Basic Tutorial for CouchDB 2023

1. Install CouchDB
2. Start the CouchDB
3. Create a database
4. Add documents to the database
5. Query the database

CouchDB is a popular open-source database management system (DBMS) that is known for its simplicity and ease of use. It is a document-oriented database, which means that it stores data in the form of documents instead of tables and rows. CouchDB is designed to be scalable and able to handle a large number of concurrent connections, making it well-suited for use in distributed systems and microservices architectures. In this tutorial, we will cover the basic steps for getting started with CouchDB.

Install CouchDB

Install CouchDB on your computer. CouchDB is available for a variety of operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Follow the instructions for your specific operating system to install CouchDB.

Start the CouchDB

Start the CouchDB server. Once CouchDB is installed, you can start the server by running the couchdb command in a terminal or command prompt. This will start the CouchDB server and make it available for you to use.

Create a database

Create a database. In CouchDB, databases are used to store your data. To create a database, use a tool like cURL or Postman to send a PUT request to the http://localhost:5984/<database_name> endpoint, where <database_name> is the name of the database you want to create. For example, to create a database named my_database, you would send a PUT request to http://localhost:5984/my_database.

Add documents to the database

Add documents to the database. In CouchDB, data is stored in the form of documents. To add a document to a database, use a tool like cURL or Postman to send a POST request to the http://localhost:5984/<database_name> endpoint, where <database_name> is the name of the database you want to add the document to. The request body should contain the document data in JSON format. For example, to add a document containing a user's name and email address to the my_database database, you might send a request like this:

POST http://localhost:5984/my_database
{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "email": "[email protected]"
}

Query the database

Query the database. Once you have added some documents to a database, you can query the database to retrieve the data. In CouchDB, you can use the GET method to retrieve all documents in a database, or you can use the _find endpoint to query the database using a query object. For example, to retrieve all documents in the my_database database, you might send a request like this:

GET http://localhost:5984/my_database/_all_docs

To query the database using a query object, you would send a POST request to the http://localhost:5984/<database_name>/_find endpoint, where <database_name> is the name of the database you want to query. The request body should contain the query object in JSON format. For example, to find all documents in the my_database database where the name field is "John Doe", you might send a request like this:

POST http://localhost:5984/my_database/_find
{
  "selector": {
    "name": "John Doe"
  }
}

This is just a basic overview of how to get started with CouchDB. There are many more features and capabilities of CouchDB that you can explore, such as replication, indexing, and data security. You can learn more about these features in the CouchDB documentation and through tutorials and examples available online.

Stop the CouchDB server. When you are finished working with CouchDB, you can stop the server by running the couchdb stop command in a terminal or command prompt. This will shut down the CouchDB server and make it unavailable for use.

That's it! You now know the basic steps for getting started with CouchDB. Remember to explore the documentation and online resources to learn more about the features and capabilities of CouchDB, and to try out different examples and tutorials to gain more experience with the database. Good luck!