CouchDB is one of what many people refer to as NoSQL solutions. CouchDB is a document-oriented database, with fields stored as key-value mappings within each document. Fields can be basic key/value pairs, lists, or maps. CouchDB provides a straightforward structure of HTTP resources and methods (GET, PUT, DELETE) that are simple to grasp and apply. Data in CouchDB is kept in a flexible document-based format, thus there is no need to worry about data structure.
What Exactly Is CouchDB?
CouchDB is a document-oriented database in which fields are stored as key-value mappings within each document. Fields can be basic key/value pairs, lists, or maps. It is a free and open-source document-oriented NoSQL database written in Erlang. Apache CouchDB stores, transfers, and processes data in a variety of formats and protocols. It stores data in JSON queries in JavaScript using MapReduce and provides an API over HTTP.
What Does Apache CouchDB Do?
CouchDB enables you to create a client-side application that communicates directly with the Couch without the need for a server-side intermediary layer, considerably shortening development time. You can easily accommodate demand with CouchDB by adding extra replication nodes. CouchDB allows you to duplicate the database to your client, and you can even copy that specific user’s data using filters.
Because the database is kept locally, your client-side application will have nearly no latency. CouchDB will manage cloud replication for you. Your consumers might access their invoices on their mobile phones while offline and make adjustments with no apparent lag. CouchDB will automatically replicate changes to your cloud Apache CouchDB when a connection is present and functional.
Features Of CouchDB
There are various features of CouchDB, a few of them are:
- Map/Reduce: The major reason for CouchDB’s popularity is a map/reduce mechanism.
- Authentication: CouchDB allows you to keep authentication open by using a session cookie, similar to a web application.
- Designed for Offline Use: CouchDB can replicate to devices that can be offline, such as cellphones, and manage data sync for you when the device reconnects.
- Consistency in Events: CouchDB ensures eventual consistency to offer availability and partition tolerance.
Everything About Apache CouchDB
CouchDB stores data in the semi-structured JSON format. Queries to a Apache CouchDB database are made using a RESTful HTTP API, which may be accessed through HTTP or JavaScript. MongoDB stores data in binary format using BSON, a JSON alternative.
CouchDB is accessible on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform as a fully managed service (GCP). As of this writing, Google estimates that installing CouchDB on GCP would cost $34.72 per month. This estimate is based on a 30-day, 24-hour per day use in the Central US area, a VM instance with two vCPUs and eight gigabytes of RAM, and a typical persistent disc of ten gigabytes. AWS Marketplace offers many CouchDB-managed services, with rates beginning at $0.019 per hour for databases hosted on t3a.small in US East (North Virginia).
Apache CouchDB uses multisession concurrency control (MVCC) to avoid locking the database file during writes. Conflicts are handled by the application. In most cases, resolving a disagreement entails merging data into one of the papers and then removing the stale one. A good example of CouchDB usage is when document data does not change frequently and you can define all potential queries in advance. It has a few downsides in some applications, which I attempted to highlight.
The Bottom Line
Apache CouchDB is an open-source database management system that is developed and maintained by the Apache Software Foundation. It is written in the Erlang programming language and uses the document-oriented model for storing data, which means that data is stored in the form of self-contained documents rather than in a traditional table structure.
CouchDB is known for its easy-to-use HTTP-based API, which allows developers to access and manipulate data using simple HTTP requests. It also supports CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations, which allows users to easily create, read, update, and delete documents in the database.
CouchDB is highly scalable and can handle a large number of concurrent users and requests. It also supports replication, which means that data can be easily synced between different instances of the database, making it useful for building distributed systems.
Overall, Apache CouchDB is a powerful and flexible database management system that is well-suited for a variety of applications
Check How to Install CouchDB
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