You will require MongoDB version 4+, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark and Apache Hadoop installed to smoothly sail through the chapter. The codes that have been used for all the chapters can be found at: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-MongoDB-4.x-Second-Edition.

Structured Query Language (SQL) existed even before the WWW. Dr. E. F. Codd originally published the paper, A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks, in June, 1970, in the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM) journal, Communications of the ACM. SQL was initially developed at IBM by Chamberlin and Boyce, in 1974. Relational Software (now Oracle Corporation) was the first to develop a commercially available implementation of SQL, targeted at United States governmental agencies.

The first American National Standards Institute (ANSI) SQL standard came out in 1986. Since then, there have been eight revisions, with the most recent being published in 2016 (SQL:2016).

SQL was not particularly popular at the start of the WWW. Static content could just be hardcoded into the HTML page without much fuss. However, as the functionality of websites...

In this section, we will analyze MongoDB's characteristics as a database. Understanding the features that MongoDB provides can help developers and architects to evaluate the requirements at hand and how MongoDB can help to fulfill them. Also, we will go over some common use cases from the experience of MongoDB, Inc. that have delivered the best results for its users.

MongoDB has grown to become a general purpose NoSQL database, offering the best of both the RDBMS and NoSQL worlds. Some of the key characteristics are as follows:

• It is a general purpose database: In contrast to other NoSQL databases that are built for specific purposes (for example,...

In this section, we will present some of the best practice around operations, schema design, durability, replication, sharding, and security. Further information on when to implement these best practices will be presented in later chapters.

As a database, MongoDB is built with developers in mind, and it was developed during the web era, so it does not require as much operational overhead as traditional RDBMS. That being said, there are some best practices that need to be followed to be proactive and achieve high availability goals.

In order of importance, the best practices are as follows:

• Turn journaling on by default: Journaling uses a write-ahead log to...

Reading a book is great (and reading this book is even greater), but continuous learning is the only way to keep up to date with MongoDB. In the following sections, we will highlight the places that you should go for updates and development/operational references.

The online documentation available at https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/ is the starting point for every developer, new or seasoned.

The JIRA tracker is a great place to take a look at fixed bugs and the features that are coming up next: https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER/.

The MongoDB user group (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mongodb-user) has a great archive of user questions about features and long-standing bugs. It is a place to go when something doesn't work as expected.

Online forums (Stack Overflow and Reddit, among others) are always a source of knowledge, with the caveat that something may have been posted a few years ago and may not apply anymore. Always check before trying.

Finally, MongoDB University is a great place to keep your skills up to date and to learn about the latest features and additions: https://university.mongodb.com/.

In this chapter, we started our journey through web, SQL, and NoSQL technologies, from their inception to their current states. We identified how MongoDB has been shaping the world of NoSQL databases over the years, and how it is positioned against other SQL and NoSQL solutions.

We explored MongoDB's key characteristics and how MongoDB has been used in production deployments. We identified the best practices for designing, deploying, and operating MongoDB.

Initially, we identified how to learn by going through documentation and online resources that can be used to stay up-to-date with the latest features and developments.

In the next chapter, we will go deeper into schema design and data modeling, looking at how to connect to MongoDB by using both the official drivers and an Object Document Mapper (ODM), a variation of object-relational mappers for NoSQL databases...