Getting started with DataStax Enterprise 6.0

Information about developing applications for DataStax Enterprise.

This topic provides basic information and a roadmap to documentation for developers new to DataStax Enterprise.

Which product?

DataStax Offerings provides basic information to help you choose which product best fits your requirements.

Learn

Before diving into queries and coding, it is important to learn the basics of DataStax Enterprise (DSE) first.

Querying data: Like any database, you need to be able to get information into and out of the database. The basic way of doing this is the Cassandra Query Language (CQL). The CQL data model is based on the queries you want to perform, unlike modeling entities and relationships used in relational databases.
Loading data: DataStax provides tools for getting data into and out of the database. Described below.
Architecture: DataStax highly recommends taking 7 minutes to read . This document provides basic information about key concepts and terminology for understanding the database.

Note: Save yourself some time and frustration by spending a few moments looking at DataStax Doc and Search tips. These short topics talk about navigation and bookmarking aids that will make your journey through the docs more efficient and productive.

Launch

Before starting development, you need to deploy a DataStax cluster. DataStax offers a variety of ways to set up a cluster. Select the method below that best suits your environment.

Cloud

On premises

Binary tarball
Packages for Yum- and Debian-based platforms.
Docker

Load

DataStax provides tools for getting data into and out of the database:

Query

Getting data into and out of the database.

CQL Guide

The CQL guide provides information for querying data, command syntax, inserting and updating data, using the Cassandra Query Language (CQL), plus using and customizing the cqlsh command line utility.

References for CQL, CQL shell (cqlsh), and a quick reference.
Data modeling and examples.
The best way to start learning CQL is to take the Data Modeling course on DataStax Academy.

Data model

A data model is a process that involves identifying the entities (items to be stored) and the relationships between entities. Data modeling in DataStax Enterprise uses a query-driven approach, in which specific queries are the key to organizing the data. In contrast, relational databases normalize data based on the tables and relationships design, and then writes the queries that will be made.

DataStax Studio: DataStax Studio is a visual interactive tool for creating and navigating database objects, creating complex queries, and tuning CQL queries.

Connect (drivers)

How to connect client applications to the database.

Important: As of January 2020, you can use the same DataStax driver for Apache Cassandra® (OSS) and DataStax Enterprise (DSE). DataStax unified the DSE and OSS drivers to avoid confusion and enhance the OSS drivers with some of the features in the DSE drivers. For more information, see the Better Drivers for Cassandra blog. DSE drivers are supported until January 1st, 2022. However, all new features and functionality will take place only in the unified DataStax drivers.

Developing applications with DataStax drivers: Developing applications with DataStax drivers contains information about best practices, connecting to DSE clusters, submitting queries with drivers, and handling client and server errors.
Driver Quickstarts: Simple CRUD application demos to quickly help you quickly get up and running with the DataStax drivers.

For details, see DataStax drivers.

APIs

In addition to driver APIs, DataStax provides the following:

DSE GraphFrames API: The DseGraphFrame framework allows you create applications that use the Spark API for analytics operations on DSE Graph.
DataStax Spark Cassandra Connector API: The DataStax Spark Cassandra Connector API lets you expose tables as Spark Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs), write Spark RDDs to tables, and execute arbitrary CQL queries in your Spark applications.
DSE OpsCenter API: The DSE OpsCenter API provides the ability to make RESTful requests for programmatically performs the same set of operations as the OpsCenter GUI.

Advanced Functionality

See Advanced functionality in DataStax Enterprise 6.0.