rethinkdbdash

An experimental (yet stable) Node.js driver for RethinkDB with promises and a connection pool.

Note: To use yield as shown in the examples, you have to start node unstable (>= 0.11) with the --harmony flag.

Quick start

Example wih koa:

var app = require('koa')();
var r = require('rethinkdbdash')();

app.use(function *(){
    var result = yield r.table("foo").get("bar").run();

    this.body = JSON.stringify(result);
});

app.listen(3000);

Example with bluebird:

var Promise = require('bluebird');
var r = require('rethinkdbdash')();

var run = Promise.coroutine(function* () {
    var result

    try{
        result = yield r.table("foo").get("bar").run();
        console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
    }
    catch(e) {
        console.log(e);
    }
})();

Note: You have to start node with the --harmony flag.

Install

npm install rethinkdbdash

The rethinkdbdash-unstable package is a relic from the past when the driver had a dependency on node-protobuf.

Documentation

While rethinkdbdash uses almost the same syntax as the official driver, there are still a few differences.

This section references all the differences. For all the other methods not mentionned here, please refer to the official driver's documentation.

The differences are:

Module name

Import rethinkdbdash:

var r = require('rethinkdbdash')(options);

options can be:

• {pool: false} -- if you do not want to use a connection pool.
• the options for the connection pool, which can be:

{
    min: <number>, // minimum number of connections in the pool, default 50
    max: <number>, // maximum number of connections in the pool, default 1000
    bufferSize: <number>, // minimum number of connections available in the pool, default 50
    timeoutError: <number>, // wait time before reconnecting in case of an error (in ms), default 1000
    timeoutGb: <number>, // how long the pool keep a connection that hasn't been used (in ms), default 60*60*1000
}

Promises

Rethinkdbdash uses promises and not callback. RethinkDB >= 1.13 handles both syntaxes.

Example 1 with yield:

try{
    var cursor = yield r.table("foo").run();
    var result = yield cursor.toArray();
    //process(result);
}
else {
    console.log(e.message);
}

Example 2 with yield:

try{
    var cursor = yield r.table("foo").run();
    var row;
    while(cursor.hasNext()) {
        row = yield cursor.next();
        //process(row);
    }
}
else {
    console.log(e.message);
}

Example with then and error:

r.table("foo").run().then(function(connection) {
    //...
}).error(function(e) {
    console.log(e.mssage)
})

Connection pool

Rethinkdbdash implements a connection pool and is created by default.

If you do not want to use a connection pool, iniitialize rethinkdbdash with {pool: false} like this:

var r = require('rethinkdbdash')({pool: false});

You can provide options for the connection pool with the following syntax:

var r = require('rethinkdbdash')({
    min: <number>, // minimum number of connections in the pool, default 50
    max: <number>, // maximum number of connections in the pool, default 1000
    bufferSize: <number>, // minimum number of connections available in the pool, default 50
    timeoutError: <number>, // wait time before reconnecting in case of an error (in ms), default 1000
    timeoutGb: <number>, // how long the pool keep a connection that hasn't been used (in ms), default 60*60*1000
});

try {
    var cursor = yield r.table("foo").run();
    var result = yield cursor.toArray(); // The connection used in the cursor will be released when all the data will be retrieved
}
catch(e) {
    console.log(e.message);
}

Get the number of connections

r.getPool().getLength();

Get the number of available connections

r.getPool().getAvailableLength();

Drain the pool

r.getPool().drain();

Note: If a query returns a cursor, the connection will not be released as long as the cursor hasn't fetched everything or has been closed.

Cursor

Rethinkdbdash does not extend Array with methods and returns a cursor as long as your result is a sequence.

var cursor = yield r.expr([1, 2, 3]).run()
console.log(JSON.stringify(cursor)) // does *not* print [1, 2, 3]

var result = yield cursor.toArray();
console.log(JSON.stringify(result)) // print [1, 2, 3]

Errors

• Better backtraces

Long backtraces are split on multiple lines.
In case the driver cannot serialize the query, it provides a better location of the error.

• Arity errors

The server may return confusing error messages when the wrong number of arguments is provided (See issue 2463 to track progress). Rethinkdbdash tries to make up for it by catching errors before sending the query to the server if possible.

Miscellaneous

• Maximum nesting depth

The maximum nesting depth is your documents is by default 100 (instead of 20). You can change this setting with

r.setNestingLevel(<number>)

• Performance

The tree representation of the query is built step by step and stored which avoid recomputing it if the query is re-run.

• Connection

If you do not wish to use rethinkdbdash connection pool, you can implement yours. The connections created with rethinkdbdash emits a "release" event when they receive an error, an atom, or the end (or full) sequence.

A connection can also emit a "timeout" event if the underlying connection times out.

• undefined values in an object

Rethinkdbdash will ignore the keys/values where the value is undefined.

Run tests

Update test/config.js if your RethinkDB instance doesn't run on the default parameters.

Run

mocha --harmony-generators

Tests are also being run on wercker:

• Builds: https://app.wercker.com/#applications/52dffe8ba4acb3ef16010ef8/tab
• Box:
  • Github: https://github.com/neumino/box-rethinkdbdash
  • Wercker builds: https://app.wercker.com/#applications/52dffc65a4acb3ef16010b60/tab