Teaching NoSQL with RavenDB and Neo4j

James H. Paterson, Glasgow Caledonian University Cowcaddens Road Glasgow G4 0BA

James.Paterson@gcu.ac.uk http://www.gcu.ac.uk/ebe/staff/jpaterson

Edwin Gray,  Glasgow Caledonian University Cowcaddens Road Glasgow G4 0BA

E.Gray@gcu.ac.uk http://www.gcu.ac.uk/ebe/staff/egray

Abstract

There is a new trend towards polyglot persistence: the use of a variety of different data storage, including relational databases and NoSQL datastores, for different applications. This paper summarises the main categories of NoSQL datastores and describes examples used in teaching NoSQL in a practical context focused on the .NET platform. Specific datastore systems were chosen on the basis of availability of libraries to support .NET integration and of suitable tools for visualisation of the data. RavenDB was used as an example of a document store, while Neo4j was used as an example of a graph database.

Keywords

NoSQL, database curriculum, document store, graph database