Mailing-List: contact dev-help@cassandra.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: dev@cassandra.apache.org
Received-SPF: pass (athena.apache.org: domain of benjamin.j.mccann@gmail.com
 designates 209.85.161.172 as permitted sender)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Sender: benjamin.j.mccann@gmail.com
In-Reply-To: 
 <CAH3cagMWrgptNtBLSQLrpmJFZFhoN64eqg5iaBp5Eu6=_Sx9aA@mail.gmail.com>
References: 
 <CAH3cagMWrgptNtBLSQLrpmJFZFhoN64eqg5iaBp5Eu6=_Sx9aA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:27:09 -0700
Message-ID: 
 <CAH3cagMYpSddFiqCY9CA1itxPkw2Uz3SXcdqHyG2XJyfRaMDuQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Document storage
From: Ben McCann <ben@benmccann.com>
To: dev@cassandra.apache.org
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=e89a8fb1f35044510b04bc55f24c

--e89a8fb1f35044510b04bc55f24c
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Any thoughts?  I'd like to submit a patch, but only if it will be accepted.

Thanks,
Ben


On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Ben McCann <ben@benmccann.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if it would be interesting to add some type of
> document-oriented data type.
>
> I've found it somewhat awkward to store document-oriented data in
> Cassandra today.  I can make a JSON/Protobuf/Thrift, serialize it, and
> store it, but Cassandra cannot differentiate it from any other string or
> byte array.  However, if my column validation_class could be a JsonType
> that would allow tools to potentially do more interesting introspection on
> the column value.  E.g. bug 3647<https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-3647>calls for supporting arbitrarily nested "documents" in CQL.  Running a
> query against the JSON column in Pig is possible as well, but again in this
> use case it would be helpful to be able to encode in column metadata that
> the column is stored as JSON.  For debugging, running nightly reports, etc.
> it would be quite useful compared to the opaque string and byte array types
> we have today.  JSON is appealing because it would be easy to implement.
>  Something like Thrift or Protocol Buffers would actually be interesting
> since they would be more space efficient.  However, they would also be a
> bit more difficult to implement because of the extra typing information
> they provide.  I'm hoping with Cassandra 1.0's addition of compression that
> storing JSON is not too inefficient.
>
> Would there be interest in adding a JsonType?  I could look at putting a
> patch together.
>
> Thanks,
> Ben
>
>

--e89a8fb1f35044510b04bc55f24c--