DovetailDB

Try It Out(right here and now)

Open up FireBug and go to the console tab (don't use FireBug? Download the javascript library here, and follow along in the environment of your choice).

First, read the following disclaimer and click on the "I agree" button to get an access key:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL MILLSTONE CREATIVE WORKS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. MILLSTONE CREATIVE WORKS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE OFFERINGS WILL FUNCTION AS DESCRIBED, WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT THE DATA YOU STORE WITHIN THE SERVICE OFFERINGS WILL BE SECURE OR NOT OTHERWISE LOST OR DAMAGED. WE SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, POWER OUTAGES, SYSTEM FAILURES OR OTHER INTERRUPTIONS, INCLUDING THOSE THAT AFFECT THE RECEIPT, PROCESSING, ACCEPTANCE, COMPLETION OR SETTLEMENT OF ANY PAYMENT SERVICES. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MILLSTONE CREATIVE WORKS OR FROM ANY THIRD PARTY OR THROUGH THE SERVICES SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.

The dovetaildb client script (dovetail.js) has already been imported onto this page; all of its functions are namespaced under the "dovetail" object. To register your access key with the client library, enter this javascript code:

>>>dovetail.defaults.accesskey = '<<your access key here>>';

Now you can create a new database (named "SocialNet", in our example) by typing the following. You can create multiple databases to store data for different applications. (data cannot be shared between databases)

>>>dovetail.call('createDatabase',['SocialNet']);

We will then tell the client library to use this new database for the remainder of our calls:

>>>dovetail.defaults.db = 'SocialNet';

Databases can contain several "bag"s (which are similar to tables in a relational database). You don't need to declare the bags, though; they get created the first time you insert data into them. Here, we insert a object for "Bob" into the "people" bag:

>>>bob={name:'Bob',age:37};

>>>dovetail.insert('people',bob);

We can get data out of a bag by querying for any of object's attributes. The dovetail.query function first takes the bag to query. Second, it takes an object representing the query. Finally, in normal AJAX style, we supply a callback function that does something with the results when they come back.

>>>dovetail.query('people',{name_is:'Bob'},function(r){alert("Bob's age is "+r[0].age)});

In your query, you can constrain on multiple attributes and you can also do range queries, "in" lists, and exclusions. Objects in the database can be changed and removed using an "id" attribute that gets implicitly assigned to each object. You can also upload javascript code to run on the server side. See the documentation for more information on all these topics.