Julian's Polymath Explorations

A growing, ongoing series on Graph Databases and Neo4j.  The series has grown so large that I'm "factoring out" their Table of Contents as a separate entry, here! A series on Graph Databases and Neo4j part 0    (alternate version of part 1 for a general, non-technical audience)   :             What are Graph Databases - and Why Should I Care?? : "Graph Databases for Poets" part 1 : Intro to Graph Databases (Neo4j) - a revolution in modeling the real world! part 2 : Neo4j Sandbox Tutorial : try Neo4j and learn Cypher the free and easy way part 3 : Neo4j & Cypher Tutorial : Getting Started with a Graph Database and its Query Language  part 4 : Using Neo4j with Python : the Open-Source Library NeoAccess part 5 : Using Schema in Graph Databases such as Neo4j part 6  : Putting it All Together - a Technology Stack on Top of a Graph Database SPECIAL TOPICS *  Full-Text Search with the Neo4j Graph Datab

Using graph databases, you may have a need for ORDERED SEQUENCES of data records... For example: ordered sequences of adverse events in clinical trials ordered sequences of text messages ordered sequences of chemical production steps ordered sequences of "content items" for a content management system   Good news : an open-source library exists for conveniently managing this data model in a Neo4j graph database (and in principle could be ported to other graph databases.)   This concept of ordered sequences of data nodes:   1) is hugely general : I gave them the name "(Ordered)  Collections " 2) can be tricky to implement fully (for example, to deal with multiple insertions in the middle) 3) fortunately, all is handled by this open-source library! 😁   => Here's the documentation => Here's the source code This article is part of a growing,  ongoing series  on Graph Databases and Neo4j A Simple Example The attached image is a simple example of a &quo

  This is a very gentle introduction to the subject.  The subtitle is inspired by university courses such as "Physics for Poets"!  (if you're technically inclined, there's an alternate article for you.) It has been said that "The language of physics (or of God) is math".  On a similar note, it could be said that: The language of the biological world - or of any subject or endeavor involving complexity - is networks ('meshes') What is a network?  Think of  it as the familiar 'friends of friends' diagram from social media. Everywhere one turns in biology, there's a network – at the cellular level, tissue level, organ level, ecosystem level.  The weather and other earth systems are networks.  Human societal organization is a network.  Electrical circuits, the Internet, our own brains...  Networks are everywhere! What can we do with networks, to better understand the world around us, or to create something that we need? Broadly s

(UPDATED Oct. 2023)   Now that we have discussed a full technology stack based on Neo4j (or other graph databases), and that we a design and implementation available from the open-source project BrainAnnex.org  , what next?  What shall we build on top? Well, how about  Full-Text Search ?  This article is part of a growing, ongoing series on Graph Databases and Neo4j Full-Text Searching/Indexing Starting with the  Version 5, Beta 26.1  release, the Brain Annex open-source project includes a straightforward but working implementation of a design that uses the convenient services of its Schema Layer , to provide indexing of word-based documents using Neo4j. The python class FullTextIndexing ( source code ) provides the necessary methods, and it can parse both plain-text and HTML documents (for example, used in "formatted notes"); parsing of PDF files and other formats will be added at a later date. No grammatical analysis ( stemming or lemmatizing ) is done on

Putting it All Together : a Technology Stack on top of a (Neo4j) Graph Database The above technology stack is explained in  this short video . (UPDATED Mar. 2024)  For many practical use cases, one needs a full data-management solution, not just a database.   So, armed with the Schema Layer discussed in the previous part , the next natural step is to add an API and possibly a UI . This article is part 6 of a growing,  ongoing  series  on Graph Databases and Neo4j   The API Layer / Data Manager The  API Layer ("Data Manager")  is in some ways the most straightforward layer - because the "heavy lifting" is done by the Schema Layer.   I've been involved in projects that utilized an inadequate Schema Layer - and in those situations the API Layer ends up taking on an immense amount of responsibility that don't logically belong there; the end result being a lot of difficult, error-prone and non-modular development that feels like "pulling teeth"! By co

So, you want to build a python app or Jupyter notebook to utilize Neo4j, but aren't too keen on coding a lot of string manipulation to programmatic create ad-hoc Cypher queries?   You're in the right place: the NeoAccess library can do take care of all that, sparing you from lengthy, error-prone development that requires substantial graph-database and software-development expertise! This article is part 4 of a growing,  ongoing  series  on Graph Databases and Neo4j   "NeoAccess" is the bottom layer of the technology stack provided by the BrainAnnex open-source project .  All layers are very modular, and the NeoAccess library may also be used by itself , entirely separately from the rest of the technology stack.  (A diagram of the full stack is shown later in this article.) NeoAccess interacts with the Neo4j Python driver , which is provided by the Neo4j company, to access the database from Python; the API to access that driver is very powerful, but complex - and does

So, you have an itch to test-drive Neo4j and its Cypher query language.  Maybe you want to learn it, or evaluate it, or introduce colleagues/clients to it.  And you wish for: fast, simple and free! Well, good news: the Neo4j company kindly provides a free, short-term hosted solution called "the Neo4j sandbox" .  Extremely easy to set up and use! This article is part 2 of a growing, ongoing series on Graph Databases and Neo4j Register (free) for the Neo4j "Sandbox" Go to sandbox.neo4j.com , and register with a working email and a password.  That's it! Note that this same email/password will also let you into the Neo4j Community Forums and Support ; the same login for all: very convenient! Launch your instance - blank or pre-populated After registering, go to  sandbox.neo4j.com  , and follow the steps in the diagram below (the choices might differ, but the "Blank Sandbox" should always be there): Too good to be true?  Is there