The discussion revolves around the challenges and insights related to working with MongoDB, particularly for participants who are transitioning from relational databases. The scope includes conceptual understanding, practical applications, and the implications of using a NoSQL database for analytics and data management.
Participants express varying degrees of familiarity and comfort with MongoDB, and while there is some consensus on its differences from relational databases, the discussion remains unresolved regarding the best approaches to handle specific use cases and data relationships.
Participants note the potential complexity of the project and the need to adapt their thinking from relational to NoSQL paradigms, highlighting the importance of understanding data relationships and transaction properties in a clustered environment.
This discussion may be useful for individuals transitioning from relational databases to NoSQL systems, particularly those working on projects involving MongoDB and seeking insights on data management and analytics challenges.
Borg said:My latest project at work involves working with Mongo DB. It is unlike any database that I have ever dealt with in the past. I am just starting to teach myself how it works and I'm wondering if anyone has any insight, hints, gotchas, or other information that might help me better understand Mongo.
I wouldn't say that I'm business intelligence curious - just want to do the task that I've been assigned to the best of my ability. I'm not sure what to think of the statement "needs of analytics influences the way things are done in mongo". We're still flushing out the use cases but from what I've seen in meetings, it's going to be complex as hell. The user wants it all from predefined through fine grained settings to letting the users query like they did via relational databases.SixNein said:Bet someone is about to do some business intelligence work. And if I'm right, congrats on becoming BI curious =P
And yes its quit a bit different from relational. Basically, the thing to keep in mind is the needs of analytics influences the way things are done in mongo. In other words, how to deal with lots of data.
Borg said:I wouldn't say that I'm business intelligence curious - just want to do the task that I've been assigned to the best of my ability. I'm not sure what to think of the statement "needs of analytics influences the way things are done in mongo". We're still flushing out the use cases but from what I've seen in meetings, it's going to be complex as hell. The user wants it all from predefined through fine grained settings to letting the users query like they did via relational databases.
The best pointer that I've gotten so far is that Mongo collections are like tables and Mongo documents are like records in the tables. That's my starting point. I need to figure out what I can do in Mongo like I did in a relational DB (and how to do it), what I can't do in Mongo, and what I need to completely change my thinking on. I will be lost for a while...
Thanks. I need to keep in mind that the data will likely be clustered. I guess that I'll have to handle all data relationships programmatically. I've had several projects where we've had to perform programmatic pseudo-joins on two different relational databases so I think I can handle that.SixNein said:To put the above in a different way, it's a database designed for clusters. Outside of replication, relational databases are really geared for vertical approaches. So a join on a relational database is straight forward, but on a cluster it's not straight forward at all. The data needed for the join may be spread out over other servers.
So acid is simply not there outside of documents. Think denormalized data.
ACIDSixNein said:So acid is simply not there outside of documents. Think denormalized data.
I'll have to look into how big of a requirement this might be for the project.(Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is a set of properties that guarantee that database transactions are processed reliably.
Not too late at all. Thanks!harborsparrow said:It's probably too late to be of help to you but...
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Nosql might be of help, as well as other articles about the topic "NoSQL"