My experience with couchbase

Couchbase is not CouchDB. Two differents technologies

I almost hated this database just because it was giving me some hard time. It was quite a journey. I am sharing with you today

• couchbase: key-value database

• Couchbase: "A distributed, memory-first, nosql, json document database"

• Couchbase is not Couchdb Both open source couchbase offer more production features comparison table:

• Couchbase vs Mongodb replace implementation using mongodb to couchbase

• no eloquent driver for v3 for php sdk v3

• https://docs.couchbase.com/php-sdk/current/hello-world/start-using-sdk.html

• built new one based on eloquent driver v2 for php sdk v2 https://github.com/friendsofcat/laravel-couchbase

• build container test runner on github action https://github.com/kirschbaum-development/laravel-test-runner-container/tree/master/7.4-couch-mongo

• all coming together. CI checks all green, happy dev

• I finally love couchbase ha

• This is one common trait for us developer: liking a tech just because we're comfortable with it and disliking it because we lack clear understanding of the tool

• Couchbase: "A distributed, memory-first, nosql, json document database"

• using couchbase 6.x

• migration guide 7.x

• things I liked ACID, hearing multi tenancy

• went from not liking it to loving it just because I understand it better and made open source contribution to that

• looking for feedback on those contributions

• difference between N1QL and SQL ?

  • goal being to know what N1QL is doing better than SQL if that comparison hold place

• eventing service like firebase snapshot ?

  • this could remove the need of having pusher or application

• use ephemeral database for testing

• free training at couchbase

• prepare documentation for other developer, as steps

• better leverage couchbase cluster > bucket > scope > collection > document

  • cluster -> cluster
  • bucket -> database
  • scope -> schema
  • collection -> table
  • document -> table row

• scope as a way to group with data with same structure (schema)

• scope as a way to isolate data (like a view)

• flexible cluster topology adjusts with growing demand

• use one technology for our storage, analytics and caching layer

  • question: redis
  • question: elasticsearch

• laravel eloquent driver

• container for CI work on GitHub https://github.com/kirschbaum-development/laravel-test-runner-container

• NoSQL option to store some json payloads from an external API. To use it as a "data-lake" to parse info from as needed

• Metadata storage of JSON payload

• analytics

• challenges

  • setup/install
  • C SDK before PHP SDK
  • all in one setup script
    • cluster creation
    • bucket creation
    • primary index
  • docker container that does it all with proper version
  • tests
    • ephemeral bucket
  • uses laravel builtin command system
  • ephemeral
  • arbitrary decision
    • bucket, scope, collection vs database, table

• wrap up

  • couchbase have more features than what is exposed with this work. The eloquent driver limits itself to just
  • a lot of arbitrary decisions taken
  • TODO
    • read replica to speed up

• references

  • GitHub
  • https://packagist.org/packages/friendsofcat/laravel-couchbase

CI setup

#!/bin/bash

# Should match vars in .env.ci (ie COUCHBASE_DB_*)
username=Administrator
password=password
host=couchbase
port=8091
bucket=canvas
version=7.0.*

# TODO: move step 0 to laravel-test-runner container
## Step 0 - Because we don't know how to access binary from the couchbase container in github action service
echo "Install couchbase required tools for cli usage below"
curl -O https://packages.couchbase.com/releases/couchbase-release/couchbase-release-1.0-amd64.deb
dpkg -i ./couchbase-release-1.0-amd64.deb
apt-get update
apt-get install -y couchbase-server=$version
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/couchbase/bin

echo "couchbase-cli version: $(couchbase-cli --version)"

# Create cluster
echo "Creating couchbase cluster"
couchbase-cli cluster-init -c "$host:$port" \
          --cluster-username $username \
          --cluster-password $password \
          --services data,index,query,analytics \
          --cluster-ramsize 2048 \
          --cluster-index-ramsize 256

# Add new bucket
# Can also be done using BucketCreate command from kirschbaum-development/laravel-couchbase

echo "Creating couchbase bucket $bucket"
couchbase-cli bucket-create -c "$host:$port" \
        --username $username \
        --password $password \
        --bucket $bucket \
        --bucket-type couchbase \
        --bucket-ramsize 1024 \
        --enable-flush 1

echo "CBQ version: $(cbq --version)"

# Create index to allow n1ql queries
echo "Creating couchbase primary index on $bucket"
cbq -u $username -p $password -e "http://$host:$port" -s "CREATE PRIMARY INDEX "${bucket}_index" ON $bucket"

echo "Checking indexes state"
cbq -u $username -p $password -e "http://$host:$port" -s "SELECT * FROM system:indexes"

The command above are more suited to run as migration

Conclusion

• thought at first it was too much for me to try
• after working on couchbase driver turns out not that complex
• just need cool head and clear thinking
• next up: neo4j driver