October 2012 Summaries

Neo4j version 1.9 M01 introduces a new high availability (HA) setup that simplifies the process of maintaining a cluster, with members communicating directly with each other using the Paxos consensus protocol for master election. This setup is currently available for evaluation and feedback purposes only and should not be used in production until Neo4j 1.9.GA. Additionally, Cypher has been enhanced with new features such as pattern matching, the WITH SKIP/LIMIT/ORDER BY clause, and a reduce operation that allows aggregating data into a single value. These changes were contributed by community members, including Wes Freeman, who added various features and fixed inconsistencies in the language. The release includes updated documentation and is available for early access to HA with simplified operations.

The Neo4j community team devised an event with hacking challenges that included recording interaction-graphs based on OpenBeacon-RFID tracking and creating visualizations in a Zen Garden style. Andreas and Michael discovered the Zen-Table project, which is an autonomous Zen garden in a box that can draw static images or dynamic renderings via USB. The team arranged for the first Zen-Desktop table to be shipped and gave it to their Heroku friends as a token of friendship. At GraphConnect, they will have a desktop Zen-Table waiting with a challenge for attendees to come up with graph renderings suitable for visualization on the sand of the Zen-Table, allowing external access via HTTP.

REST::Neo4p` is a Perl library that provides an object-oriented interface to interact with Neo4j graph databases using the Neo4j REST API. It allows users to create, update, and query nodes and relationships in the database using Perl objects, making it easier to work with the database. The library uses lazy loading to minimize memory usage and supports features like batch processing, streaming, and error handling. It also provides a CYPHER query interface and supports Neo4j's full-text search capabilities through indexes. The library is designed to be robust, feature-rich, and maintainable, making it suitable for production use.

The Neo4j team, consisting of Emil Eifrem, Michael Hunger, Stefan Armbruster, and Lasse Westh-Nielsen, will be present at the conference. The team is offering talks, meetups, and a booth where attendees can engage with them, learn about NOSQL solutions in an enterprise Java context, and participate in a hands-on guide to Spring Data Neo4j. A long-awaited book on Modern Data Access for Enterprise Java by the Spring Data project leads will also be available as an e-book during the conference. The team is hosting a meetup at AOL's campus, where they will present their work on Spring Data Neo4j and demonstrate its capabilities in several example domains.

Using Spring Data Neo4j, it was possible to model and import the Hubway Challenge dataset into a Neo4j graph database, making it available for advanced querying and visualization. The process involved creating a domain model, which included modeling the Station entity with multiple names and indices, as well as importing trips by splitting them into batches due to the large number of entries. After running the import, a Neo4j database containing all the connections was obtained, and the data could be visualized using various tools such as Neo4j's built-in browser or third-party libraries like D3.js. The dataset also supported queries in Cypher, allowing for more advanced exploration and analysis. Additionally, the data could be easily added to a Heroku Neo4j Add-On and used with any programming language and rendering framework. Future steps included importing additional shapefile data, creating more advanced Cypher queries, and visualizing the results using various tools.

The text discusses the use of graph databases, specifically Neo4j, to analyze campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The authors imported FEC data into Neo4j and created a workshop where participants were challenged to write Cypher queries to answer various questions about the data. The queries covered topics such as finding presidential candidates for specific years, identifying mythical candidates, and determining funding paths between candidates. Participants who submitted correct answers had the chance to win a free pass to GraphConnect, a conference focused on graph databases, which was held in San Francisco this November. The workshop aimed to help people "follow the data" to understand the forces influencing decisions in politics.

Neo4j is a graph database that uses the Cypher query language to store and retrieve data. Users can create nodes (representing individuals or entities) and relationships between them, allowing for flexible querying and traversing of complex data structures. The database supports basic operations such as creating, reading, updating, and deleting data, and also provides features like automatic indexing and explicit transactions. With the release of Neo4j 1.8, users can now enjoy improved performance, including zero-downtime rolling upgrades, streamed responses to REST API requests, bi-directional traversals, and support for graph data and auto-indexes in Cypher. The new version is available for immediate download on Neo4j.org and can be discussed on various online platforms, including Stack Overflow, the Neo4j Google Group, and GraphConnect.

The MYOB Neo4J coding competition was an internal development challenge for the Accountants Division team in MYOB Australia, which aimed to develop a customer relationship system using Node.js and Neo4J. The competition ran for 8 weeks and required contestants to build an online CRM system from scratch, with points awarded for community contributions made during the competition period. The use of Neo4J was chosen due to its suitability for modeling relationships in accounting practices, where data is often interconnected and complex. Safwan Kamarrudin emerged as the winner and owner of a new iPad, with his solution "Smörgåsbord" showcasing innovative use of Node.js modules and community engagement. The competition highlighted the benefits of graph databases like Neo4J for handling complex, inter-connected data, and provided an opportunity for developers to learn about this technology in a practical setting.