, Ataccama DQ Analyzer, LibreOffice, ODBC-JDBC Gateway, IntelliJ, and SQLShell. The tests showed that the driver works well with most of these tools, allowing users to execute Cypher queries and access Neo4j data. Some tools, such as Aqua Data Studio, had minor issues, while others, like LibreOffice and SQLShell, worked seamlessly. The ODBC-JDBC Gateway was also found to be a useful tool for connecting to Neo4j with non-JDBC applications. Overall, the driver's performance has been consistently good across various testing scenarios.