Today, we are excited to announce Couchbase Server 4.1 Developer Preview (DP). You can find the new release on our download page.
This release is an early developer milestone update in the Couchbase 4.x series, and builds on top of Couchbase Server 4.0 by adding on some exciting new enhancements. With early developer previews such as this one, you get an opportunity to impact our product before release, try out the new enhancements that are still under active development and give us feedback.
What’s new in 4.1 Developer Preview ?
Let’s take a look at brief overview of what’s new in these freshly released bits.
Optimized Query Execution with Prepared Statements:
Prepared execution eliminate the need to parse and optimize frequently executed queries. Many applications execute pre-defined queries with different parameters repeatedly. With prepared execution, applications can shave off the time it takes to parse and compile an execution plan for these queries. Prepared executions deliver great savings in both query latency and CPU cycles required to execute the same query. See the following section for further details on prepared execution of N1QL queries.
Improved Latencies with Covering Indexes:
If you like going faster, covering Indexes improve query latency. In cases where the index alone can answer the query, the new covering index optimization eliminate the need to data an additional data fetch. Covering indexes deliver great savings on latency and eliminate the work the data service nodes have to do to execute your query. The improvement in latency is completely transparent to existing applications and does not require you to change your application or your queries if you have the right indexes for covering the query! You can find more information about covering indexes and see samples here.
Full SQL Syntax for Data Manipulation with N1QL
Standard SQL syntax delivers a fully programmable surface with no only read only queries but also with data manipulation statements like INSERT, UPDATE, MERGE and DELETE. The new statements deliver the ability to easily bulk update documents through N1QL.The following statement discounts all the pricing for products in the category of “juices”.
UPDATE product SET price = price*0.9 WHERE type = “product-juice”;
Product documents can be complex and large. N1QL data manipulation statements provide a huge savings in network communication here by sending partial attribute updates. The sample statement above also shows how to only send an update to price without retrieving the entire product document from the server. You can find more about DML statements like INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE here in the N1QL reference guide.
Additional supported platforms and bug fixes with Couchbase Server
Plus, Couchbase Server 4.1 DP is also certified to run on Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan platforms. 4.1 DP also addresses several important bugs that further fortify the 4.0 release. Full release notes can be found here.
How do I get my hands on 4.1 Developer Preview ?
Remember this before you take the plunge: Couchbase Server 4.1 is still under active development and is not intended for production deployments. Even though we have fixed quite a few bugs in this release, there are still a few things that need to be ironed out.
Here’s how you can get started with Couchbase Server 4.1 DP –
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For step by step guidance, check out our getting started guide
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If you want to jump right in, you can download the developer preview from our downloads page here
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If you are looking to develop in Java, .NET or other languages with native SDKs, download the latest SDKs available at “client libraries” section of the download page.
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Learn more about covering indexes in N1QL by reading our blog, and documentation.
Finally, remember that providing feedback is simple! Visit our forums for help with issues that you may be having, answers to questions that others have asked, and to engage in discussions with your developer peers and Couchbase experts about the developer preview release.
