Chapter 1 Overview

This guide explains how to use the X DevAPI and provides examples of its functionality. The X DevAPI is implemented by MySQL Shell and MySQL Connectors that support X Protocol. For more background information and instructions on how to install and get started using X DevAPI, see Using MySQL as a Document Store. For quick-start tutorials introducing you to X DevAPI, see JavaScript Quick-Start Guide: MySQL Shell for Document Store and Python Quick-Start Guide: MySQL Shell for Document Store. In addition to this documentation, there is developer documentation for all X DevAPI methods in the API references, available from Connectors and APIs.

This section introduces the X DevAPI and provides an overview of the features available when using it to develop applications.

The X DevAPI wraps powerful concepts in a simple API.

• A new high-level session concept enables you to write code that can transparently scale from single MySQL Server to a multiple server environment. See Chapter 2, Connection and Session Concepts.

• Read operations are simple and easy to understand.

• Non-blocking, asynchronous calls follow common host language patterns.

The X DevAPI introduces a new, modern, and easy-to-learn way to work with your data.

• Documents are stored in Collections and have their dedicated CRUD operation set. See Chapter 4, Working with Collections and Chapter 5, Working with Documents.

• Work with your existing domain objects or generate code based on structure definitions for strictly typed languages. See Chapter 5, Working with Documents.

• Focus is put on working with data via CRUD operations. See Section 3.1, “CRUD Operations Overview”.

• Modern practices and syntax styles are used to get away from traditional SQL-String-Building. See Chapter 10, Building Expressions for details.