building social graph utilities on heroku for chatter
DESCRIPTION
Join us as we enhance the Chatter experience by building Social Graph utilities on Heroku. Using the power of the neo4j graph database to generate a representation of the relationships between people in a large Chatter community, we can provide some cool features, such as a visualization of the graph, and a degrees of separation tool. Exposing this via Canvas will give the user a rich, enhanced, native Chatter experience. This is a good example of handling complex tasks on Heroku that cannot be easily handled on the salesforce.com platform.TRANSCRIPT
Building Social Graph Utilities on Heroku for ChatterCanvas, neo4j, node.js
Cory McIlroy, Appirio, CloudSpokes Architect@coryio
AgendaThree things I want you to leave with
▪ See an end-to-end Canvas app hosted on Heroku▪ Learn a little about neo4j and the power of graph databases▪ See some cool social graph visualizations in action
Why social graph utilities for chatter• Understanding how people are related (in large communities)
• Shortest path between two people (like Linked-in)• Visualizing a graph to spot “silos”
Genesis/AcknowledgmentsHow this got started
▪ ACT, large social network application▪ DifferentSpokes (Michael Hunger)▪ William’s “Chatter Liasons” (groovy)
A sample chatter graph
Why Heroku/Canvas• Imagine the “shortest path” problem using SOQL…• Trivial with graph databases like neo4j
• Demo
• But we still want to see it “natively” in Salesforce.com
Graph databases, a primer
A graph database stores data in a graph, the most generic of data structures, capable of elegantly representing any kind of data in a highly accessible way
Source: http://www.neo4j.org/learn/graphdatabase
neo4j• Open Source graph database (supported by Neo Technology)• http://graphdatabases.com/• Heroku Add-on (free development tier)• Reliable, durable, scalable• Simple REST interface, or Java API
All about Appirio
Appirio is a global services provider that helps enterprises reimagine their business and become more agile using crowdsourcing and cloud, social and mobile technology. ▪ More than 600 enterprise customers successfully moved to the cloud
▪ Strategic partner of Salesforce since 2006
▪ On-demand access to 600,000 of the world’s top developers, designers and data analysts through Appirio’s community
Cory McIlroy
Appirio CloudSpokes Architect@coryio
