CouchDB - Quick Guide
CouchDB - Quick Guide
CouchDB - Quick Guide
CouchDB - Introduction
Database management system provides mechanism for storage and retrieval of data. There
are three main types of database management systems namely RDBMS (Relational
Database management Systems), OLAP (Online Analytical Processing Systems) and NoSQL.
RDBMS
RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System. RDBMS is the basis for SQL,
and for all modern database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and
Microsoft Access.
The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables. The table is a collection of
related data entries and it consists of columns and rows. It stores only structured data.
OLAP
Online Analytical Processing Server (OLAP) is based on the multidimensional data model. It
allows managers and analysts to get an insight of the information through fast, consistent,
and interactive access to information.
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NoSQL Databases
A NoSQL database (sometimes called as Not Only SQL) is a database that provides a
mechanism to store and retrieve data other than the tabular relations used in relational
databases. These databases are schema-free, support easy replication, have simple API,
eventually consistent, and can handle huge amounts of data (big data).
Simplicity of design,
NoSQL databases use different data structures compared to relational databases. It makes
some operations faster in NoSQL. The suitability of a given NoSQL database depends on the
problem it must solve. These databases store both structured data and unstructured data
like audio files, video files, documents, etc. These NoSQL databases are classified into three
types and they are explained below.
Key-value Store − These databases are designed for storing data in key-value pairs and
these databases will not have any schema. In these databases, each data value consists of
an indexed key and a value for that key.
Column Store − In these databases, data is stored in cells grouped in columns of data, and
these columns are further grouped into Column families. These column families can contain
any number of columns.
Document Store − These are the databases developed on the basic idea of key-value
stores where "documents" contain more complex data. Here, each document is assigned a
unique key, which is used to retrieve the document. These are designed for storing,
retrieving, and managing document-oriented information, also known as semi-structured
data.
What is CouchDB?
CouchDB is an open source database developed by Apache software foundation. The focus
is on the ease of use, embracing the web. It is a NoSQL document store database.
It uses JSON, to store data (documents), java script as its query language to transform the
documents, http protocol for api to access the documents, query the indices with the web
browser. It is a multi master application released in 2005 and it became an apache project in
2008.
Why CouchDB?
CouchDB have an HTTP-based REST API, which helps to communicate with the
database easily. And the simple structure of HTTP resources and methods (GET, PUT,
DELETE) are easy to understand and use.
As we store data in the flexible document-based structure, there is no need to worry
about the structure of the data.
Users are provided with powerful data mapping, which allows querying, combining,
and filtering the information.
CouchDB provides easy-to-use replication, using which you can copy, share, and
synchronize the data between databases and machines.
Data Model
CouchDB implements multi version concurrency control, to avoid the need to lock
the database field during writes.
Document Storage
CouchDB is a document storage NoSQL database. It provides the facility of storing
documents with unique names, and it also provides an API called RESTful HTTP API for
reading and updating (add, edit, delete) database documents.
In CouchDB, documents are the primary unit of data and they also include metadata.
Document fields are uniquely named and contain values of varying types (text, number,
Boolean, lists, etc.), and there is no set limit to text size or element count.
Document updates (add, edit, delete) follow Atomicity, i.e., they will be saved completely or
not saved at all. The database will not have any partially saved or edited documents.
{
"field" : "value",
"field" : "value",
"field" : "value",
}
ACID Properties
CouchDB contains ACID properties as one of its features.
Consistency − When the data in CouchDB was once committed, then this data will not be
modified or overwritten. Thus, CouchDB ensures that the database file will always be in a
consistent state.
Whenever a documents is updated, CouchDB flushes the data into the disk, and the updated
database header is written in two consecutive and identical chunks to make up the first 4k
of the file, and then synchronously flushed to disk. Partial updates during the flush will be
discarded.
If the failure occurred while committing the header, a surviving copy of the previous identical
headers will remain, ensuring coherency of all previously committed data. Except the header
area, consistency checks or fix-ups after a crash or a power failure are never necessary.
Compaction
Whenever the space in the database file got wasted above certain extent, all the active data
will be copied (cloned) to a new file. When the copying process is entirely done, then the old
file will be discarded. All this is done by compaction process. The database remains online
during the compaction and all updates and reads are allowed to complete successfully.
Views
Data in CouchDB is stored in semi-structured documents that are flexible with individual
implicit structures, but it is a simple document model for data storage and sharing. If we
want see our data in many different ways, we need a way to filter, organize and report on
data that hasn’t been decomposed into tables.
To solve this problem, CouchDB provides a view model. Views are the method of
aggregating and reporting on the documents in a database, and are built on-demand to
aggregate, join and report on database documents. Because views are built dynamically and
don’t affect the underlying document, you can have as many different view representations
of the same data as you like.
History
CouchDB - Installation
This chapter teaches you how to install CouchDB in windows as well as Linux systems.
Download CouchDB
The official website for CouchDB is https://couchdb.apache.org. If you click the given link,
you can get the home page of the CouchDB official website as shown below.
If you click on the download button that will lead to a page where download links of
CouchDB in various formats are provided. The following snapshot illustrates the same.
Choose the download link for windows systems and select one of the provided mirrors to
start your download.
Installing CouchDB
CouchDB will be downloaded to your system in the form of setup file named setup-
couchdb-1.6.1_R16B02.exe. Run the setup file and proceed with the installation.
After installation, open built-in web interface of CouchDB by visiting the following link:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/. If everything goes fine, this will give you a web page, which
have the following output.
{
"couchdb":"Welcome","uuid":"c8d48ac61bb497f4692b346e0f400d60",
"version":"1.6.1",
"vendor":{
"version":"1.6.1","name":"The Apache Software Foundation"
}
}
You can interact with the CouchDB web interface by using the following url −
http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/
This shows you the index page of Futon, which is the web interface of CouchDB.
If your Linux system does not have CouchDB, follow the next section to install CouchDB and
its dependencies.
Erlang OTP
ICU
OpenSSL
Mozilla SpiderMonkey
GNU Make
libcurl
help2man
Python Sphinx
To install these dependencies, type the following commands in the terminal. Here we are
using Centos 6.5 and the following commands will install the required softwares compatible
to Centos 6.5.
Note − For all these commands you need to use sudo. The following procedure converts a
normal user to a sudoer.
visudo
Then edit as shown below to give your existing user the sudoer privileges −
Hadoop All=(All) All , and press esc : x to write the changes to the file.
After downloading all the dependencies in your system, download CouchDB following the
given instructions.
Downloading CouchDB
Apache software foundation will not provide the complete .tar file for CouchDB, so you have
to install it from the source.
Create a new directory to install CouchDB, browse to such created directory and download
CouchDB source by executing the following commands −
$ cd
$ mkdir CouchDB
$ cd CouchDB/
$ wget
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apache.org%2Fdist%2Fcouchdb%2Fsource%2F1
This will download CouchDB source file into your system. Now unzip the apache-couchdb-
1.6.1.tar.gz as shown below.
Configuring CouchDB
To configure CouchDB, do the following −
Login as superuser.
$ cd apache-couchdb-1.6.1
$ su
Password:
# ./configure --with-erlang=/usr/lib64/erlang/usr/include/
It gives you the following output similar to that shown below with a concluding line saying −
You have configured Apache CouchDB, time to relax.
# ./configure --with-erlang=/usr/lib64/erlang/usr/include/
Installing CouchDB
Now type the following command to install CouchDB in your system.
It installs CouchDB in your system with a concluding line saying − You have installed
Apache CouchDB, time to relax.
Starting CouchDB
To start CouchDB, browse to the CouchDB home folder and use the following command −
$ cd apache-couchdb-1.6.1
$ cd etc
$ couchdb start
Verification
Since CouchDB is a web interface, try to type the following homepage url in the browser.
http://127.0.0.1:5984/
{
"couchdb":"Welcome",
"uuid":"8f0d59acd0e179f5e9f0075fa1f5e804",
"version":"1.6.1",
"vendor":{
"name":"The Apache Software Foundation",
"version":"1.6.1"
}
}
It is a tool to transfer data from or to a server, using one of the supported protocols (HTTP,
HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, TFTP, DICT, TELNET, LDAP or FILE). The command is designed to work
without user interaction. cURL offers a busload of useful tricks like proxy support, user
authentication, ftp upload, HTTP post, SSL (https:) connections, cookies, file transfer
resume and more.
The cURL utility is available in operating systems such as UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X and
Windows. It is a command line utility using which user can access HTTP protocol straight
away from the command line. This chapter teaches you how to use cURL utility.
You can access any website using cURL utility by simply typing cURL followed by the website
address as shown below −
curl www.tutorialspoint.com/
By default, the cURL utility returns the source code of the requested page. It displays this
code on the terminal window.
$ curl --help
Usage: curl [options...] <url>
Options: (H) means HTTP/HTTPS only, (F) means FTP only
--anyauth Pick "any" authentication method (H)
-a/--append Append to target file when uploading (F/SFTP)
--basic Use HTTP Basic Authentication (H)
--cacert <file> CA certificate to verify peer against (SSL)
-d/--data <data> HTTP POST data (H)
--data-ascii <data> HTTP POST ASCII data (H)
--data-binary <data> HTTP POST binary data (H)
--data-urlencode <name=data/name@filename> HTTP POST data
urlencoded (H)
--delegation STRING GSS-API delegation permission
--digest Use HTTP Digest Authentication (H)
--disable-eprt Inhibit using EPRT or LPRT (F)
--disable-epsv Inhibit using EPSV (F)
--hostpubmd5 <md5> Hex encoded MD5 string of the host public key.
(SSH)
-0/--http1.0 Use HTTP 1.0 (H)
--ignore-content-length Ignore the HTTP Content-Length header
-i/--include Include protocol headers in the output (H/F)
While communicating with CouchDB, certain options of cURL utility were extensively used.
Following are the brief descriptions of some important options of cURL utility including those
used by CouchDB.
-X flag
(HTTP) Specifies a custom request method used when communicating with the HTTP server.
The specified request is used instead of the method otherwise used (which defaults to GET).
Read the HTTP 1.1 specification for details and explanations.
(FTP) Specifies a custom FTP command to use instead of LIST when doing file lists with ftp.
-H
(HTTP) Extra header is used when getting a web page. Note that if you add a custom header
that has the same name as one of the internal ones cURL would use, your externally set
header will be used instead of the internal one. This allows you to make even trickier work
than cURL would normally do. You should not replace internally set headers without perfectly
knowing what you’re doing. Replacing an internal header with the one without content on
the right side of the colon, will prevent that header from appearing.
cURL assures that each header you add/replace get sent with the proper end of line marker.
Neither you should add that as a part of the header content nor add newlines or carriage
returns to disorder things.
-d flag
Using this flag of cURL, you can send data along with the HTTP POST request to the server,
as if it was filled by the user in the form and submitted.
Example
Suppose there is a website and you want to login into it or send some data to the website
using –d flag of cURL utility as shown below.
-o flag
Using this flag, cURL writes the output of the request to a file.
Example
This gets the source code of the homepage of tutorialspoint.com, creates a file named
example.com and saves the output in the file named example.html.
-O
This flag is similar to –o, the only difference is with this flag, a new file with the same name
as the requested url was created, and the source code of the requested url will be copied to
it.
Example
$ curl -O www.tutorialspoint.com/index.htm
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left
Speed
100 81285 0 81285 0 0 49794 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:--
60077
It creates a new file with the name index.htm and saves the source code of the index page
of tutorialspoint.com in it.
Hello CouchDB
You can access the homepage of the CouchDB by sending a GET request to the CouchDB
instance installed. First of all make sure you have installed CouchDB in your Linux
environment and it is running successfully, and then use the following syntax to send a get
request to the CouchDB instance.
curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/
This gives you a JSON document as shown below where CouchDB specifies the details such
as version number, name of the vendor, and version of the software.
$ curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/
{
"couchdb" : "Welcome",
"uuid" : "8f0d59acd0e179f5e9f0075fa1f5e804",
"version" : "1.6.1",
"vendor" : {
"name":"The Apache Software Foundation",
"version":"1.6.1"
}
}
Creating a Database
You can create a database in CouchDB using cURL with PUT header using the following
syntax −
Example
As an example, using the above given syntax create a database with name my_database
as shown below.
Verification
Verify whether the database is created, by listing out all the databases as shown below. Here
you can observe the name of newly created database, "my_database" in the list
Example
As an example let us get the information of the database named my_database as shown
below. Here you can get the information about your database as a response.
{
"db_name" : "my_database",
"doc_count" : 0,
"doc_del_count" : 0,
"update_seq" : 0,
"purge_seq" : 0,
"compact_running" : false,
"disk_size" : 79,
"data_size" : 0,
"instance_start_time" : "1423628520835029",
"disk_format_version" : 6,
"committed_update_seq" : 0
}
Futon
Futon is the built-in, web based, administration interface of CouchDB. It provides a simple
graphical interface using which you can interact with CouchDB. It is a naive interface and it
provides full access to all CouchDB features. Following is the list of those features −
Databases −
Creates databases.
Destroys databases.
Documents −
Creates documents.
Updates documents.
Edits documents.
Deletes documents.
Starting Futon
Make sure CouchDB is running and then open the following url in browser −
http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/
If you open this url, it displays the Futon home page as shown below −
On the left hand side of this page you can observe the list of all the current
databases of CouchDB. In this illustration, we have a database named
my_database, along with system defined databases _replicator and _user.
Recent Databases − Under this you can find the names of recently added
databases.
Following are the different request formats of HTTP Protocol used to communicate with
CouchDB.
GET − This format is used to get a specific item. To get different items, you have to
send specific url patterns. In CouchDB using this GET request, we can get static
items, database documents and configuration, and statistical information in the form
of JSON documents (in most cases).
HEAD − The HEAD method is used to get the HTTP header of a GET request without
the body of the response.
POST − Post request is used to upload data. In CouchDB using POST request, you
can set values, upload documents, set document values, and can also start certain
administration commands.
PUT − Using PUT request, you can create new objects, databases, documents,
views and design documents.
DELETE − Using DELETE request, you can delete documents, views, and design
documents.
COPY − Using COPY method, you can copy documents and objects.
Content-type − This Header is used to specify the content type of the data that we
supply to the server along with the request. Mostly the type of the content we send
along with the request will be MIME type or JSON (application/json). Using Content-
type on a request is highly recommended.
Accept − This header is used to specify the server, the list of data types that client
can understand, so that the server will send its response using those data types.
Generally here, you can send the list of MIME data types the client accepts,
separated by colons.
Though, using Accept in queries of CouchDB is not required, it is highly recommended
to ensure that the data returned can be processed by the client.
Response Headers
These are the headers of the response sent by the server. These headers give information
about the content send by the server as response.
Content-type − This header specifies the MIME type of the data returned by the
server. For most request, the returned MIME type is text/plain.
Cache-control − This header suggests the client about treating the information sent
by the server. CouchDB mostly returns the must-revalidate, which indicates that the
information should be revalidated if possible.
Content-length − This header returns the length of the content sent by the server,
in bytes.
Etag − This header is used to show the revision for a document, or a view.
Status Codes
Following is the tabular form of the status code sent by the http header and the description
of it.
200 − OK
1
This status will be issued when a request completed successfully.
201 − Created
2
This status will be issued when a document is created.
202 − Accepted
3
This status will be issued when a request is accepted.
409 − Conflict
6
This status is issued whenever there is any update conflict.
PUT /db
1
This url is used to create a new database.
GET /db
2
This url is used to get the information about the existing database.
PUT /db/document
3
This url is used to create a document/update an existing document.
GET /db/document
4
This url is used to get the document.
DELETE /db/document
5
This url is used to delete the specified document from the specified database.
GET /db/_design/design-doc
6
This url is used to get the definition of a design document.
GET /db/_design/designdoc/_view/view-name
7 This url is used to access the view, view-name from the design document from
the specified database.
Using −X we can specify HTTP custom request method to be used. In this case, we are
using PUT method. When we use the PUT operation/method, the content of the url specifies
the object name we are creating using HTTP request. Here we have to send the name of the
database using put request in the url to create a database.
Example
Using the above given syntax if you want to create a database with name my_database,
you can create it as follows
As a response the server will return you a JSON document with content “ok” − true
indicating the operation was successful.
Verification
Verify whether the database is created, by listing out all the databases as shown below. Here
you can observe the name of a newly created database, " my_database " in the list.
In this page, you can see the list of databases in CouchDB, an option button Create
Database on the left hand side.
Now click on the create database link. You can see a popup window Create New
Databases asking for the database name for the new database. Choose any name
following the mentioned criteria. Here we are creating another database with name
tutorials_point. Click on the create button as shown in the following screenshot.
Using −X we can specify a custom request method of HTTP we are using, while
communicating with the HTTP server. In this case, we are using the DELETE method. Send
the url to the server by specifying the database to be deleted in it.
Example
Assume there is a database named my_database2 in CouchDB. Using the above given
syntax if you want to delete it, you can do it as follows −
As a response, the server will return you a JSON document with content “ok” − true
indicating the operation was successful.
Verification
Verify whether the database is deleted by listing out all the databases as shown below. Here
you can observe the name of the deleted database, "my_database" is not there in the list.
Here you can see three user created databases. Let us delete the database named
tutorials_point2. To delete a database, select one from the list of databases, and click on it,
which will lead to the overview page of the selected database where you can see the
various operations on databases. The following screenshot shows the same −
Among them you can find Delete Database option. By clicking on it you will get a popup
window, asking whether you are sure! Click on delete, to delete the selected database.
Each document in CouchDB has a unique ID. You can choose your own ID that should be in
the form of a string. Generally, UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) is used, which are
random numbers that have least chance of creating a duplicate. These are preferred to
avoid collisions.
You can create a document in CouchDB by sending an HTTP request to the server using PUT
method through cURL utility. Following is the syntax to create a document.
Using −X, we can specify a custom request method of HTTP we are using, while
communicating with the HTTP server. In this case, we are using PUT method. When we use
the PUT method, the content of the url specifies the object name we are creating using the
HTTP request. Here we have to send the following −
The name of the database name in which we are creating the document.
The data of the document. −d option is used to send the data/document through
HTTP request. While writing a document simply enter your Field-Value pairs separated
by colon, within flower brackets as shown below −
{
Name : Raju
age : 23
Designation : Designer
}
Example
Using the above given syntax if you want to create a document with id 001 in a database
with name my_database, you can create it as shown below.
{"ok":true,"id":"001","rev":"1-1c2fae390fa5475d9b809301bbf3f25e"}
"rev", this indicates the revision id. Every time you revise (update or modify) a
document a _rev value will be generated by CouchDB. If you want to update or
delete a document, CouchDB expects you to include the _rev field of the revision
you wish to change. When CouchDB accepts the change, it will generate a new
revision number. This mechanism ensures concurrency control.
Verification
If you want to view the created document you can get it using the document as shown
below.
Select the database in which you want to create the document. Open the Overview page of
the database and select New Document option as shown below.
When you select the New Document option, CouchDB creates a new database document,
assigning it a new id. You can edit the value of the id and can assign your own value in the
form of a string. In the following illustration, we have created a new document with an id
001.
In this page, you can observe three options − save Document, Add Field and Upload
Attachment.
In the following illustration, we have created three fields Name, age and, Designation of the
employee.
Save Document
You can save the changes made to the document by clicking on this option. After saving, a
new id _rev will be generated as shown below.
Example
Suppose there is a document with id 001 in the database named my_database. You can
delete this as shown below.
First of all, get the revision id of the document that is to be updated. You can find the _rev
of the document in the document itself, therefore get the document as shown below.
Use revision id _rev from the document to update the document. Here we are updating the
age from 23 to 24.
{ " ok " : true , " id " : " 001 " , " rev " : " 2-04d8eac1680d237ca25b68b36b8899d3 "
Verification
To verify the document, get the document again using GET request as shown below.
Note
The URL we send in the request containing the database name and the document id.
Updating an existing document is same as updating the entire document. You cannot
add a field to an existing document. You can only write an entirely new version of the
document into the database with the same document ID.
In return JSON contains the success message, the ID of the document being
updated, and the new revision information. If you want to update the new version of
the document, you have to quote this latest revision number.
Select the database in which the document to be updated exists and click it. Here we are
updating a document in the database named tutorials_point. You will get the list of
documents in the database as shown below.
Select a document that you want to update and click on it. You will get the contents of the
documents as shown below.
Here, to update the location from Delhi to Hyderabad, click on the text box, edit the field,
and click the green button to save the changes as shown below.
Using −X, we can specify a custom request method of HTTP we are using, while
communicating with the HTTP server. In this case, we are using Delete method. To delete a
database /database_name/database_id/ is not enough. You have to pass the recent
revision id through the url. To mention attributes of any data structure "?" is used.
Example
Suppose there is a document in database named my_database with document id 001. To
delete this document, you have to get the rev id of the document. Get the document data
as shown below.
Now specify the revision id of the document to be deleted, id of the document, and
database name the document belongs to, as shown below −
{"ok":true,"id":"001","rev":"2-3a561d56de1ce3305d693bd15630bf96"}
Verification
To verify whether the document is deleted, try to fetch the document by using the GET
method. Since you are fetching a deleted document, this will give you an error message as
shown below −
Here you can observe, the database consists of three documents. To delete any of the
documents say 003, do the following −
Click on the document, you will get a page showing the contents of selected
document in the form of field-value pairs.
This page also contains four options namely Save Document, Add Field, Upload
Attachment, Delete Document.
You will get a dialog box saying "Are you sure you want to delete this
document?" Click on delete, to delete the document.
--data-binary@ − This option tells cURL to read a file’s contents into the HTTP
request body.
-H − This option is used to mention the content type of the file we are going to
upload.
Example
Let us attach a file named boy.jpg, to the document with id 001, in the database named
my_database by sending PUT request to CouchDB. Before that, you have to fetch the data
of the document with id 001 to get its current rev id as shown below.
Now using the _rev value, send the PUT request to the CouchDB server as shown below.
Verification
To verify whether the attachment is uploaded, fetch the document content as shown
below−
Upload Attachment
Using this option, you can upload a new attachment such as a file, image, or document, to
the database. To do so, click on the Upload Attachment button. A dialog box will appear
where you can choose the file to be uploaded. Select the file and click on the Upload button.
The file uploaded will be displayed under _attachments field. Later you can see the file by
clicking on it.