Learning Neo4j

Rik Van Bruggen

• Verlag: Packt Publishing
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781849517164
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Informatica
• Thema: Programmazione in Java

Learning Neo4j provides you with a step-by-step approach of adopting Neo4j, the world's leading graph database. This book includes a lot of background information, helps you grasp the fundamental concepts behind this radical new way of dealing with connected data, and will give you lots of examples of use cases and environments where a graph database would be a great fit.

Starting with a brief introduction to graph theory, this book will show you the advantages of using graph databases. Following on from that, you will be introduced to Neo4j and you will be shown how to install Neo4j on various operating systems. You will then be shown how you can model and import your data into Neo4j.

This book has two use case examples that will show you how to model and implement a graph in Neo4j by analyzing a user case, and analyze the impact a change has on a process or a system. You will also gain an insight into graph visualization options for Neo4j and discover external sources where you can learn more about Neo4j.

Learning Neo4j

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Table of Contents

Learning Neo4j

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Graphs and Graph Theory – an Introduction

Introduction to and history of graphs

Definition and usage of graph theory

Social studies

Biological studies

Computer science

Flow problems

Route problems

Web search

Test questions

Summary

2. Graph Databases – Overview

Background

Navigational databases

Relational databases

NoSQL databases

Key-Value stores

Column-Family stores

Document stores

Graph databases

The Property Graph model of graph databases

Node labels

Relationship types

Why (or why not) graph databases

Why use a graph database?

Complex queries

In-the-clickstream queries on live data

Path finding queries

Why not use a graph database, and what to use instead

Large, set-oriented queries

Graph global operations

Simple, aggregate-oriented queries

Test questions

Summary

3. Getting Started with Neo4j

Neo4j – key concepts and characteristics

Built for graphs, from the ground up

Transactional, ACID-compliant database

Made for Online Transaction Processing

Designed for scalability

A declarative query language – Cypher

Sweet spot use cases of Neo4j

Complex, join-intensive queries

Path finding queries

Committed to open source

The features

The support

The license conditions

Installing Neo4j

Installing Neo4j on Windows

Installing Neo4j on Mac or Linux

Using Neo4j in a cloud environment

Test Questions

Summary

4. Modeling Data for Neo4j

The four fundamental data constructs

How to start modeling for graph databases

What we know – ER diagrams and relational schemas

Introducing complexity through join tables

A graph model – a simple, high-fidelity model of reality

Graph modeling – best practices and pitfalls

Graph modeling best practices

Design for query-ability

Align relationships with use cases

Look for n-ary relationships

Granulate nodes

Use in-graph indexes when appropriate

Graph database modeling pitfalls

Using "rich" properties

Node representing multiple concepts

Unconnected graphs

The dense node pattern

Test questions

Summary

5. Importing Data into Neo4j

Alternative approaches to importing data into Neo4j

Know your import problem – choose your tooling

Importing small(ish) datasets

Importing data using spreadsheets

Importing using Neo4j-shell-tools

Importing using Load CSV

Scaling the import

Questions and answers

Summary

6. Use Case Example – Recommendations

Recommender systems dissected

Using a graph model for recommendations

Specific query examples for recommendations

Recommendations based on product purchases

Recommendations based on brand loyalty

Recommendations based on social ties

Bringing it all together – compound recommendations

Business variations on recommendations

Fraud detection systems

Access control systems

Social networking systems

Questions and answers

Summary

7. Use Case Example – Impact Analysis and Simulation

Impact analysis systems dissected

Impact analysis in Business Process Management

Modeling your business as a graph

Which applications are used in which buildings

What buildings are affected if something happens to Appl_9?

What BusinessProcesses with an RTO of 0-2 hours would be affected by a fire at location Loc_100

Impact simulation in a Cost Calculation environment

Modeling your product hierarchy as a graph

Working with a product hierarchy graph

Calculating the price based on a full sweep of the tree

Calculating the price based on intermediate pricing

Impact simulation on product hierarchy

Questions and Answers

Summary

8. Visualizations for Neo4j

The power of graph visualizations

Why graph visualizations matter!

Interacting with data visually

Looking for patterns

Spot what's important

The basic principles of graph visualization

Open source visualization libraries

D3.js

Graphviz

Sigma.js

Vivagraph.js

Integrating visualization libraries in your application

Visualization solutions

Gephi

Keylines

Linkurio.us

Neo4j Browser

Tom Sawyer

Closing remarks on visualizations

The "fireworks" effect

The "loading" effect

Questions and answers

Summary

9. Other Tools Related to Neo4j

Data integration tools

Talend

MuleSoft

Business Intelligence tools

Modeling tools

Arrows

OmniGraffle

Questions and answers

Summary

A. Where to Find More Information Related to Neo4j

Online tools

Google group

Stack Overflow

The Neo4j community website

The new Neo4j website

The Neo4j Blog

GraphGists collection

The Cypher reference card

Other books

Events

Meetup

GraphConnect

Conferences

Training

Neo Technology

B. Getting Started with Cypher

The key attributes of Cypher

Key operative words in Cypher

The Cypher refcard

Syntax

Index

Learning Neo4j

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