Property with multiple data types

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Laura Morales

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Dec 13, 2020, 10:30:19 AM12/13/20
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I'm new to Janus and LPGs. I have a question after reading the Janus documentation. As far as I understand, edges labels as well as properties (for both nodes and edges) are indexed globally. What happens when I have a sufficiently large graph, that completely unrelated and separate nodes want to use a property called with the same name but that holds different data types? For example, a property called "age" could be used by some nodes with a Integer type (eg. "age": 23), but other nodes on the other far-side of my big graph might want/need/require to use a String type (eg. "age": "twenty-seven"). Is this configuration possible with Janus? Or do I *have to* use two different names such as age_int and age_string?

HadoopMarc

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Dec 14, 2020, 2:01:30 AM12/14/20
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Hi Laura,

Good that you pay close attention to understanding indices in JanusGraph because they are essential to proper use. Does the following section of the ref docs answers your question?


Best wishes,    Marc

Op zondag 13 december 2020 om 16:30:19 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:

Laura Morales

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Dec 14, 2020, 3:07:31 AM12/14/20
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Thank you Marc, I think it does indeed! If I understand correctly, I can use labels to "namespace" my nodes, or in other words as a way to identify subgraphs.
If I have a node with 2 labels instead, say label1 and label2, I can create 2 indices for the same node, right? That is an index for label1.age (Integer) and an index for label2.age (String), both indices containing the same node. In this scenario I should be allowed to add 2 types of properties to the same node, one containing an Integer and the other one containing a String. Then query by choosing a specific label. Does this work? Can I do something like this?




Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 at 8:01 AM
From: "HadoopMarc" <bi...@xs4all.nl>
To: "JanusGraph users" <janusgra...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Property with multiple data types
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HadoopMarc

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Dec 14, 2020, 8:29:41 AM12/14/20
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Hi Laura,

Things are a bit different than you ask:
  • a vertex has a single label only
  • a property key has a single datatype only, but it can be Object.class, see https://docs.janusgraph.org/basics/schema/#property-key-data-type
  • indices can have a label constraint, but these are not helpful if you want to mix the datatypes in a property for the same vertex
  • I cannot predict well how the various janusgraph parts will behave when mixing up real integers and "string-integers" in a property key of the Object.class datatype. I guess that the gremlin traversals will have problems, while an indexing backend for MixedIndices probably can deal with it. The ref docs definitely advise to use the basic datatypes and spare yourself future headaches (so, unify the datatypes on ingestion).
Best wishes,    Marc

Op maandag 14 december 2020 om 09:07:31 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:

Laura Morales

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Dec 14, 2020, 10:15:08 AM12/14/20
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Thank you for your further comments.
I'm still a bit confused though. Janus advertises itself as a database for huge graphs. But I'm asking myself if it means huge "homogeneous" graphs (ie. a simple schema but a lot of nodes/edges) or huge "dishomogeneous" graphs (ie. with lots of nodes/edges but also with a complex schema). With really big graphs I think it's reasonable to assume that different nodes will want to use the same property key but with different data types. Labels however don't really help with this use case, because there can only be 1 per node, and maybe some nodes want to use both types.
How would you design the schema of a big "dishomogeneous" graph? Like a schema that can describe 100s of different domains in a single graph. Is Object.class the only way?




Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 at 2:29 PM
From: "HadoopMarc" <bi...@xs4all.nl>
To: "JanusGraph users" <janusgra...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Property with multiple data types

Hi Laura,
 
Things are a bit different than you ask:

a vertex has a single label onlya property key has a single datatype only, but it can be Object.class, see https://docs.janusgraph.org/basics/schema/#property-key-data-typeindices can have a label constraint, but these are not helpful if you want to mix the datatypes in a property for the same vertexI cannot predict well how the various janusgraph parts will behave when mixing up real integers and "string-integers" in a property key of the Object.class datatype. I guess that the gremlin traversals will have problems, while an indexing backend for MixedIndices probably can deal with it. The ref docs definitely advise to use the basic datatypes and spare yourself future headaches (so, unify the datatypes on ingestion).
Best wishes,    Marc
 

Op maandag 14 december 2020 om 09:07:31 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:
Thank you Marc, I think it does indeed! If I understand correctly, I can use labels to "namespace" my nodes, or in other words as a way to identify subgraphs.
If I have a node with 2 labels instead, say label1 and label2, I can create 2 indices for the same node, right? That is an index for label1.age (Integer) and an index for label2.age (String), both indices containing the same node. In this scenario I should be allowed to add 2 types of properties to the same node, one containing an Integer and the other one containing a String. Then query by choosing a specific label. Does this work? Can I do something like this?




Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 at 8:01 AM
From: "HadoopMarc" <bi...@xs4all.nl>
To: "JanusGraph users" <janusgra...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Property with multiple data types

Hi Laura,
 
Good that you pay close attention to understanding indices in JanusGraph because they are essential to proper use. Does the following section of the ref docs answers your question?
 
https://docs.janusgraph.org/index-management/index-performance/#label-constraint[https://docs.janusgraph.org/index-management/index-performance/#label-constraint]
 
Best wishes,    Marc 

Op zondag 13 december 2020 om 16:30:19 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:I'm new to Janus and LPGs. I have a question after reading the Janus documentation. As far as I understand, edges labels as well as properties (for both nodes and edges) are indexed globally. What happens when I have a sufficiently large graph, that completely unrelated and separate nodes want to use a property called with the same name but that holds different data types? For example, a property called "age" could be used by some nodes with a Integer type (eg. "age": 23), but other nodes on the other far-side of my big graph might want/need/require to use a String type (eg. "age": "twenty-seven"). Is this configuration possible with Janus? Or do I *have to* use two different names such as age_int and age_string?
 
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Laura Morales

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Dec 14, 2020, 12:34:24 PM12/14/20
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Maybe I'm completely wrong, but would I be right to say that "labels" are the equivalent of Java classes? Like, one label represents a Java class and graph properties represent a class properties? So, saying that a node has label L would be like saying that a certain Java object is of class C? (That's why there's only one label per node). I was picturing labels as arbitrary strings that are attached to a node.
Then in Java, classes are namespaced to avoid collision. If my analogy is true, what would be the equivalent of namespaces with Janus?
 
 
 

Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 at 2:29 PM
From: "HadoopMarc" <bi...@xs4all.nl>
To: "JanusGraph users" <janusgra...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Property with multiple data types

Hi Laura,
 
Things are a bit different than you ask:

a vertex has a single label onlya property key has a single datatype only, but it can be Object.class, see https://docs.janusgraph.org/basics/schema/#property-key-data-typeindices can have a label constraint, but these are not helpful if you want to mix the datatypes in a property for the same vertexI cannot predict well how the various janusgraph parts will behave when mixing up real integers and "string-integers" in a property key of the Object.class datatype. I guess that the gremlin traversals will have problems, while an indexing backend for MixedIndices probably can deal with it. The ref docs definitely advise to use the basic datatypes and spare yourself future headaches (so, unify the datatypes on ingestion).
Best wishes,    Marc
 

Op maandag 14 december 2020 om 09:07:31 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:
Thank you Marc, I think it does indeed! If I understand correctly, I can use labels to "namespace" my nodes, or in other words as a way to identify subgraphs.
If I have a node with 2 labels instead, say label1 and label2, I can create 2 indices for the same node, right? That is an index for label1.age (Integer) and an index for label2.age (String), both indices containing the same node. In this scenario I should be allowed to add 2 types of properties to the same node, one containing an Integer and the other one containing a String. Then query by choosing a specific label. Does this work? Can I do something like this?




Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 at 8:01 AM
From: "HadoopMarc" <bi...@xs4all.nl>
To: "JanusGraph users" <janusgra...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Property with multiple data types

Hi Laura,
 
Good that you pay close attention to understanding indices in JanusGraph because they are essential to proper use. Does the following section of the ref docs answers your question?
 
https://docs.janusgraph.org/index-management/index-performance/#label-constraint[https://docs.janusgraph.org/index-management/index-performance/#label-constraint]
 
Best wishes,    Marc 

Op zondag 13 december 2020 om 16:30:19 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:I'm new to Janus and LPGs. I have a question after reading the Janus documentation. As far as I understand, edges labels as well as properties (for both nodes and edges) are indexed globally. What happens when I have a sufficiently large graph, that completely unrelated and separate nodes want to use a property called with the same name but that holds different data types? For example, a property called "age" could be used by some nodes with a Integer type (eg. "age": 23), but other nodes on the other far-side of my big graph might want/need/require to use a String type (eg. "age": "twenty-seven"). Is this configuration possible with Janus? Or do I *have to* use two different names such as age_int and age_string?
 
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HadoopMarc

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Dec 15, 2020, 2:01:56 AM12/15/20
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Hi Laura,

The JanusGraph storage backends can store many isolated graphs (see e.g. the storage.cql.keyspace configuration property). However, it is not possible to have edges between vertices from different graphs, so I guess this is not what you are looking for.

Your question is valid, and, by coincidence, it is currently discussed on the developer's list of Apache TinkerPop:

Best wishes,    Marc

Op maandag 14 december 2020 om 18:34:24 UTC+1 schreef Laura Morales:
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