Mailing-List: contact user-help@couchdb.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: user@couchdb.apache.org
Received-SPF: pass (athena.apache.org: local policy includes SPF record at
 spf.trusted-forwarder.org)
From: Nathan Vander Wilt <nate-lists@calftrail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Subject: Is startkey_docid as scalable as startkey?
Message-Id: <7B540336-3CFA-4380-977E-2173BE7AD476@calftrail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 15:14:58 -0800
To: user@couchdb.apache.org
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 7.0 \(1822\))

Let's say for every doc I `emit([doc.user])` and, when a user requests a =
document ID I have my middleware `GET =
=85/docs_by_user?startkey=3D[req.user.name]&endkey=3D[req.user.name,{}]&in=
clude_docs=3Dtrue&limit=3D1&startkey_docid=3Dreq.param.id`. I return the =
row's doc or 404 if the range is empty. Basically I'm giving each user =
read access to "their own" objects without having to give them their own =
database.

I'm wondering though, if `startkey_docid` is as scalable as `startkey` =
itself. IIRC, the doc ids are simply a final extra group level =
internally (clearly they determine sort order) but if this behaves more =
like `&skip=3Dlots` instead, then of course relying heavily on the query =
above would be something of an anti-pattern.

(Bonuses: If this _is_ still a reasonable solution, I'm assuming I can't =
simplify my emit/query to use `&key=3Dname&startkey_docid=3Did` right? =
Alternatively, would it be more efficient but just-as-correct to emit =
plain string keys and limit my range to =
`&startkey=3Dname&endkey=3Dname+"\0"?)

thanks,
-natevw=