TerminusDB is an open source knowledge graph and document store. It is used to build versioned data products. It is a native revision control database that is architecturally similar to Git. It is listed on DB-Engines.
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Developer(s) | TerminusDB |
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Initial release | 2019 |
Stable release | 11.0.0
/ January 30, 2023[1] |
Repository | |
Written in | Rust, Prolog[2] |
Type | Graph database |
License | |
Website | terminusdb |
TerminusDB provides a document API for building via the JSON exchange format. It implements both GraphQL and a datalog variant called WOQL. TerminusCMS is a cloud self-serve content and data platform built on TerminusDB.
TerminusDB is available under the Apache 2.0 license. TerminusDB is implemented in Prolog and Rust.
History
editTerminusDB, previously known as DataChemist,[3][4] was founded in Dublin, Ireland. Starting in Trinity College Dublin,[5] the development team behind TerminusDB ran the Horizon 2020 project ALIGNED that worked from February 2015 to January 2018. An open-access e-book entitled Engineering Agile Big-Data Systems was published on completion of the ALIGNED project.[6]
Version 1.0 was released in October 2019.[7] TerminusDB was first released under the GPLv3 license with the client libraries released with the Apache 2 license. With v4.0, which was released in December 2020, TerminusDB switched to the Apache 2.0 license. The shift was discussed extensively.[8]
Release history
editVersion | Release date | Feature notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
1.0 | October 2019 |
|
[9] |
1.1 | January 2020 |
|
[10] |
2.0 | June 2020 |
|
[11] |
3.0 | September 2020 |
|
[13] |
4.0 | December 2020 |
|
|
4.1 | December 2020 |
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4.2 | February 2021 |
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[14] |
10.0 | September 2021 |
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[15] |
11.0 | January 2023 |
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[16] [17] |
11.0 | June 2023 |
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[18] |
Name
editTerminusDB is named after the Roman God of Boundaries, Terminus. It is also named after the home planet of the Foundation in the series of science-fiction novel by Issac Asimov.[19] TerminusDB uses a CowDuck mascot - the motif finds its origins in the examples used by core engineer Matthijs van Otterdijk when first demonstrating the append only immutable data store[20]
Software design
editTerminusDB is an in-memory graph database management system with a rich query language. The design of the underlying data structure, which is implemented in a Rust library, uses a succinct data structures and delta encoding approach drawing inspiration from software source control systems like Git.[21] This allows all of the Git semantics to be used in TerminusDB.
Data model
editTerminusDB is based on the RDF standard. This standard specifies finite labelled directed graphs which are parameterized in some universe of datatypes. The names for nodes and labels are drawn from a set of IRIs (Internationalized Resource Identifiers). TerminusDB uses the XSD datatypes as its universe of concrete values. For schema design, TerminusDB used the OWL language until version 10.0. Since version 10 it uses a JSON schema interface allowing users to build schemas using a simple JSON format. This provides a rich modelling language which enables constraints on the allowable shapes in the graph.
TerminusDB has a promise based client for the browser and node.js it is available through the npm registry, or can be directly included in web-sites.[22] It also has a Python client for the TerminusDB RESTful API and a python version of the web object query language, WOQLpy.[23]
Query language
editGraphQL is implemented to allow users to query TerminusDB projects in such a way that deep linking can be discovered.[24]
WOQL (web object query language) is a datalog-based query language. It allows TerminusDB to treat the database as a document store or a graph interchangeably, and provides query features to make relationship traversals easy. This gives a relatively straightforward human-readable format which can be easily stored in TerminusDB itself.
Example
editA simple query which creates a document in the database, along with labels and cardinality constraints.[25]
WOQL.doctype("BankAccount").label("Bank Account")
.property("owner","xsd:string")
.label("owner")
.cardinality(1)
.property("balance","xsd:nonNegativeInteger")
.label("owner")
.cardinality(1)
VectorLink
editTerminusDB published a sidecar vector database called VectorLink. It is a data tool to provide large language models with semantic context about data. Drawing on the features of TerminusDB, it provides versioned indexing of data and content..
References
edit- ^ "Releases · terminusdb/terminusdb". GitHub. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
- ^ "TerminusDB Repository". GitHub.
- ^ "DataChemist wants to make sense of big-picture intelligence in the data analytics 'arms race'". Fora.ie. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
- ^ "Innovadores | Cómo lograr la paz en el mundo con ayuda del big data". Innovadores (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-05-06.
- ^ "Show HN: TerminusDB – An open source in-memory graph database | Hacker News". news.ycombinator.com. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
- ^ Feeney, Kevin; Davies, Jim; Welch, James; Hellmann, Sebastian; Dirschl, Christian; Koller, Andreas; Francois, Pieter; Marciniak, Arkadiusz (2018-10-30). Engineering Agile Big-Data Systems. River Publishers. ISBN 978-87-7022-016-3.
- ^ Feeney, Luke (2019-10-07). "Today we release TerminusDB — the database for data people". Medium. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
- ^ "We Love GPLv3, but Are Switching License to Apache 2.0 | Hacker News". news.ycombinator.com. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "GitHub - terminusdb/terminusdb at v1.0.0". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
- ^ "GitHub - terminusdb/terminusdb at v1.0.0". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
- ^ "Release Notes for TerminusDB 2.0 to 10.0". github.com. 24 November 2022.
- ^ Feeney, Luke (31 August 2020). "TerminusDB: From 'Master' to Main | Graph Database Blog - News and Tutorials from TerminusDB". terminusdb.com/blog. Retrieved 2021-09-27.
- ^ terminusdb/terminusdb, TerminusDB, 2021-09-27, retrieved 2021-09-27
- ^ terminusdb/terminusdb, TerminusDB, 2021-09-27, retrieved 2021-09-27
- ^ "Release Notes for TerminusDB 10.0". github.com. 24 November 2022.
- ^ "Releases · terminusdb/terminusdb". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- ^ "Releases · terminusdb/terminusdb". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- ^ Oliver (2023-06-21). "Building a Vector Database to Make Use of Vector Embeddings". TerminusDB Community. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
- ^ Feeney, Luke (2019-10-01). "TerminusDB — what's in a name?". Medium. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
- ^ terminusdb/terminus-store, TerminusDB, 2020-05-06, retrieved 2020-05-06
- ^ "Succinct Data Structures and Delta Encoding for Modern Databases" (PDF). GitHub. 24 November 2022.
- ^ terminusdb/terminus-client, TerminusDB, 2020-04-29, retrieved 2020-05-06
- ^ terminusdb/terminus-client-python, TerminusDB, 2020-05-06, retrieved 2020-05-06
- ^ Gavin (2023-02-07). "Putting the Graph in GraphQL Query". TerminusDB. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- ^ "Taking TerminusDB to The Bank (Part I)". Graph Database Blog - News and Tutorials from TerminusDB. Retrieved 2020-12-09.