Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[user 01 <us...@gmail.com>]

Currently I am using Hector which is no longer maintained by its
developers. So, for the past few days I have been looking at Astyanax & to
be fair, I think I'm just loving its API.

For sometime now I also had a look at CQL Java driver maintained by
Datastax but right now, I don't very much love/understand the CQL ways of
dealing with things like wide dynamic rows, etc, may be because of the past
few years of working with thrift based Hector API. Also I think it's not a
really simple transition to move from thrift to CQL.

So I am using Cassandra 2.0.7 & I wanted to know:

1. Does Astyanax(thrift based) supports Cassandra 2.0. ?
2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax) ?
3. where do I get support for Astyanax ?
4. Is it recommended to delay my plans to migrate from thrift to CQL & just
use thrift based API for now?

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[Peter Lin <wo...@gmail.com>]

I contribute to Hector. It is still being maintained.

I still benefits of using thrift over CQL.


On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 10:19 AM, user 01 <us...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Currently I am using Hector which is no longer maintained by its
> developers. So, for the past few days I have been looking at Astyanax & to
> be fair, I think I'm just loving its API.
>
> For sometime now I also had a look at CQL Java driver maintained by
> Datastax but right now, I don't very much love/understand the CQL ways of
> dealing with things like wide dynamic rows, etc, may be because of the past
> few years of working with thrift based Hector API. Also I think it's not a
> really simple transition to move from thrift to CQL.
>
> So I am using Cassandra 2.0.7 & I wanted to know:
>
> 1. Does Astyanax(thrift based) supports Cassandra 2.0. ?
> 2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax) ?
> 3. where do I get support for Astyanax ?
> 4. Is it recommended to delay my plans to migrate from thrift to CQL &
> just use thrift based API for now?
>
>
>

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[user 01 <us...@gmail.com>]

Personally I like thrift based APIs more than the CQL based ones, as it is
more intuitive & easy to understand relating it to cassandra's internal
storage design. CQL to deal with dynamic columns/wide rows is really not
intuitive or easily graspable as of now.


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:32 AM, Peter Lin <wo...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I don't think anyone can predict the future.
>
> CQL is nice, but there's still lots of room for improvement. There's a
> reason why projects like spark, shark, impala and presto exist. I would
> expect something to replace CQL in the future as things evolve. Plus, the
> type safety that thrift clients shouldn't be over looked. I love SQL and
> the power it gives developers, but type safety isn't one of the strengths.
> That's just the nature of SQL and "sql inspired" languages.
>
> for me, Cassandra's ability to straddle strong schema like RDB and no
> schema like document databases is what sets it apart. I love that it covers
> static schema, dynamic schema and no schema better than using three
> different databases( RDB + object DB + document DB). plus, I like being to
> control exactly how I store data with Hector and thrift. I also like
> writing tools that take advantage of generics and strong typing.
>
> as much as some people hate thrift, it has benefits. It would be a shame
> to ignore the lessons history teaches us. There's a reason why things like
> LINQ came into existence.
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Robert Coli <rc...@eventbrite.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:19 AM, user 01 <us...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax)
>>> ?
>>>
>>
>> Logic suggests that the thrift based API will ultimately be removed, at
>> the time in the future when the cost of working around its moribund area of
>> the code exceeds the controversy involved in deprecating it.
>>
>> This will probably not happen for quite some time, but my view is that it
>> must happen eventually. If it *doesn't* eventually happen, my view is that
>> the project will have made a serious error in creating a database with two
>> different, non-pluggable APIs.
>>
>> =Rob
>>
>>
>

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[Peter Lin <wo...@gmail.com>]

I don't think anyone can predict the future.

CQL is nice, but there's still lots of room for improvement. There's a
reason why projects like spark, shark, impala and presto exist. I would
expect something to replace CQL in the future as things evolve. Plus, the
type safety that thrift clients shouldn't be over looked. I love SQL and
the power it gives developers, but type safety isn't one of the strengths.
That's just the nature of SQL and "sql inspired" languages.

for me, Cassandra's ability to straddle strong schema like RDB and no
schema like document databases is what sets it apart. I love that it covers
static schema, dynamic schema and no schema better than using three
different databases( RDB + object DB + document DB). plus, I like being to
control exactly how I store data with Hector and thrift. I also like
writing tools that take advantage of generics and strong typing.

as much as some people hate thrift, it has benefits. It would be a shame to
ignore the lessons history teaches us. There's a reason why things like
LINQ came into existence.



On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Robert Coli <rc...@eventbrite.com> wrote:

> On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:19 AM, user 01 <us...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax) ?
>>
>
> Logic suggests that the thrift based API will ultimately be removed, at
> the time in the future when the cost of working around its moribund area of
> the code exceeds the controversy involved in deprecating it.
>
> This will probably not happen for quite some time, but my view is that it
> must happen eventually. If it *doesn't* eventually happen, my view is that
> the project will have made a serious error in creating a database with two
> different, non-pluggable APIs.
>
> =Rob
>
>

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[Robert Coli <rc...@eventbrite.com>]

On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 7:19 AM, user 01 <us...@gmail.com> wrote:

> 2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax) ?
>

Logic suggests that the thrift based API will ultimately be removed, at the
time in the future when the cost of working around its moribund area of the
code exceeds the controversy involved in deprecating it.

This will probably not happen for quite some time, but my view is that it
must happen eventually. If it *doesn't* eventually happen, my view is that
the project will have made a serious error in creating a database with two
different, non-pluggable APIs.

=Rob

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[Peter Reilly <pe...@gmail.com>]

According to the astynax blog the project will support the java-driver -
https://github.com/Netflix/astyanax/wiki/Astyanax-over-Java-Driver


On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 8:36 AM, Andrew <re...@gmail.com> wrote:

> 1. Astyanax does not *officially* support 2.0, and I’m not sure what the
> future plans are for them.
> 2. Thrift is deprecated but not removed.  However,
> 3. It’s an open-source project based on Netflix’ internal usage of it
> (they wrote Astyanax).  There is a mailing list available for questions (
> https://groups.google.com/group/astyanax-cassandra-client) but YMMV.
> 4. I understand your hesitation, but the functions you are mentioning are
> offered by Cassandra—not the driver.  You are also not *required* to use
> new features… they are just available to you now.  Depending on how you’ve
> set your DAOs up (you are using DAOs or similar, right?), it should be
> fairly simple to migrate—certainly not harder than changing client
> libraries in general.
>
> Personally, I was using Astyanax for a while before I wanted to update
> Cassandra to 2.x—there’s not a huge difference between it and the Datastax
> Cassandra driver.  I’m not sure what the perceived benefits of Thrift over
> the binary interface are, other than people being familiar with one over
> another.
>
> Andrew
>
> On May 28, 2014 at 7:19:52 AM, user 01 (userw93@gmail.com) wrote:
>
> Currently I am using Hector which is no longer maintained by its
> developers. So, for the past few days I have been looking at Astyanax & to
> be fair, I think I'm just loving its API.
>
> For sometime now I also had a look at CQL Java driver maintained by
> Datastax but right now, I don't very much love/understand the CQL ways of
> dealing with things like wide dynamic rows, etc, may be because of the past
> few years of working with thrift based Hector API. Also I think it's not a
> really simple transition to move from thrift to CQL.
>
> So I am using Cassandra 2.0.7 & I wanted to know:
>
> 1. Does Astyanax(thrift based) supports Cassandra 2.0. ?
> 2. *What is the future of thrift based APIs  *(& specifically Astyanax) ?
> 3. where do I get support for Astyanax ?
> 4. Is it recommended to delay my plans to migrate from thrift to CQL &
> just use thrift based API for now?
>
>
>

Re: Migrate from Hector(unmaintained) to Astyanax for Cassandra 2.0.7, (delaying thrift to CQL migration plan) ?

[Andrew <re...@gmail.com>]

1. Astyanax does not *officially* support 2.0, and I’m not sure what the future plans are for them.
2. Thrift is deprecated but not removed.  However, 
3. It’s an open-source project based on Netflix’ internal usage of it (they wrote Astyanax).  There is a mailing list available for questions (https://groups.google.com/group/astyanax-cassandra-client) but YMMV.
4. I understand your hesitation, but the functions you are mentioning are offered by Cassandra—not the driver.  You are also not *required* to use new features… they are just available to you now.  Depending on how you’ve set your DAOs up (you are using DAOs or similar, right?), it should be fairly simple to migrate—certainly not harder than changing client libraries in general.

Personally, I was using Astyanax for a while before I wanted to update Cassandra to 2.x—there’s not a huge difference between it and the Datastax Cassandra driver.  I’m not sure what the perceived benefits of Thrift over the binary interface are, other than people being familiar with one over another.

Andrew

On May 28, 2014 at 7:19:52 AM, user 01 (userw93@gmail.com) wrote:

Currently I am using Hector which is no longer maintained by its developers. So, for the past few days I have been looking at Astyanax & to be fair, I think I'm just loving its API. 

For sometime now I also had a look at CQL Java driver maintained by Datastax but right now, I don't very much love/understand the CQL ways of dealing with things like wide dynamic rows, etc, may be because of the past few years of working with thrift based Hector API. Also I think it's not a really simple transition to move from thrift to CQL. 

So I am using Cassandra 2.0.7 & I wanted to know:

1. Does Astyanax(thrift based) supports Cassandra 2.0. ? 
2. What is the future of thrift based APIs  (& specifically Astyanax) ?
3. where do I get support for Astyanax ?
4. Is it recommended to delay my plans to migrate from thrift to CQL & just use thrift based API for now?