WindyCityRails - "Comics" Is Hard

Welcome
ben scofield - @bscofield
http://benscofield.com
http://www.viget.com/extend
http://www.speakerrate.com/bscofield
Saturday, September 12, 2009

“Comics” Is Hard:
On Domains and Databases
Ben Scoﬁeld – Viget Labs


Modeling

ﬂickr: bunchofpants


Biology


Linnean taxonomy

Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Carnivora
Family
Felidae
Genus
Panthera
Species
tigris
ﬂickr: pandiyan


Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Felidae
Panthera
tigris
ﬂickr: pandiyan


kingdom phylum class

genus family order

species organism


Problem
The levels are imaginary


subphylum


superclass subclass

subfamily suborder
superorder
genus family order

subgenus superfamily

subspecies

species organism

variety


subphylum


?
superclass subclass

subfamily suborder
superorder
genus family order

subgenus superfamily

subspecies

species organism

variety


subspecies

taxon taxon taxon species organism

variety


Species
ﬂickr: cpurrin1


Reproductive Isolation
ﬂickr: superciliousness


ﬂickr: chiotsrun


ﬂickr: niznoz


Numerical taxonomy

Cladistics

taxon clade taxon organism


Problem
Cladistics is historical and
counter-intuitive


ﬂickr: goellnitz


ﬂickr: goellnitz
pcoin


The Challenge
Unclear, imprecise domain


Comics


publisher title issue


publisher imprint title

issue



issue volume



issue volume

trade



issue volume

variant trade


name


issue volume

variant trade


name


?
issue
nested set?
volume

variant trade


imprint

?!?!
publisher title name

issue
storyline volume
nested set?

variant trade


science fiction
noir horror
independent
Martial Arts genres?
historical
Pirate superhero


imprint publisher

@#&*!
title name

genre

issue
volume
nested set?

storyline variant trade


The Challenge
Complete insanity


Alternatives
databases unite!

#?forben

http://thisisindexed.com/2009/02/just-because-you-can-doesnt-mean-you-should/

Key-Value


Redis Tokyo Cabinet
Project Voldemort
Cassandra*

require "rubygems"
require "tokyocabinet"

include TokyoCabinet

bdb = BDB::new # B-Tree database; keys may have multiple values
bdb.open("casket.bdb", BDB::OWRITER | BDB::OCREAT)

# store records in the database, allowing duplicates
bdb.putdup("key1", "value1")
bdb.putdup("key1", "value2")
bdb.put("key2", "value3")
bdb.put("key3", "value4")

# retrieve all values
p bdb.getlist("key1")
# => ["value1", "value2"]

# range query, find all matching keys
p bdb.range("key1", true, "key3", true)
# => ["key1", "key2", "key3"]

http://www.igvita.com/2009/02/13/tokyo-cabinet-beyond-key-value-store/

Biology x

Comics x


Conﬁguration ✓
Caching ✓
Translations ✓


Document


{
'name':'Ben Scofield',
'adjective':'awesomesauce'
}

{
'name':'Magic Pony',
'description':'It is a *lie*!'
}


class Question
include MongoMapper::Document

key :number, Integer, :required => true
key :text, String, :required => true

many :choices
end

class Choice
include MongoMapper::EmbeddedDocument

key :text, String, :required => true
end


Biology ✓

Comics x


{
‘kingdom’:‘Animalia’,
‘phylum’:‘Chordata’,
‘subphylum’:‘Vertebrata’,
‘class’:‘Mammalia’,
‘subclass’:‘Eutheria’,
‘order’:‘Carnivora’,
‘family’:‘Felidae’,
‘subfamily’:‘Panthernae’,
‘genus’:‘Pantera’,
‘species’:‘tigris’,
‘name’:‘Wanda’
}


{
‘kingdom’:‘Animalia’,
‘subkingdom’:‘Eumetazoa’,
‘phylum’:‘Chordata’,
‘subphylum’:‘Vertebrata’,
‘class’:‘Mammalia’,
‘subclass’:‘Theria’,
‘order’:‘Carnivora’,
‘suborder’: ‘Caniformia’,
‘family’:‘Canidae’,
‘subfamily’:‘Caninae’,
‘tribe’:‘Canini’,
‘genus’:‘Canis’,
‘species’:‘lupus’,
‘subspecies’:‘familiaris’,
‘name’:‘Daisy’
}


Graph


AllegroGraph
Java Java / Lisp


http://neotechnology.com/why-neo


http://markorodriguez.com/Lectures_ﬁles/risk-symposium2009.pdf

ﬂickr: 9948354@N08


Biology ✓

Comics ✓


Animalia

...

Felidae
subfamilyof

genusof Panthernae

genusof
Panthera

speciesof

tigris

member

001

age name weight

3 Wanda 300


Animalia

...

Felidae
subfamilyof

genusof Panthernae

genusof
Panthera

species speciesof
type

tigris
010

name
tigris member

001

age name weight

3 Wanda 300


Group IV

orderof

Picornavirales

familyof

Picornaviridae

genusof

Rhinovirus

speciesof

human
rhinovirus A

member

002


class Mammalia Group IV group
orderof orderof

Carnivora Picornavirales

familyof familyof

Felidae Picornaviridae
subfamilyof

Panthernae genusof genusof

genusof
Panthera Rhinovirus

speciesof speciesof

human
tigris
rhinovirus A

member member

001 002


DC
imprintof

titleof DC Universe

Green titleof
001
Lantern nameof
genreof
volumeof genreof

Volume 1 Sci Fi
Superhero
genreof

issueof genreof

002 precedes Issue #2

number coverof

#1 003


require 'neo4j'

Neo4j::Transaction.run do
dc = Neo4j::Node.new
dc[:name] = 'DC'

dc_universe = Neo4j::Node.new
dc_universe[:name] = 'DC Universe'

dc.relationships.outgoing(:imprints) << dc_universe

rel = dc.relationships.outgoing(:imprints).first
rel[:started] = 1980

vol1 = Neo4j::Node.new
vol1[:started] = 1941
vol1[:ended] = 1949
vol1[:name] = 'Green Lantern'

dc.relationships.outgoing(:titles) << vol1
dc_universe.relationships.outgoing(:titles) << vol1

# ...
end


Other Options


Column-Oriented

http://internetmindmap.com/database_software

Column-Oriented
Temporal


Column-Oriented
Temporal
Constant


Column-Oriented
Temporal
Constant
?

I am your databases... combined!
ﬂickr: joriel


post
tag
document id

{
'title':'Post Title'
'content':'Hello!'
'comments':["First!"]
}


{
'name':'...'
'attr1':'...'
'attr7':'...'
}


The power is yours

ﬂickr: joriel


Thank You
ben scofield - @bscofield
http://benscofield.com
http://www.viget.com/extend
http://www.speakerrate.com/bscofield

WindyCityRails - "Comics" Is Hard

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