Practical Redis

Head over to Leanpub to grab a PDF version of this book

Redis

Redis is an open source in-memory data structure server a.k.a a NoSQL key-value database

• Data Structure Server - simply put, Redis is a database but differs from traditional ones since it directly exposes core data structures - strings, lists, sets, hashes, sorted sets, geospatial indexes, hyperloglogs, bitmaps etc.
  • It is possible to add new data structures and capabilities using Redis Modules
• Other key features - Transactions, Pub Sub messaging, Queuing, Lua scripting, ability to process infinite Streams of data
• Redis also offers - Tunable persistence mechanisms, Sentinel for High Availability and Redis Cluster for data sharding/partitioning
• Usage patterns include (but are not limited to) key-value database, a cache server, message broker, session store, analytics engine etc.

About Practical Redis

As the name suggests, Practical Redis is a hands-on, code-driven guide to Redis. Each chapter is based on an application (simple to medium complexity) which demonstrates the usage of Redis and its capabilities (data structures, commands etc.). It is versatile in the sense that it does not focus on a single combination of library and language for the applications. Hopefully, it helps broaden your horizon as it did for me while I was developing the applications for this book

The applications in the book are based on Java and Golang. The Java based Redis client libraries which have been used in this book include Jedis, Redisson and Lettuce while go-redis is used as the client library for Golang. Docker and Docker Compose are used to deploy the applications (along with Redis) since the goal is to allow you to run/test the applications quickly (single command) and see things in action rather than spending time setting things up

Summary of chapters

please note that the book is still in beta phase

Here is a quick outline of the book contents

• Hello Redis - quick tour of Redis capabilities including its versatile data structures
• Redis: the basic data structures - intro to core Redis data structures with a Java based news sharing app using the Jedis client
• Extending Redis with Redis Modules - learn about the basics of Redis Modules and make use of ReBloom in a Go based recommendation service
• Tweet analysis service - keep track of relevant tweets using a Java and Go based application which ingests tweets, consumes/processes them and produces queryable info in real time using reliable queues (Redis LISTs), SETs and HASHes

Coming soon ...

The below chapters are work in progress on and will be made available in subsequent releases of this book

• Pipelines and Transactions in Redis
• Scalable chat application - Use Redis PubSub and Websocket to create a chat service
• Stream processing with Redis - watch Redis Streams in action (new data structure in Redis 5.0)
• Redis based Tracking service - thanks to combination of the Geo data type and Lua scripting capability in Redis
• Redis for distributed computing - explore interesting use cases made possible by Redisson
• Data partitioning in Redis - practical examples highlighting data sharding strategies in Redis
• Redis high availability

Who is this book suitable for ?

Although I would love for this book to be used by everyone, but, it is most suitable developers who are looking to learn Redis in hands-on style

• Beginners will get a good idea of the breadth of Redis capabilities and pick up Redis faster by seeing it in action and getting their hands dirty with actual application code
• Someone who knows Redis but has not had enough hands-on experience (maybe you have been called upon to use it in a project at work ?)
• Last but not the least, Redis ninjas might use this book as a 'refresher' if need be (although there are tons of other resources including the excellent Redis commands documentation)

What it is not supposed to do ?

• A theoretical discourse about the nuts and bolts of Redis e.g. it's protocol etc.
• Deep dive into administrative features of Redis
• Explore details of various frameworks, client libraries (e.g. Jedis, go-redis etc.) used for building the applications
• Cover extensive Docker related topics