+1 Sounds very interesting. I'd be happy to help out as a mentor. Cheers, Tom
On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 6:10 AM, Enis Soztutar <enis.soz.nu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > We would like to announce the Proposal for Gora, an ORM for Colum Stores, > for the Apache Incubation. We believe that Gora can find a nice home at > Apache. > > Wiki of the proposal can be found at > http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/GoraProposal > > The proposal is as below. > > > = Gora Proposal for Apache Incubation = > > == Abstract == > Gora is an ORM framework for column stores such as Apache HBase and Apache > Cassandra with a specific focus on Hadoop. > > == Proposal == > Although there are various excellent ORM frameworks for relational > databases, data modeling in NoSQL data stores differ profoundly from their > relational cousins. Moreover, data-model agnostic frameworks such as JDO are > not sufficient for use cases, where one needs to use the full power of the > data models in column stores. Gora fills this gap by giving the user an > easy-to-use ORM framework with data store specific mappings and built in > Apache Hadoop support. > > The overall goal for Gora is to become the standard data representation and > persistence framework for big data. The roadmap of Gora can be grouped as > follows. > > * Data Persistence : Persisting objects to Column stores such as HBase, > Cassandra, Hypertable; key-value stores such as Voldermort, Redis, etc; SQL > databases, such as MySQL, HSQLDB, flat files in local file system of Hadoop > HDFS. > * Data Access : An easy to use Java-friendly common API for accessing the > data regardless of its location. > * Indexing : Persisting objects to Lucene and Solr indexes, > accessing/querying the data with Gora API. > * Analysis : Accesing the data and making analysis through adapters for > Apache Pig, Apache Hive and Cascading > * MapReduce support : Out-of-the-box and extensive MapReduce (Apache > Hadoop) support for data in the data store. > > == Background == > ORM stands for Object Relation Mapping. It is a technology which abstacts > the persistency layer > (mostly Relational Databases) so that plain domain level objects can be > used, without the cumbersome effort to save/load the data to and from the > database. Gora differs from current solutions in that: > * Gora is specially focussed at NoSQL data stores, but also has limited > support for SQL databases > * The main use case for Gora is to access/analyze big data using Hadoop. > * Gora uses Avro for bean definition, not byte code enhancement or > annotations > * Object-to-data store mappings are backend specific, so that full data > model can be utilized. > * Gora is simple since it ignores complex SQL mappings > * Gora will support persistence, indexing and anaysis of data, using Pig, > Lucene, Hive, etc > > == Rationale == > ORM frameworks are nothing new. But with the explosion of data generated in > Terabytes and even Petabytes, NoSQL data stores are gaining ever-increasing > popularity. Coupled with limited support to already-proven Apache Hadoop > support in current ORM frameworks, there was a need for a new project. > > Gora is currently hosted at Github. However, Gora has ties to ASF in many > ways. As detailed in the proposal section, Gora will be a high level client > for many Apache projects and subprojects including Hadoop(common, hdfs, and > mapreduce), HBase, Cassandra, Avro, Lucene, Solr, Pig, and Hive. Gora > already uses Hadoop, HBase, Cassandra and Avro. Moreover, Gora started its > life inside Apache Nutch project, and now Nutch trunk uses Gora as a > library. Even more, the initial set of committers are all ASF members. > Therefore, we think that Apache will be an excellent home for Gora. > > == Initial Goals == > Initial goals for Gora can be summarized as: > * Iron out the remaining issues with HBase, Cassandra and SQL support. > * Make the first release before the end of the year. > * Improve documentation > * Support for Cascading > > == Current Status == > === Meritocracy === > Current commit rights belong to the initial list of committers four of who > are also ASF members. All the developers have extensive experience with > Apache projects. We honor the meritocracy policy of ASF foundation. > > === Community === > Gora’s community mostly overlap with that of Nutch, Hadoop, HBase, Avro and > Cassandra. We > have a small community for now (5 initial committers, 18 people tracking the > project at Github), but have been piggybacking the Nutch community for a > while. If Gora is accepted to Apache Incubator, we expect more traction. > Moreover, with the increasing popularity of NoSQL databases, we expect more > users. > > === Core Developers === > Gora was started by the initial code base inside Apache Nutch by Doğacan > Güney. Then Enis Söztutar has refactored and re-architected the project out > of Nutch. Later Julien Nioche, Andrzej Bialecki and Doğacan has ported Nutch > to use the newly formed project. Later, Sertan Alkan has joined. Doğacan and > Julien are Nutch PMC members, Andrzej is the Nutch PMC chair. Enis is an > Apache Hadoop PMC member. > > === Alignment === > As discusssed in the second paragraph of Rationale Section, all of the > current developers are Apache people, and four of them are PMC members, > which shows that we have some experience with the Apache way. Moreover, Gora > is tightly related with lots of Apache projects, Nutch, Hadoop, HBase, > Cassandra, Avro, Pig, Hive, Lucene to name a few. Gora has started its life > inside Nutch, and now nutch trunk uses Gora to persist web crawl data to > HBase, Cassandra and MySQL, which means that Gora is a very critical > component in Nutch. > > == Known Risks == > === Orphaned Products === > Most of the development depends on Enis and Doğacan for now. Both of them > intent to continue Gora development. However, we also acknowledge that more > core developers are needed for the project to be truly successful. The > general strategy to acquire more developers will be to acquire more users, > and encourage users to be active in the community and develop patches. > Moreover, the next release of Nutch planned before the end of 2010 has > extensive Gora support. We expect more interest from Nutch community, and we > will continue to announce Gora notifications at Hadoop,HBase and Cassandra > mailing lists. > > === Inexperience with Open Source === > We believe that all of the developers have extensive open source experience. > Four of the initial committers are apache members. The codebase is also open > source since April 2010. We also have some documentation, wiki pages, issue > tracker and dev mailing list. > > === Homogeneous Developers === > We have a semi-distributed development environment where Doğacan, Enis and > Sertan share the same office, but Andrzej and Julien are independent. With > the aim of acquiring more developers, we expect more heterogeneous > development. > > === Reliance on Salaried Developers === > Gora development have been supported by [[ant.com]] search engine as > contract work. It is expected that this contract will continue in the > future. However, even without sponsors, we are commited to continue on Gora > development, since we believe in the technology it brings and it’s vital > role in Nutch, and our other closed sourced projects. > > === Relationships with Other Apache Products === > Gora will be tightly related to lots of Apache projects: > > * Nutch : Apache nutch was to home to Gora’s initial code base. Now, Nutch > trunk uses Gora as a library. The next relase of Nutch, planned before the > end of 2010 will be using Gora’s first release. > * Hadoop : Gora has extensive support for Hadoop MapReduce Gora defines all > the necessary data structures for working with Hadoop .Data stored in column > oriented data stores can be analyzed with Gora using Hadoop. > * Avro : Gora uses and extends Avro. Data beans in Gora are defined using > Avro schemas ,and compiled into Java code with the extended version of the > Avro compiler. Avro is also used in data serialization. > * HBase : Gora supports HBase as a persistency backend. > * Cassandra : Gora support Cassandra as a persistency backend. > * Lucene/Solr : Gora intends to support Lucene/Solr as a persistency and > indexing backend. > * Pig : Gora intends to support Pig for data anaysis > * Hive : Gora intends to support Hive for data analysis > > === An Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand === > Gora is a natural fit for Apache due to it's current commiters and depending > projects. > > == Documentation == > * The project is currently hosted at http://github.com/enis/gora/. > * Wiki pages can be found at http://wiki.github.com/enis/gora/. > * List of issues can be found at http://github.com/enis/gora/issues/. > * Current web address: http://groups.google.com/group/gora-dev. > * Current email address: gora-...@googlegroups.com. > > == Initial Source == > The initial source was developed as a patch to the Apache Nutch project. But > the storage abstraction layer was orthogonal to the web crawler, and we > decided to extract it to a separate project with much wider goals. Thus > Gora, as a project, was born. The initial code is developed by Enis and > Dogacan with ant.com’s sponsorship. > > The code can be found at http://github.com/enis/gora/. > > == External Dependencies == > External dependencies excluding Apache projects are as follows > * JDOM - http://jdom.org/ - Apache-style license > * SQL Builder - http://openhms.sourceforge.net/sqlbuilder/ - Artistic > License, LGPL. SQL Builder is intended to be removed from the source due to > technical reasons anyway. > * HSQLDB - http://hsqldb.org/ - BSD-style license > * JUnit - http://junit.org - Common Public License 1.0 > * SLF4J - http://www.slf4j.org/ - MIT License > * Google Guava Libraries - http://code.google.com/p/guava-libraries/ - > Apache License 2.0 > > > == Required Resources == > > === Mailing Lists === > > * gora-private (with moderated subscriptions) > * gora-dev > * gora-commits > > === Subversion Directory === > > * [[http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/gora]] > > === Issue Tracking === > * JIRA (GORA) > > === Other Resources === > We need a wiki at http://wiki.apache.org. Currently, we have a wiki at > Github, Since there is not a lot of pages there, we can manually move the > pages to the wiki at wiki.apache.org. > > == Initial Committers == > > Name email > Affiliation Timezone > Enis Söztutar enis [at] apache.org Konneka +3 > Doğacan Güney dogacan [at] apache.org Konneka +3 > Sertan Alkan sertanalkan [at] gmail.com Konneka +3 > Julien Nioche jnioche [at] apache.org DigitalPebble +1 > Andrzej Bialecki ab [at] apache.org Sigram > > > === Affiliations === > All of the parties are affiliated with open source consulting shops. Most of > the development was sponsored by ant.com, however we expect that the amount > of volunteer work will increase, and more developers will come on board. > > == Sponsors == > > === Champion === > * Chris Mattmann (mattmann AT apache DOT org) > > === Nominated Mentors === > * Chris Mattmann (mattmann AT apache DOT org) > * Andrzej Bialecki (ab AT apache DOT org ) > > === Sponsoring Entity === > Apache Incubator. Successful graduation can result in either being a TLP, or > a subproject of > Hadoop, since most of the community is projected to overlap. > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscr...@incubator.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: general-h...@incubator.apache.org
