Opening existing embedded neo4j database

Question

I am trying to use scala over the embedded jave Neo4j api. I am having trouble opening the database for reading on subsequent occasions. The code below should create two nodes and an edge every time it runs, but return all of them at the begining of each run. So, 0 nodes first time, 2 nodes second time, 4 third time etc.

import org.neo4j.tooling.GlobalGraphOperations
import org.neo4j.graphdb.factory.GraphDatabaseFactory
import org.neo4j.graphdb.RelationshipType

object tester extends App{

  val DB_PATH = "data/neo4j"
  object KNOWS extends RelationshipType {
    override def name(): String = "KNOWS"
  }
  val graphDb = new GraphDatabaseFactory().newEmbeddedDatabase(DB_PATH)  //seems to reset the whole directory
  println(graphDb)
  try {
    println("Begin")
    val tx = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
    println(GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator)
    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator
    while (nodes.hasNext()) {
      println(nodes.next())
    }
    nodes.close()
    val relT = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships.iterator
    while (relT.hasNext()) {
      println(relT.next())
    }
    println("Success - Begin")
    tx.success()
  }
  try {
    val tx = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
    val firstNode = graphDb.createNode
    val secondNode = graphDb.createNode
    val relationship = firstNode.createRelationshipTo(secondNode, KNOWS)

    println(firstNode)
    println(secondNode)
    println(relationship)
    println(relationship.getType.name)
    tx.success()
    println("Success")
  }
  println("End")
  try {
    val tx = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
    println(GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator)
    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator
    while (nodes.hasNext()) {
      println(nodes.next())
    }
    nodes.close()
    val relT = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships.iterator
    while (relT.hasNext()) {
      println(relT.next())
    }
    println("Success - End")
    tx.success()
  }
  graphDb.shutdown()
}

However, every time it simply seems to give an empty database and then the 2 new nodes. What's going on here?

EmbeddedGraphDatabase [data/neo4j]
Begin
org.neo4j.tooling.GlobalGraphOperations$1$1@74c49a90
Success - Begin
Node[2]
Node[3]
Relationship[1]
KNOWS
Success
End
org.neo4j.tooling.GlobalGraphOperations$1$1@2ec0df08
Node[2]
Node[3]
Relationship[1]
Success - End

Process finished with exit code 0

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

This is happening because you are not closing the transaction. You can do this by calling tx.close(). Also I think that instantiating tx inside try is not exactly how it should be. Here is a working version of your program:

import org.neo4j.tooling.GlobalGraphOperations
import org.neo4j.graphdb.factory.GraphDatabaseFactory
import org.neo4j.graphdb.RelationshipType

object tester extends App{

  val DB_PATH = "data/neo4j"
  object KNOWS extends RelationshipType {
    override def name(): String = "KNOWS"
  }
  val graphDb = new GraphDatabaseFactory().newEmbeddedDatabase(DB_PATH)
  println(graphDb)

  val tx1 = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
  try {
    println("Will list all nodes")
    println("1 - Begin")
    println("GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator")
    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator
    while (nodes.hasNext()) {
      println(nodes.next())
    }
    nodes.close()
    val relT = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships.iterator
    while (relT.hasNext()) {
      println(relT.next())
    }
    println("1 - Success - Begin")
    tx1.success()
  }
  finally {
    tx1.close()
  }

  val tx2 = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
  try {
    val firstNode = graphDb.createNode
    val secondNode = graphDb.createNode
    val relationship = firstNode.createRelationshipTo(secondNode, KNOWS)

    println(firstNode)
    println(secondNode)
    println(relationship)
    println(relationship.getType.name)
    tx2.success()
    println("2 - Success")
  }
  finally {
    tx2.close()
  }

  println("2 - End")

  val tx3 = graphDb.beginTx() // Database operations go here
  try {
    println(GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator)
    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator
    while (nodes.hasNext()) {
      println(nodes.next())
    }
    nodes.close()
    val relT = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships.iterator
    while (relT.hasNext()) {
      println(relT.next())
    }
    println("3 - Success - End")
    tx3.success()
  }
  finally {
    tx3.close()
  }
  graphDb.shutdown()
}

EXTRA

I tried to bring your program closer to the "scala-style". Also, I tried to remove boilerplate and repeated code. To accomplish this I:

Used JavaConverters to handle Java collections and Iterables like we handle them in Scala
Created a method withTransaction to get automatic resource management for our transaction in scala.

This is the result:

import org.neo4j.tooling.GlobalGraphOperations
import org.neo4j.graphdb.factory.GraphDatabaseFactory
import org.neo4j.graphdb.RelationshipType
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Transaction
import scala.collection.JavaConverters._

object tester extends App{
  val DB_PATH = "data/neo4j"
  object KNOWS extends RelationshipType {
    override def name(): String = "KNOWS"
  }

  def withTransaction (doWithTransaction: Transaction => Unit) { 
    val tempTx = graphDb.beginTx() 

    try {
      doWithTransaction(tempTx)
    }
    finally {
      tempTx.close()
    }
  }

  val graphDb = new GraphDatabaseFactory().newEmbeddedDatabase(DB_PATH)
  println(graphDb)

  withTransaction { tx => 
    println("1 - Begin")
    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes 
    for (node <- nodes.asScala)
      println(node)

    val relTs = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships
    for (irelT <- relTs.asScala) 
      println(irelT)

    println("1 - Success - Begin")
    tx.success()
  }


  withTransaction { tx => 
    val firstNode = graphDb.createNode
    val secondNode = graphDb.createNode
    val relationship = firstNode.createRelationshipTo(secondNode, KNOWS)

    println(firstNode)
    println(secondNode)
    println(relationship)
    println(relationship.getType.name)
    tx.success()
    println("2 - Success")
  }

  println("2 - End")

  withTransaction { tx => 
    println(GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes.iterator)

    val nodes = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllNodes 
    for (node <- nodes.asScala)
      println(node)

    val relTs = GlobalGraphOperations.at(graphDb).getAllRelationships
    for (irelT <- relTs.asScala) 
      println(irelT)

    println("3 - Success - End")
    tx.success()
  }

  graphDb.shutdown()
}

It did fix everything and thanks for the masterclass :-) I learnt a lot! — user2302244, Nov 07 '15 at 09:43

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '15 at 17:01

1

the issue is that you are specifying a relative path. May be that everytime you run a clean and build you empty your target directory (or dist, or whatever your ide, development framework use as distribution directory) so the database is empty since it is created from scratch everytime. Try with an absolute path.

answered Nov 01 '15 at 17:01

Alessandro Negro

517
2
6

Thanks I tried that and unfortunately it made no difference. – user2302244 Nov 01 '15 at 17:10
Could you provide more information about your deploying environment? – Alessandro Negro Nov 01 '15 at 17:16
Sure. I am running on a mac and using Intellij 14.1 community as the ide. – user2302244 Nov 01 '15 at 17:27
Which version of neo4j? – Alessandro Negro Nov 01 '15 at 17:28
Are you able to see the database directory after your program complete? – Alessandro Negro Nov 01 '15 at 17:29
Yes I can see it after the program completes – user2302244 Nov 01 '15 at 17:32
did you tried open it with a standalone db pointing to that directory? – Alessandro Negro Nov 01 '15 at 17:44

Opening existing embedded neo4j database

2 Answers2

EXTRA