Introduction to Sterling NoSQL OODB

Sterling NoSQL OODB is a lightweight object NoSQL database designed for use in .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4/5, and Windows Phone 7 projects.

Opportunities

• Work with complex objects (which include other simple or complex objects, which may include more objects - and so on without limit). Objects can be both classes and structures.
• Works with both fields and properties.
• The ability to prohibit saving a certain type, property or field.
• Possibilities for detecting circular references.
• "In memory" db.
• Support for working in local file systems of trusted Silverlight applications.
• Isolated data warehouse support for Silverlight and Windows Phone.
• Support for standard file systems for common desktop applications.
• The structure of the tables is created dynamically on the fly.
• Simple configuration: you specify the type of the table, the type of the key and the lambda expression to select the key - and you can fully work.
• Preservation of specific types when specifying the structure of their basic interfaces or abstract classes in the description of the structure.
• Full support for foreign keys - child objects are stored in separate tables.
• A binary serializer that generates smaller objects on disk than JSON, XML, and so on.
• Encryption support.
• Compression support.
• Support for all CRUD operations: loading, saving (asynchronous for collections), deleting, aligning and completely zeroing.
• Multiple database support per partitioning and / or versioning application.
• Built-in support for the following types: base, Nullable, strings, byte arrays, DateTime, TimeSpan, Guid, enums (Enum), Decimal, lists, dictionaries, arrays, WritableBitmap.
• Support for custom type processing by writing your own serializers.
• Linq to Objects query support on indexes and keys.
• Delayed (lazy) loading of objects in requests.
• Built-in caching.
• Built-in backup and recovery.
• The possibility of hanging triggers on events "before saving", "after saving" and "deleting".
• The ability to generate a key using the trigger.
• The ability to implement relationships through triggers.
• DLL weighs less than 100 kb.

Usage example

Suppose we need to store a database by species. Here we describe such entities:

enum FeedingType {
Herbivore,
Carnivore,
Omnivore
}

class Feeding {
public FeedingType Type { get ; set ; }
public TimeSpan DefaultInterval { get ; set ; }
}

class Animal {
public Guid Key { get ; set ; }
public string Name { get ; set ; }
public TimeSpan LifeExpectancy { get ; set ; }
public Feeding Supply { get ; set ; }
}

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Accordingly, we will store in the database objects like Animal.
Now we need to describe the structure of our database:

class BiologyDatabaseInstance: BaseDatabaseInstance {
public const string INDEX_ANIMAL_NAME = "idx_animal_name" ;

public override string Name { get { return "BiologyDb" ; } }

protected override List <ITableDefinition> RegisterTables () {
// - .
return new List <ITableDefinition> {
CreateTableDefinition<Animal, Guid > (animal => animal.Key)
.WithIndex<Animal, string , Guid > (INDEX_ANIMAL_NAME, animal => animal.Name)
};
}
}

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In the database there will be one table with a key like Guid and an index for the name of the species.
Now we need to actually activate the database:

var engine = new SterlingEngine ();
engine.Activate();
var databaseInstance = engine.SterlingDatabase.RegisterDatabase<BiologyDatabaseInstance> (
new FileSystemDriver ( "C:/Temp/Animals/" ));

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That's all. Can be used. All work is done through a copy, which was provided to us during registration. For example:

var catId = databaseInstance.Save ( new Animal {
Key = Guid .NewGuid (),
LifeExpectancy = TimeSpan .FromDays (365 * 15),
Name = "Cat" ,
Supply = new Feeding {
Type = FeedingType.Carnivore,
DefaultInterval = TimeSpan .FromHours (12)
}
});

var cat = databaseInstance.Load<Animal> (catId);

var orderedAnimals = databaseInstance
.Query<Animal, string , Guid > (BiologyDatabaseInstance.INDEX_ANIMAL_NAME)
.OrderBy (x => x.Index)
.Select (x => x.LazyValue.Value);

* This source code was highlighted with Source Code Highlighter .

Finish working with the database should be a call to Dispose ().

Sources

• Project page on Codeplex .
• Home page .