Introductory material that answers the what, why and how questions relating to FluidDB (a new cloud-based database that simplifies creating, sharing, annotating and reusing information).

1. An Introduction
to FluidDB
http://fluidinfo.com

2. What?

3. FluidDB is a database
“in the cloud” built by
Fluidinfo and currently
in private-Alpha testing.

4. There is only one
FluidDB. All users and
applications share the
same database.

5. Why..?

6. As Wikipedia is to traditional
encyclopaedias so FluidDB is to
traditional database solutions.

7. /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/1428129861
Make the world writeable

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/3227851094/
No pre-defined schema

9. The Glass Wall http://www.liamdelahunty.com/tips/usability_bbc_redesign_the_glass_wall.php
Create, share, organise and
understand information

10. http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiaramarra/1048662923/
Simplify and enhance
the model of control

11. How?

12. Key Concepts
• Objects - represent things*
• Tags - define object’s attributes
• Namespaces - organise tags
• Permissions - control access
* NOT instantiations of classes as in OO, but simply “objects” in the common-sense use of the term.

13. Data structure
subject / predicate / value
(similar to RDF)

14. Data structure
object / tag / value
(in FluidDB parlance)

15. http://ntoll.org/images/93.jpg
Objects are tagged with
information

16. Namespaces and tags are
pre-defined by users
ntoll/rating
terrycojones/books/review
amazon.com/book/title
amazon.com/book/author
amazon.com/book/isbn
esteve/books/cover
timoreilly/has_read
(Every namespace and tag has a description and is itself
represented by an object so meta-tagging is allowed)

17. A basic object:
about = An id =
“e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8”
“book:Dune” object
(The about tag is a convention to help indicate
what the object represents. It is optional but
must be unique)

18. r=
ove
/c
ks
oo
ntoll/
b
ve/
te
es
rating
am
azo
n.c
“87 om/b
-41 ook
=
8-7
517 s/isbn
5
- 6” =
about = An id =
“e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8”
“book:Dune” object
= am
az
iew on
timoreill
v
/re s”
r=
s .c
om
ok rm
er tho
/bo wo “D /bo
nes and un ok
erb s/au
ojo ve s e” s/t
t”
y/has_re
ryc I lo itle
k H ok
ter “ =
ran /bo
“F om
ad
n.c
azo
am

19. r=
ove
/c
ks
oo
ntoll/
b
ve/
te
es
rating
am
azo
n.c
“87 om/b
-41 ook
=
8-7
517 s/isbn
5
- 6” =
about = An id =
“e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8”
“book:Dune” object
Value Types:
= am
az
iew on
timoreill
v
/re s”
r=
s .c
om
ok rm
er tho
/bo wo “D /bo
nes and un ok boolean
erb s/au
ojo ve s e” s/t
t”
y/has_re
ryc I lo itle
k H ok
ter “ = string (& set)
ran /bo
“F om
numeric
ad
n.c
opaque
azo
am
null

20. Opaque tag values each
have a MIME type
type = image/png

21. Other “primitive” types
are returned as json

22. A simple and elegant
RESTful API
https://fluiddb.fluidinfo.com/objects/OBJECT_ID/NAMESPACE(S)/TAG
e.g.
https://fluiddb.fluidinfo.com/objects/e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8/ntoll/rating
HTTP ‘GET’ returns the value,
HTTP ‘PUT’ adds/updates it etc...
Full API: http://api.fluidinfo.com/fluidDB/api/*/*/*

23. snoissimreP
(seem to be back-to-front)

24. r=
Traditional: oo
ks
/c
ove
ntoll/
b
ve/
te
es
rating
am
azo
n.c
“87 om/b
-41 ook
=
8-7
517 s/isbn
5
- 6” =
about = id =
“e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8”
“book:Dune”
= am
az
iew on
timoreill
v
/re s”
r=
s .c
om
ok rm
er tho
/bo wo “D /bo
nes and un ok
erb s/au
ojo ve s e” s/t
t”
y/has_re
ryc I lo itle
k H ok
ter “ =
ran /bo
“F om
ad
n.c
azo
am

25. r=
FluidDB: ks
/c
ove
ntoll/
b oo
ve/
te
rating
am es
azo
n.c
“87 om/b
=
-41 ook
8-7
517 s/isbn
5
- 6” =
about = An id =
“e127475b-eb93-48e1-a24f-dde6825b9ed8”
“book:Dune” object
= am
az
view on
/re s” .c
r=
timoreill
s om
ok rm
er tho
/bo wo “D /bo
nes and un ok
erb s/au
ojo ve s e” s/t
t”
ryc I lo itle
k H ok
y/has_re
ter “ =
ran /bo
“F om
n.c
ad
azo
am

26. Permissions
• Apply to namespaces, tags and tag-values not objects
• Scoped by actions (e.g. “see”, “create”, “read”)
• Either “open” or “closed” with a list of exceptions

27. Search
(is simple)

28. FluidDB’s Query Language
• Equality & Inequality: To find objects based on the numeric values or
exact textual values, e.g., tim/rating > 5, or geo/name = "Llandefalle".
• Textual: To find objects based on text matching their tag values, for
example, sally/opinion matches “fantastic”.
• Presence: Use has to request objects that have a given tag. For example,
has sally/opinion.
• Set contents: The contains operator can be used to select objects with a
matching value in a set of strings. The query mary/product-reviews/keywords
contains "kids" would match the object with a tag called /mary/product-
reviews/keywords and value ["cool", "kids", "adventure" ].
• Exclusion: Exclude objects with the except keyword. For example has
nytimes.com/appeared except has james/seen. The except operator
performs a set difference.
• Logic: Query components can be combined with and and or. For example,
has sara/rating and tim/rating > 5.
• Grouping: Parentheses can be used to group query components. For
example, has sara/rating and (tim/rating > 5 or mike/rating > 7).

29. er... that’s it
(QL fits on one slide and enhancements are coming soon)

30. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8001265@N08/2259250324/
LIVE DEMO!

31. Where?

32. • http://fluidinfo.com - First stop for more
• http://fluidinfo.com/accounts/new - Sign up!
• http://tickery.net - Twitter on steroids
• http://bit.ly/dicP8O - FluidRefreshmentDB
• http://fluiddbexplorer.appspot.com - Browser

33. • @fluidDB @terrycojones @esteve on Twitter
• #fluidDB on Freenode IRC
• http://groups.google.com/group/fluiddb-users
• http://groups.google.com/group/fluiddb-discuss

34. Lots of 3rd party libraries:
http://bit.ly/9vvIal
Java, Clojure, Lisp, .NET, Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP &
Javascript (all open-source)

35. We’re listening to you
though the usual caveats apply ;-)

36. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/260004685/
Nicholas Tollervey
ntoll@ntoll.org
ntoll on Twitter & IRC

37. Questions / Discussion