Modeling Tricks My Relational Database Never Taught Me

David Boike

@DavidBoikemake-awesome.com

About Me

• Principal Consultant, ILM Professional Services• NServiceBus Champion• Author of Learning NServiceBus• Husband, father, geek,

amateur beer brewer• @DavidBoike• www.make-awesome.com

SQL Server

SQL Server

SQL Server

• SQL first appeared – 1974– Hard drive price: $185/MB, $189,000/GB

• Microsoft SQL Server 1.0 – 1989– Hard drive price: $7.48/MB, $7,659/GB

• Current Version: SQL 2012– November 2013: 0.004¢/MB, 4.096¢/GB

http://www.jcmit.com/diskprice.htm

Entity Framework

SQL Server

RavenDB

What is RavenDB?

• Fully transactional document database• Dead simple API

Store(object entity) Delete<T>(T entity)Load<T>(string id) Query<T>()

• Smart LINQ-powered client library• Safe by default• Powerful indexes• Replication/sharding• Fraction of SQL Server’s cost• Fraction of SQL Server’s requirements

RavenDB

Document Modeling

Bad Document Modeling

Take the red pill…

Inheritance

Oh boy, Com Sci 101 again!

Inheritance: FlatFlat

Id No

Type No

BaseProp1 No

BaseProp2 No

BaseProp3 No

DerivedAProp1 Yes

DerivedAProp2 Yes

DerivedAProp3 Yes

DerivedBProp1 Yes

DerivedBProp2 Yes

DerivedBProp3 Yes

DerivedCProp1 Yes

DerivedCProp2 Yes

DerivedCProp3 Yes

Column Name Nullable

Cliché Polymorphism Examples

• Animals (cat, dog, horse)• Cars (sedan, truck, minivan, SUV)– More broadly, machines (bike, motorcycle, car)

• Shapes (circle, rectangle, square)

Inheritance: Table per Class

AleBeerId

AleProp1

AleProp2

BeerBeerId

Type

Name

ABV

IBU

LagerBeerId

LagerProp1

LagerProp2

StoutBeerId

StoutProp1

StoutProp2

Inheritance: Table per Top-Level Class

Inheritance: Extended Attributes

AttributeNames:foo:S:0:11:intVal:S:11:2:

AttributeValues:Hello World42

Deserialized:foo=“Hello World”bar=“42”

Inheritance: XML Attributes

Raven Inheritancepublic class BeerListModel{ public string Id { get; set; } public List<BeerModel> Beers

{ get; set; }

public BeerListModel() { Beers = new List<BeerModel>(); }}

public abstract class BeerModel{ public string Name { get; set; } public decimal ABV { get; set; } public int IBU { get; set; }}

public class AleModel : BeerModel{ public string AleProp1 { get; set; } public string AleProp2 { get; set; }}

public class LagerModel : BeerModel{ public string LagerProp1 { get; set; } public string LagerProp2 { get; set; }}

public class StoutModel : BeerModel{ public string StoutProp1 { get; set; } public string StoutProp2 { get; set; }}

Raven Inheritance

Inheritance: Lessons

• Inheritance/Polymorphism in SQL Server sucks• In RavenDB, it’s no big deal• Key: With RavenDB we can model things just

like they exist in real life.

Hierarchy

SQL Hierarchy

SELECT *FROM CategoryWHERE SiteId = @SiteIdAND ParentId = @ParentId

SQL Hierarchy

SELECT *FROM CategoryWHERE SiteId = @SiteId

Raven Hierarchy #1public class CategoryTree{ // Sites/42/Categories public string Id { get; set; } public List<Category> RootCategories { get; set; }

public CategoryTree() { RootCategories = new List<Category>(); }}

Raven Hierarchy #1public class Category{ public string CategoryId { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } // Other Stuff

public List<Category> ChildCategories { get; set; }

public Category() { ChildCategories = new List<Category>(); }}

Raven Hierarchy #1

Raven Hierarchy #2public class Category{ public string Id { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } // Other Stuff}

public class CategoryTree{ public string Id { get; set; } public List<CategoryRef> RootCategories { get; set; }}

public class CategoryRef{ public string CategoryId { get; set; } public List<CategoryRef> ChildCategories { get; set; }}

// Don't forget default constructors!

Raven Hierarchy #2

Loading Hierarchy

• Method 1– One document, just load it

• Method 2– Multiple Documents– Normally to load within collections• .Include("RootCategories,CategoryId")• Does not work recursively• Works fine for one level

Loading Hierarchy

var tree = RavenSession .Load<CategoryTree>("Sites/42/CategoryTree");

// Recursively build list of ids neededstring[] ids = RecurseOnYourOwnTime(tree); // ;-)

var cats = RavenSession .Load<Category>(ids) .ToDictionary(doc => doc.Id);

Hierarchy: Lessons

• Model by Units of Change and Transactional Boundaries– Guided our choice of hierarchy implementation– Think about actors in your use cases

• Always initialize collections and child objects– Nobody likes a NullReferenceException

• We can have global “singleton” documents for configuration– Site/Configuration, Site/Categories, etc.– Great candidates for Aggressive Caching

Duplication

You want me to do what?

Wordpress ERD

Wordpress ERD

Comments

CommentMeta

Options

Posts

PostMetaTerm

Relationships

Users

UserMeta

TermTaxonomy

Links

Terms

Copy a Post

• 3 tables involved– wp_posts– wp_postmeta (17 types)– wp_term_relationships

• More if we want to copy comments– wp_comments– wp_commentmeta

Copy a Post

• Fairly simple example– New row in Posts

• Store new PostId

– New rows in PostMeta w/ PostId– New rows in TermRelationships w/ PostId

• What if we had to copy a table related to TermRelationships?• What if an object graph spans dozens of tables?• What if PostMeta contains hidden ids linking to other tables?• P.S. Revisions are stored as additional

records in Posts!

Raven Post Model Examplepublic class WordPressPost{ public string Id { get; set; } public string AuthorId { get; set; } public DateTimeOffset PostDate { get; set; } public string Contents { get; set; } public string Title { get; set; } public string Excerpt { get; set; } public PostStatus Status { get; set; } // etc. public List<string> Categories { get; set; } public List<string> Tags { get; set; } public List<string> Series { get; set; } public List<string> RelatedPostIds { get; set; } public List<PostLink> Links { get; set; } public List<PostMedia> Media { get; set; } // Comments?...}

Options for Comments

1. Add to WordPressPost :public List<PostComment> Comments { get; set; }

2. Document per comment3. Separate document for comments

• WordPressPosts/1• WordPressPosts/1/comments

4. Capped documents• WordPressPosts/1• WordPressPosts/1/comments/1• WordPressPosts/1/comments/2• WordPressPosts/1/comments/3

Capped Documents

Bounded Contexts Unbounded Contexts

Posts/1 Posts/1

Posts/1/CommentsPosts/1/

Comments/3Posts/1/

Comments/2Posts/1/

Comments/1

How to duplicate?

// Global.asax / App_Start configMapper.Initialize(cfg =>{ cfg.CreateMap<BlogPost, BlogPost>() .ForMember(p => p.Id, opts => opts.Ignore());});

Can also decorate model’s Id property with IgnoreMapAttribute but this leaks a dependency to AutoMapper in your models.

How to duplicate?

BlogPost post = RavenSession.Load<BlogPost>("BlogPosts/1");BlogPost dupe = Mapper.Map<BlogPost>(post);// dupe.Id == null

RavenSession.Store(dupe);// dupe.Id == "BlogPosts/2"

Why duplicate?

• User Duplicate function (duh)• Auditing/History– Posts/1/History/yyyyMMddHHmmss– Consider Versioning bundle for auditing EVERY document

modification• Preview

– Posts/1/Preview/ecbe7b49c3de4c8394880bdd81eeae97• Use Expiration Bundle

• Complex Edit/Publish/Cancel– Posts/1/Edit/davidboike

• Use Expiration Bundle

Duplication: Lessons

• Thinking about duplication can help to identify units of change, but can’t get us all the way

• Make use of semantic IDs• Duplicating data enables many advanced

scenarios• Think about possible document growth• Break down large documents within one unit

of change into slimmer documents

NServiceBus Saga Storage

Hey remember that book I mentioned?

NServiceBus/Sagas 101

• NServiceBus– Framework for creating distributed systems– Transactional message handlers w/ auto-retry– Publish/Subscribe

• NServiceBus Sagas– Correlated message handlers with shared state– Transactional state stored between messages– Similar in concept to ASP.NET Session State

Saga Storage Interfacepublic interface ISagaPersister{ T Get<T>(Guid sagaId); T Get<T>(string property, object value); void Save(IContainSagaData saga); void Update(IContainSagaData saga); void Complete(IContainSagaData saga);}

public interface IContainSagaData{ Guid Id { get; set; } string Originator { get; set; } string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

Saga Storage History

• NServiceBus 2.0– SQL Storage via Fluent NHibernate• It sucked

– Built my own based on XmlSerializer• That also sucked, just not as much

• NServiceBus 3.0– RavenDB Saga Persister became default– Villagers rejoiced!

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual int MessagesReceived { get; set; }

// Don't touch! NServiceBus uses these internally! public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

MySagaDataId

Originator

OriginalMessageId

MessagesReceived

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual int MessagesReceived { get; set; }

// Don't touch! NServiceBus uses these internally! public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

MySagaDataId

Originator

OriginalMessageId

MessagesReceived

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : BaseSagaData{ public virtual int MessagesReceived { get; set; }}

public abstract class BaseSagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

MySagaDataId

MessagesReceived

BaseSagaDataId

Originator

OriginalMessageId

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual List<string> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }

// Don't touch! public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual List<string> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }

// Don't touch! public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

Fluent NHibernatepublic class MySagaData : IContainSagaData{ public virtual List<ReceivedMessage> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }

// Don't touch! public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string Originator { get; set; } public virtual string OriginalMessageId { get; set; }}

public class ReceivedMessage{ public virtual Guid Id { get; set; } public virtual string MessageTypeReceived { get; set; }}

MySagaDataId

Originator

OriginalMessageId

ReceivedMessageId

MySagaDataId

MessageTypeReceived

Raven Saga Persistencepublic class MySagaData : ContainSagaData{ public List<string> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }}

-OR-

public class MySagaData : ContainSagaData{ public HashSet<Type> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }}

Back to ISagaPersister

public interface ISagaPersister{ T Get<T>(Guid sagaId); T Get<T>(string property, object value); void Save(IContainSagaData saga); void Update(IContainSagaData saga); void Complete(IContainSagaData saga);}

Need to be able to load a saga by any identifiable property that matches on the incoming message and saga data.

More Real-Life SagaShipping Saga:• Waits for OrderAccepted + OrderBilled events• Publishes OrderShipped event

public class ShippingData : ContainSagaData{ [Unique] public long OrderId { get; set; } public List<string> MessageTypesReceived { get; set; }}

UniqueAttribute• NHibernate persister would create a unique index on the column• RavenDB indexes are asynchronous and NOT consistent

– Consistency only guaranteed on Store/Load by ID

Pointer Documents// PubSub.Shipping.ShippingData/OrderId/{GUID-1}{ "SagaId": "{GUID-2}", "UniqueValue": 12345, "SagaDocId": “ShippingData/{GUID-2}"}

// ShippingData/{GUID-2}{ "OrderId": 12345, "Originator": "PubSub.Sales@ILM-LION", "OriginalMessageId": "{GUID-3}"}

OpenID/OAuth

• Login with multiple 3rd-party identities also requires pointer document modeling

• OpenID identity URLs make for horrible document IDs– Use the SHA1 hash of the login provider and login

identifier in the document ID instead.• Easy way with MVC5

– RavenDB.AspNet.Identity NuGet package– https://github.com/ILMServices/RavenDB.AspNet.Identity– At least look at the source and make fun of the author

(That’s me)

RavenDB.AspNet.Identity{ // ApplicationUsers/DavidBoike (Some boring properties removed) "UserName": "DavidBoike", "Logins": [ { "LoginProvider": "Google", "ProviderKey": "https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnt..." } ]}

{ // IdentityUserLogins/95c8f50aa725d62af9c7e397ca3a89889dd76514 "UserId": "ApplicationUsers/DavidBoike", "Provider": "Google", "ProviderKey": "https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnt..."}

NServiceBus: Lessons

• Document databases are ideal for storing random objects with little friction

• Unique constraints must be treated specially to ensure consistency– Custom pointer documents– Unique Constraints bundle for more generic

functionality (though I prefer not to overuse it)• Use RavenDB.AspNet.Identity for OpenID– Better yet send me a pull request!

Final Thoughts

Document modeling is not the same as SQL.

If you try to make it so, you will fail.

So don’t be that guy.

Final Thoughts

Above all else, think about how and why data changes.– Units of Change– Transactional Boundaries– Everything else is window dressing

Final Thoughts

Like relational modeling, document modeling is a skill that is acquired through experience– Model things like you would in the real world– Don’t be afraid of trying and failing– Create a /FakeData/Create action in your site to

bootstrap your database to make this easy– Especially in the early stages of an application,

experiment often and regenerate when needed

Questions?

@DavidBoikemake-awesome.com