Dobby

Dobby is a map server modeled to a certain degree after the IF-Map server. Unlike the IF-Map server, Dobby is intended to be a more general purpose graph database that applications can then use for whatever purpose they require.

This repository, dobby_core_lib, is the implementation of Dobby which can be used as a dependency to build nodes containing a dobby server. https://github.com/ivanos/dobby_core_node.git runs Dobby as a standalone service.

This is an open source project sponsored by Infoblox.

Table of Contents

• Dobby
  • Requirements
  • Building
  • Running
  • Clients
  • Utility Functions
    • json import/export format
  • Origin of Name

Requirements

• Erlang R17+

Building

To build the application call: make.

Running

To run dobby as an Erlang node use dobby_allinone_node.

To run dobby straight away call make dev.

Clients

Use dobby_clib to send commands to the dobby server.

Utility Functions

• dby_bulk:export(Format, Filename): writes the graph database to the named file in the specified format. The only supported format is json.
• dby_bulk:import(Format, Filename): read the graph database from the named file in the specified format. The only supported format is json.

json import/export format

The json import/export file is a list of json objects. There are two type of objects: Identifiers and Links.

Identifiers:

{
    "identifier": Id,
    "metadata" : {
        "metakey": {
            "value": "metavalue",
            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
        }
    }
}

Links:

{
    "link": [Id, Id],
    "metadata" : {
        "metakey": {
            "value": "metavalue",
            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
        }
    }
}

Where an Id is a string, keys are strings, and metadata values are one of:

1. true
2. false
3. null
4. string
5. list
6. object (associative array)

Example:

[
    {
        "identifier": "A",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-A",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    },
    {
        "identifier": "B",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-B",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    },
    {
        "link": ["A", "B"],
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": {
                            "value": "metavalue-for-link",
                            "pubisher_id": "publisher",
                            "timestamp": "2015-03-04T00:45:54Z"
                        }
                    }
    }
]

Older style export file has this format:

[
    {
        "identifier": "A",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-A"
                    }
    },
    {
        "identifier": "B",
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-B"
                    }
    },
    {
        "link": ["A", "B"],
        "metadata": {
                        "metakey": "metavalue-for-link"
                    }
    }
]

The older style export files may be imported using:

dby_bulk:import(json0, Filename)

Origin of Name

The Infoblox OpenFlow controller projects follow a fabric theme. The overall project is called LOOM. Dobby fabric is a type of fabric. Coincidentally it is also the name of a character in the Harry Potter franchise.