Distributed Applications with CouchDB

We will build relationship tracking groupware using only HTML, JavaScript, and CouchDB. Users will be able to manage contact information, as well as add to do items tagged with different people and contexts. We’ll design the application for sharing, so that a workgroup can maintain individual copies of the data, but also circulate updates to other members of their group, either on an ad-hoc p2p basis or via a central server.

Participants will learn the fundamentals of data management with CouchDB, as well as the capabilities CouchDB makes available due to its HTTP/REST interface. We’ll cover CouchDB’s schema free JSON document model, include its implementation of MVCC. We’ll learn to use CouchDB’s MapReduce views to make orderly queries from heterogeneous data. We’ll demonstrate CouchDB’s peer-based replication, and understand it’s implications for data portability.

Upon completing the workshop, participants will be ready to use CouchDB in real-world applications. Using CouchDB’s HTTP API via Ajax applications is great preparation for working with CouchDB in more “heavyweight” deployment scenarios. We also hope to show participants that the standalone model may be the best way to build applications for in-house deployment, education, or other scenarios where users are relatively trusted. This tutorial is also a great way to get a feel for CouchDB’s data model.