Testing and researches

Here you can find some small scripts, programs, tools and papers which were created during my exploration, learning, researching and testing the new technologies.

MongoDB

MongoDB is a high-performance, open source schema-free document-oriented database written in C++.

This website (2009)

Because of my experimenting with MongoDB, most of the data (projects, books, links, etc.) on this website is stored in JSON format in a database (to be precise, in MongoDB collections). I know my website isn't really a good example for using a non-relation database, because it's far from being big and/or getting a lot of traffic and I don't expect it to grow very large, but I can still take a benefit of schemaless design which makes schema migrations very easy.

For example, if I need to add extra data to the project (links, files, screenshots or whatever), I just add it to the project object and save it (if I would use more traditional relational database, I would need to add extra column to the table where I store the projects).

If you want to learn more about document-oriented databases and MongoDB, I advise you to read the following articles:

• Is the Relational Database Doomed? - good article about document-oriented database management systems
• Choosing a non-relational database; why we migrated from MySQL to MongoDB - post describing why Boxed Ice company migrated from MySQL to MongoDB
• Benchmarking MongoDB VS. Mysql - some benchmarks comparing MongoDB and MySQL in heavy concurrent read environment with many records (200 million)
• CouchDB: The Definitive Guide - a book about very popular non-relational database management system CouchDB
• Why Schemaless is Good - article describing where we could benefit from using schemaless database over more traditional relation database
• What is the Right Data Model? - which non-relational database data model is right for you (key/value, tabular or document-oriented)
• Schema Design - how to design a non-relational database schema

Mozilla Jetpack

Jetpack is a newly formed experiment in using open Web technologies to enhance the browser, with the goal of allowing anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play.
In short, Jetpack is an API for allowing you to write Firefox add-ons using the web technologies you already know.

Erepublik Work Checker (2009)

Description: A simple script I made while testing and exploring Mozilla Jetpack.
Website URL: erepublik_work_checker.html
Features:

• Script checks if user has worked today and if he hasn't, script will work for him
• If user is not logged-in or logged-in with an organization account, script will notify him (toast notification)
• Check interval and display messages can simply be changed by modifiying the source
• Work status and check date are saved to the disk using the jetpack.storage.simple mechanism (this eliminates the unnecessary traffic and requests to the Erepublik.com servers)

Screenshots:

none

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