Getting Started with NoSQL

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Beauty of NoSQL databases is that you don't have to have a predefined schema to store data. CouchDB falls in same category. When you launch Futon web interface,
you will notice that there are 2 database entries. Replicator and Users. These are default databases used by CouchDB for organizing documents in specific sets, replication and users.
Lets start adding some data to CouchDB. We will create a very blog database.

First we create a new database called blog.

We will then click on the "New Document" button at the top to create a new document. A default ID pops up. We will keep it as it is. You can change it if you like but keeping it default is a good option.

We will now start adding some fields for our document. This is possible by clicking on Add Field! button, Open up post_1.txt file and start copying pasting field labels and their contents.

Remember that CouchDB is JSON based document store. As you are copying categories over copy and paste the entire array as is into the categories field.

Once you are done then click on green ticks for every field. When you do that for categories, you will notice that CouchDB automatically provides array indexes for categories.

This field is sensitive to JSON format, if you make a minor change, say for example change ending square bracket to curly closing bracket and click green tick button. Categories array now will be treated as plain string because data is not in the correct format.

Save your document by click "Save Document" button. You will notice that another field underscore rev gets automatically added. This keeps track of changes to your document.

Lets make a small change to our document, by adding another field called last modified on!

Click on the green tick, and then click Save document. You will notice that revision has now been incremented to 2. You can go back and forward to check what was changed.
You can also check JSON document for your document by, click on the Source tab.

I have created another document with name options, check options.txt to create equivalent document.

To our first document we will also add another field, name. we will call it, post. Click on the green tick and click save document.

In next video we will check how to retrieve data.