Our DataStore

How to use the application?

First things first, make sure you have a few softwares downloaded and if not, download them before properly using our program.

Java

• Because our program primarily runs on Java, you will need to have JDK 11 installed on your computer - newer verion should also be fine, but JDK 11 is prefered.
• To learn more about downloading Java, see https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/11/install/overview-jdk-installation.html#GUID-8677A77F-231A-40F7-98B9-1FD0B48C346A.

Maven

• Maven is a software that faciliates building other software: it organizes the file structure of the project and facilitates the building of the program.
• To download maven, see - https://maven.apache.org/guides/getting-started/maven-in-five-minutes.html.
• To learn more about Maven, see - https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/maven-tutorial/what-is-maven#:~:text=Maven%20is%20written%20in%20Java,build%20and%20testing%20automation%20setups.

Getting started with Quarkus

• After cloning our GitHub repo, cd into the 'app' folder
• You can run the program simply with the following command in your terminal - mvn quarkus:dev.

Now let's learn a bit more about the magic that goes on behind the scenes in our program and some of the technologies we chose to use.

The Goal of our DataStore

The goal of our DataStore is to convert Java objects into database tables.

• An instance of a Java class is analogous to an item in a databsase table.
• A field of a Java class is an abtribute of an item.

Java Persistence API (JPA)

There are three components to the Persisting Java Objects

1) Entity

• An entity takes the object and converts it into a database table and its details.
• The PenachieEntity interface simplies the process of creating entities because it generates the boiler plate code automatically.

2) Repository

• A Repository encapsulate the database operations you can perform on entity objects.
• It helps separate the logic from the database operations and improves the reusability of our code.

3) Routes

• An API route gets the specific and necessary information to accomplish a webpage.

Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) Opperations

• Generally speaking, in HTTP, CRUD opperations are storage semantics that let users create and manipulate data.
• However, there are two primary reasons why CRUD opperations are actually necessary:
  • Speed - The execution plan for a stored procedure is saved in SQL Server's procedure cache and reused for all subsequent calls to the procedure.
  • Protects against SQL injection attacks - Since all SQL Statements employ stored procedures instead of string concatenation to generate dynamic queries from user input data, everything entered into a parameter is quoted.
• To learn more about CRUD opperations see https://www.atatus.com/glossary/crud/.

H2 Database

• It is an in-memory database, which means that data will not persist on the disk. Accordingly, it is ideal for testing because it avoids storing test data on the disk.
• An open-source lightweight Java databse.
• It supports standard SQL and JDBC API. It can use PostgreSQL ODBC driver too.
• To learn more about H2, see https://www.tutorialspoint.com/h2_database/h2_database_introduction.htm.

Operates using Quarkus

In practice

• Quarkus allows a programer to host their Java program on their local machine (similar to hosting a Python program with Flask).
• Quarkus allows developers to make modifications to their code while the application is running. Accoridingly, they bypass the time-consuming need to restart the application each time they wish to make some modification.
• To learn more about quarkus, see https://quarkus.io/.

Why we used Quarkus over Spring Boot and Helidon

• Quarkus provides faster hot reloads since it can automatically detect changes made to Java and other resource/configuration files, and transparently re-compile and deploy the changes.
• Quarkus provides more than an application framework - It provides some necessities around docker and kubernetes. However, we will not be applying those until the next phase.
• To learn more about the differences between the different services, see https://rollbar.com/blog/quarkus-vs-spring-boot/#:~:text=Quarkus%20provides%20faster%20hot%20reloads,running%20in%20a%20remote%20environment.

File Structure

• We structured our files in accordance with our two classes because we divided our work load based on classes (groups vs. users) and not by routes, methods, and database commands.
• There is two primary sections to our file structure within src/main/java/datastore - group_api and user_api.
• Each section has its own database, entity, and route folders and files.

Our Paradigm

Our goal was to persistce user and group Java objects into user and group tables.