Ruby on Rails is a powerful web framework that focuses on developer productivity. Riak is a friendly key-value store that is simple, flexible and scalable. Put them together and you have lots of exciting possibilities!

1. Riak with Rails
Sean Cribbs
Developer Advocate
basho

2. Why Riak with Rails?
Simple to understand and use
Share-nothing, homogeneous
Web-friendly
Grows with your app (“scales”)
Lots of use-cases
basho

3. Use Cases
Document database
File / upload storage (DFS)
Cache / object store
Session store
basho

4. Getting Started
# Gemfile
gem 'curb' # Faster HTTP
gem 'yajl-ruby' # Faster JSON
gem 'riak-client', :require => 'riak'
gem 'ripple'
$ gem install curb yajl-ruby ripple
basho

5. Rails 3 Setup
# config/ripple.yml
development:
host: 127.0.0.1
port: 8098
# config/application.rb
require 'ripple/railtie'
basho

6. Basic Client Operations
basho

7. require ‘riak’
Make a client object
client = Riak::Client.new # or Ripple.client
Get a bucket
bucket = client.bucket(‘foo’) # Riak::Bucket
Get an object from the bucket
obj = bucket.get(‘bar’) # Riak::RObject
Initialize a new object
obj = bucket.new(‘baz’)
basho

8. Riak::RObject
Get/set object key
obj.key = “bar”
Get/set content-type
obj.content_type = ‘application/json’
Get/set the object body data (JSON auto enc/dec)
obj.data = {“name” => “Sean”}
Store the object
obj.store
basho

9. Using Links
Create a link
Riak::Link.new(“/riak/bucket/key”, “tag”)
Read an object’s links
obj.links # Set<Riak::Link>
Convert an object to a link
obj.links << obj2.to_link(“next”)
obj.store
basho

10. Link-Walking
obj = client[‘demo’][‘test1’]
obj.walk(:keep => true)
# Get all linked one-level
obj.walk(:bucket => “demo”, :keep => true)
# Get all linked in “demo” bucket
obj.walk(:tag => ‘friend’, :keep => true)
# Get all linked with tag “friend”
obj.walk({},{:keep => true})
# Get all linked at second level
basho

11. MapReduce
mr = Riak::MapReduce.new(Ripple.client)
mr.add(“people”,”sean”)
mr.link(:tag => “friend”)
mr.map(“Riak.mapValuesJson”,:keep => true)
mr.run
Riak::MapReduce.new(Ripple.client).
add(“people”,”sean”).
link(:tag => “friend”).
map(“Riak.mapValuesJson”,:keep => true).run
basho

12. Load RObjects from M/R
Javascript Identity Map Function
function(v){ return [v]; }
Load output
Riak::RObject.load_from_mapreduce(c, mr.run)
# Returns Array<Riak::RObject>
basho

13. Use-Case: Document DB
basho

14. Riak as Document DB
Store semi-structured data as “documents” (JSON)
Alternative to CouchDB or MongoDB
Links and Link-walking for easy relationships
MapReduce for more involved queries
basho

15. Ripple - Document OM
Build rich, multi-level nested document models
ActiveModel goodies: validations, callbacks, etc
Associations -- embedded, linked
Requires Rails 3.0.0.rc
basho

16. Caveats
No indexes for efficient lookups (other than key)
Still pretty new
Currently hard to clean up after tests
basho

17. Ripple Demo
basho

18. Use Case: File storage
basho

19. Riak as a File Server
Web-shaped storage - plays well with ops
Authenticated downloads
Serve files directly from Riak
basho

20. File Upload / Serve Demo
basho

21. Use-Case: Cache store
basho

22. Riak as a Cache Store
It’s a K/V store - similar to memcached, redis
Flexible serialization options: JSON, YAML, Marshal,
text, binary
Tune for performance over consistency
Low quorums and replication
Last-write-wins?
In-memory backend
basho

23. Using Riak::CacheStore
Implements ActiveSupport::Cache::Store
Sets quorum/n_val defaults for you (tweakable)
R=W=RW=1, DW=0, N=2
Doesn’t set backend or last_write_wins (tweakable)
config.cache_store = :riak_store
basho

24. Caveats
Not as fast as memcached or redis
No per-object expiry (could be done client-side)
basho

25. Riak::CacheStore Demo
basho

26. Use-Case: Session store
basho

27. Riak as a Session store
Substitute for ActiveRecord or memcached sessions
Use when you need larger or longer-lived sessions
Tune for modest durability and performance
Low quorums, modest N (2 or 3)
Fast disk backend (bitcask) or memory (ets)
basho

28. Ripple::SessionStore (WIP)
Sets quorum/n_val defaults for you
Implements ActionDispatch::Session::AbstractStore
config.session_store = ::Riak::SessionStore
Coming in next release of Ripple (0.8.0)
basho

29. Wrap-up
basho

30. Riak with Rails
Useful in many contexts
Semi-structured data/documents
Web-friendly storage
Distributed cache / session storage
Flexible K/V storage
Grows with your app
basho

31. Ripple Roadmap
Testing assistance/automation
Protocol buffers interface, HTTP enhancements
More association types
Get involved: http://github.com/seancribbs/ripple
basho

32. Plug
Interested in learning about support, consulting, or
Enterprise features?
Email info@basho.com or go to
http://www.basho.com/contact.html to talk with us.
www.basho.com
basho

33. Plug
Interested in learning about support, consulting, or
Enterprise features?
Email info@basho.com or go to
http://www.basho.com/contact.html to talk with us.
www.basho.com
sean@basho.com
@seancribbs
basho