aerospike-boolean-example

This is an experiment on how changing dependency versions can break your codebase.

You can read the full article here - https://anikeshk.com/breaking-changes-breaking-projects

This experiment targets the aerospike Node.js module version 3.16.3, which introduced the boolean datatype for the Map datatype. Follow the instructions below to run this experiment yourself!

Pre-Requisites

1. Install Docker from here.

Instructions

1. Clone this repository and go to the folder.

git clone https://github.com/anikeshk/aerospike-boolean-example.git

2. Create a docker network to connect the Aerospike and the Node.js script.

docker network create nodejs-aero

3. Pull and start the Aerospike docker image.

docker pull aerospike:4.9.0.10
docker run --rm -tid --name aerospike --network nodejs-aero -p 3000:3000 -p 3001:3001 -p 3002:3002 aerospike:4.9.0.10

Note: We are using Aerospike server version 4.9.0.10 as this code was tested only with this server version.

4. Connect to aql using the docker exec command.

docker exec -it <container id> aql

Note: You can get the container id by using the docker ps command.

5. Switch to a new terminal. Go to the cloned repository. Build the image to use the aerospike@3.11.0 Node.js library.

cd aerospike-boolean-example
docker build -t aerospike-boolean-example:1.0 .

6. Run this image and check the results.

docker run --network nodejs-aero aerospike-boolean-example:1.0

The output should be something like this:

Connection to Aerospike cluster succeeded!
User data stored!
User data fetched! {"age":21,"gender":"male","food":{"pizza":0,"burger":1,"taco":1}}

7. Check aql for the same entry:

aql> select * from test.users where PK="tom"
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
| PK    | age | gender | food                                     |
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
| "tom" | 21  | "male" | MAP('{"pizza":0, "burger":1, "taco":1}') |
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.000 secs)

In both the output from the script and aql, you can see Aerospike has stored the boolean values as 1 or 0 in the Map, depending if the choice is true or false.

8. Delete the entry from the database.

aql> delete from test.users where PK="tom"
OK, 1 record affected.

9. Change the aerospike version in the package.json to 3.16.3 using any editor.

{
  ...
  "dependencies": {
    "aerospike": "3.16.3"
  }
}

10. Re-build the image using a different tag.

docker build -t aerospike-boolean-example:2.0 .

11. Run this image and check the results.

docker run --network nodejs-aero aerospike-boolean-example:2.0

The output should be something like this:

Connection to Aerospike cluster succeeded!
User data stored!
User data fetched! {"age":21,"gender":"male","food":{"pizza":false,"burger":true,"taco":true}}

12. Check aql for the same entry:

aql> select * from test.users where PK="tom"
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
| PK    | age | gender | food                                     |
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
| "tom" | 21  | "male" | MAP('{"pizza":0, "burger":1, "taco":1}') |
+-------+-----+--------+------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.000 secs)

This time in aql the values are stored as 1 or 0, but the script outputs true or false. The datatype of the output has changed!

13. Stop and remove the Aerospike docker image.

docker rm -f <container-id>

14. Delete the network created earlier.

docker network rm nodejs-aero