Announcing Linq2Couchbase 1.4

I am pleased to announce the release of Linq2Couchbase 1.4. This version includes many new features and improvements.

ANSI Joins with Couchbase Server 5.5

Couchbase Server 5.5 adds support for full ANSI join between documents. Previously, it was only possible to join when at least one side used a document key. With ANSI joins, it’s possible to join using any indexed attribute.

Linq2Couchbase 1.4 adds ANSI joins to LINQ queries, so long as you’re connected to a Couchbase 5.5 server. Just use standard LINQ syntax and the magic happens!

var context = new BucketContext(bucket);

var query = from route in context.Query<Route>()
            join airport in context.Query<Airport>()
            on route.DestinationAirport equals airport.Faa
            select new {airport.AirportName, route.Airline};

foreach (var doc in query)
{
    // do work
}

ANSI nest operations and hash join hints are also supported!

Unix Milliseconds Date/Time Attributes

Some developers prefer to store their date/time values as Unix milliseconds (milliseconds since the start of the Unix epoch), rather than storing ISO8601 strings. They result in smaller documents, and may offer a slight boost in deserialization performance.

In the past, Linq2Couchbase didn’t handle these fields well. It was possible to apply a custom serializer to the property, and this would support reads and writes, but comparisons or date operations were unsupported. Now, applying [JsonConverter(typeof(UnixMillisecondsConverter))] to a property will also allow comparisons. See the documentation for more information on date/time handling.

[DocumentTypeFilter("my-document-type")]
public class MyDocument
{
    public long Id { get; set; }

    [JsonConverter(typeof(UnixMillisecondsConverter))]
    public DateTime Created { get; set; }
}

var query = from p in context.Query<MyDocument>()
    where p.Created < DateTime.Now
    select p;

Enumerations Serialized as Strings

In the past, using [JsonConverter(typeof(StringEnumConverter))] would work for comparison operations (>, <, ==, !=, etc), but only if applied the enumeration definition itself. Now, the attribute may be applied to properties on the POCO.

[DocumentTypeFilter("my-document-type")]
public class MyDocument
{
    public long Id { get; set; }

    [JsonConverter(typeof(StringEnumConverter))]
    public ActionType ActionType { get; set; }
}

var query = from p in context.Query<MyDocument>()
    where p.ActionType == ActionType.Start
    select p;

Other Custom Serializers

The new features around date/times and enumerations have been implemented using an extensible framework. It is also possible to add support for other custom serializers using serialization converters. This is also the approach for supporting the features above if you are not using Newtonsoft.Json and have some other method of applying custom serialization.

Dictionary Operations

This improvement was actually included in 1.3.4, but was unannounced so I include it here. Dictionary operations can now be used within LINQ queries, which now recognize how the dictionary is serialized as a JSON object map. Supported operations include:

• Index accessor: dictionary["key"]
• Checking for key presense: dictionary.ContainsKey("key")
• Enumerating keys: dictionary.Keys
• Enumerating values: dictionary.Values

Other Improvements

• Upgrade to Couchbase SDK 2.6.0
• Improvements to query generation performance #241