JAVA-1964: Complete remaining "Coming Soon" sections in docs

changelog/README.md

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 - [improvement] JAVA-2002: Reimplement TypeCodec.accepts to improve performance.
 - [documentation] JAVA-2041: Deprecate cross-DC failover in DCAwareRoundRobinPolicy.
 - [documentation] JAVA-1159: Document workaround for using tuple with udt field in Mapper.
+- [documentation] JAVA-1964: Complete remaining "Coming Soon" sections in docs.
 
 
 ### 3.6.0

manual/auth/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,34 @@
 ## Authentication
 
-*Coming soon... In the meantime, see the javadoc for [AuthProvider].*
+Cassandra’s binary protocol supports [SASL]-based authentication.  To enable it, use
+[Cluster.Builder.withCredentials] when building your `Cluster` instance to provide the credentials
+you wish to authenticate with:
 
-[AuthProvider]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/AuthProvider.html
+```java
+Cluster.builder()
+  .withCredentials("bob", "mypassword")
+  .build();
+```
+
+This is a shortcut for using [PlainTextAuthProvider] for simple username/password authentication
+(intended to work with the server-side `PasswordAuthenticator`).  This may alternatively be
+provided using the [Cluster.Builder.withAuthProvider] method:
+
+
+```java
+Cluster.builder()
+  .withAuthProvider(new PlainTextAuthProvider("bob", "mypassword"))
+  .build();
+```
+
+Authentication must be configured before opening a session, it cannot be changed at runtime.
+
+You can also write your own provider; it must implement [AuthProvider].
+
+
+[SASL]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Authentication_and_Security_Layer
+
+[Cluster.Builder.withCredentials]:  https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/Cluster.Builder.html#withCredentials-java.lang.String-java.lang.String-
+[AuthProvider]:                     https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/AuthProvider.html
+[Cluster.Builder.withAuthProvider]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/Cluster.Builder.html#withAuthProvider-com.datastax.driver.core.AuthProvider-
+[PlainTextAuthProvider]:            https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/PlainTextAuthProvider.html

manual/control_connection/README.md

@@ -1,10 +1,21 @@
 ## Control connection
 
-*Coming soon...*
-
-<!--
-TODO cover:
-- what the control connection is (link to init sequence in ../README.md)
-- server-sent events (gossip + schema changes)
-- maybe event debouncing (although it sometimes applies to other types of events)
--->
+The control connection is a dedicated connection used for administrative tasks:
+
+* querying system tables to learn about the cluster's topology and
+  [schema](../metadata/#schema-metadata);
+* checking [schema agreement](../metadata/#schema-agreement);
+* reacting to server events, which are used to notify the driver of external topology or schema
+  changes.
+
+When the driver starts, the control connection is established to the first contacted node. If that
+node goes down, a [reconnection](../reconnection/) is started to find another node; it is governed
+by the same policy as regular connections and tries the nodes according to a query plan from the
+[load balancing policy](../load_balancing/).
+
+The control connection is managed independently from [regular pooled connections](../pooling/), and
+used exclusively for administrative requests. It is included in [Session.State.getOpenConnections],
+as well as the `open-connections` [metric](../metrics); for example, if you've configured a pool
+size of 2, the control node will have 3 connections.
+
+[Session.State.getOpenConnections]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/Session.State.html#getOpenConnections-com.datastax.driver.core.Host-

manual/reconnection/README.md

@@ -1,11 +1,35 @@
 ## Reconnection
 
-*Coming soon... In the meantime, see the javadoc for [ReconnectionPolicy].*
+If the driver loses a connection to a node, it tries to re-establish it according to a configurable
+policy. This is used in two places:
 
-<!--
-TODO cover:
-- reconnection policy
-- scheduled reconnections vs. gossip events
--->
+* [connection pools](../pooling/): for each node, a session has a fixed-size pool of connections to
+  execute user requests. If a node is detected as down, a reconnection is started.
+* [control connection](../control_connection/): a session uses a single connection to an arbitrary
+  node for administrative requests. If that connection goes down, a reconnection gets started; each
+  attempt iterates through all active nodes until one of them accepts a connection. This goes on
+  until we have a control node again.
 
-[ReconnectionPolicy]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/policies/ReconnectionPolicy.html
+[ReconnectionPolicy] controls the interval between each attempt. The policy to use may be
+provided using [Cluster.Builder.withReconnectionPolicy].  For example, the following configures
+an [ExponentialReconnectionPolicy] with a base delay of 1 second, and a max delay of 10 minutes
+(this is the default behavior).
+
+```java
+Cluster.builder()
+  .withReconnectionPolicy(new ExponentialReconnectionPolicy(1000, 10 * 60 * 1000))
+  .build();
+```
+
+[ConstantReconnectionPolicy] uses the same delay every time, regardless of the
+previous number of attempts.
+
+You can also write your own policy; it must implement [ReconnectionPolicy].
+
+For best results, use reasonable values: very low values (for example a constant delay of 10
+milliseconds) will quickly saturate your system.
+
+[ReconnectionPolicy]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/policies/ReconnectionPolicy.html
+[Cluster.Builder.withReconnectionPolicy]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/Cluster.Builder.html#withReconnectionPolicy-com.datastax.driver.core.policies.ReconnectionPolicy-
+[ExponentialReconnectionPolicy]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/policies/ExponentialReconnectionPolicy.html
+[ConstantReconnectionPolicy]:    https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/policies/ConstantReconnectionPolicy.html

manual/statements/batch/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,42 @@
 ## Batch statements
 
-*Coming soon... In the meantime, see the javadoc for [BatchStatement].*
+Use [BatchStatement] to execute a set of queries as a single operation (refer to
+[Batching inserts, updates and deletes][batch_dse] to understand how to use batching effectively):
 
-[BatchStatement]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/BatchStatement.html
+```java
+PreparedStatement preparedInsertExpense =
+    session.prepare(
+        "INSERT INTO cyclist_expenses (cyclist_name, expense_id, amount, description, paid) "
+            + "VALUES (:name, :id, :amount, :description, :paid)");
+SimpleStatement simpleInsertBalance =
+    new SimpleStatement("INSERT INTO cyclist_expenses (cyclist_name, balance) VALUES (?, 0) IF NOT EXISTS",
+        "Vera ADRIAN");
+
+BatchStatement batch = new BatchStatement(BatchStatement.Type.UNLOGGED)
+    .add(simpleInsertBalance)
+    .add(preparedInsertExpense.bind("Vera ADRIAN", 1, 7.95f, "Breakfast", false));
+
+session.execute(batch);
+```
+
+As shown in the examples above, batches can contain any combination of simple statements and bound
+statements. A given batch can contain at most 65536 statements. Past this limit, addition methods
+throw an `IllegalStateException`.
+
+By default, batches are configured as [LOGGED]. This ensures that if any statement in the batch
+succeeds, all will eventually succeed.  Ensuring all queries in a batch succeed has a 
+performance cost.  Consider using [UNLOGGED] as shown above if you do not need this capability.
+
+Please note that the size of a batch is subject to the [batch_size_fail_threshold] configuration
+option on the server.
+
+In addition, simple statements with named parameters are currently not supported in batches (this is
+due to a [protocol limitation][CASSANDRA-10246] that will be fixed in a future version). If you try
+to execute such a batch, an `IllegalArgumentException` is thrown.
+
+[BatchStatement]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/BatchStatement.html
+[batch_dse]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/dse/5.1/cql/cql/cql_using/useBatch.html
+[LOGGED]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/BatchStatement.Type.html#LOGGED
+[UNLOGGED]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/BatchStatement.Type.html#UNLOGGED
+[batch_size_fail_threshold]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/3.x/cassandra/configuration/configCassandra_yaml.html#configCassandra_yaml__batch_size_fail_threshold_in_kb
+[CASSANDRA-10246]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-10246

manual/udts/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,99 @@
 ## User-defined types
 
-*Coming soon... In the meantime, see the javadoc for [UserType].*
+[CQL user-defined types][cql_doc] are ordered sets of named, typed fields. They must be defined in a
+keyspace:
 
-[UserType]: http://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/UserType.html
+```
+CREATE TYPE ks.type1 (
+  a int,
+  b text,
+  c float);
+```
+
+And can then be used as a column type in tables, or a field type in other user-defined types in that
+keyspace:
+
+```
+CREATE TABLE ks.collect_things (
+  pk int,
+  ck1 text,
+  ck2 text,
+  v frozen<type1>,
+  PRIMARY KEY (pk, ck1, ck2)
+);
+
+CREATE TYPE ks.type2 (v frozen<type1>);
+```
+
+### Fetching UDTs from results
+
+The driver maps UDT columns to the [UDTValue] class, which exposes getters and setters to access
+individual fields by index or name:
+
+```java
+Row row = session.execute("SELECT v FROM ks.collect_things WHERE pk = 1").one();
+
+UDTValue udtValue = row.getUDTValue("v");
+int a = udtValue.getInt(0);
+String b = udtValue.getString("b");
+Float c = udtValue.getFloat(2);
+```
+
+### Using UDTs as parameters
+
+Statements may contain UDTs as bound values:
+
+```java
+PreparedStatement ps =
+  session.prepare(
+      "INSERT INTO ks.collect_things (pk, ck1, ck2, v) VALUES (:pk, :ck1, :ck2, :v)");
+```
+
+To create a new UDT value, you must first have a reference to its [UserType]. There are
+various ways to get it:
+
+* from the statement's metadata
+
+    ```java
+    UserType udt = (UserType) ps.getVariables().getType("v");
+    ```
+
+* from the driver's [schema metadata](../metadata/#schema-metadata):
+
+    ```java
+    UserType udt = session.getMetadata().getKeyspace("ks").getUserType("type1");
+    ```
+
+* from another UDT value:
+
+    ```java
+    UserType udt = udtValue.getType();
+    ```
+
+Note that the driver's official API does not expose a way to build [UserType] instances manually.
+This is because the type's internal definition must precisely match the database schema;
+if it doesn't (for example if the fields are not in the same order), you run the risk of inserting
+corrupt data, that you won't be able to read back.
+
+Once you have the type, call `newValue()` and set the fields:
+
+```java
+UDTValue udtValue = udt.newValue().setInt(0, 1).setString(1, "hello").setFloat(2, 2.3f);
+```
+
+And bind your UDT value like any other type:
+
+```java
+BoundStatement bs =
+    ps.bind()
+        .setInt("pk", 1)
+        .setString("ck1", "1")
+        .setString("ck2", "1")
+        .setUDTValue("v", udtValue);
+session.execute(bs);
+```
+
+[cql_doc]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/cql/3.3/cql/cql_reference/cqlRefUDType.html
+
+[UDTValue]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/UDTValue.html
+[UserType]: https://docs.datastax.com/en/drivers/java/3.6/com/datastax/driver/core/UserType.html