[Removed] Allow Dgraph to be embedded as Go library

[manishrjain]

Lot of people are trying to use Dgraph as an embedded library in their Go code. This should be feasible once we move away from Cgo.

[sebastianmacias]

+1 this is the only reason that currently keeps me from switching from cayley this is how you use cayley as a library.

[leedstyh]

Any progress on this?

If this will not be ready in the near future, can we move app's main logic into a package. This way make it easier to custom build, like building all the services including dgraph into one binary.

FYI, this is how caddy server does

[mikelnrd]

Thank you! Spark by Readdle

[manishrjain]

@tzdybal is working on this.

[tzdybal]

I have some questions to all users interested in embeddable version of Dgraph:

1. Our vision of Dgraph embedded as library is following: client code calls database engine directly, there are no network connections, no servers listening for connections, no access to UI. Application can use the database through client API.

2. Because of the tight integration with the core database engine, we need to publish the embedded version of a Dgraph under AGPL v3 licence. Will this work for you?

[sebastianmacias]

1. That's exactly how I envision it. It will give the users the ability to deploy golang web applications using a single binary; not having network round trips to get and put the data will result in speed/performance gains.

2. AGPL v3 sounds fine. As long as the developers don't modify Dgraph's embedded library AGPLv3's Section 13 won't trigger so the source code of the full web application isn't required to be made available. Is that correct?

[manishrjain]

As per AGPL v3 terms, anything which embeds AGPL code would also be covered by AGPL, and hence, you'll have to open source your full web application under AGPL. So, it's not ideal.

We could provide special (non-AGPL) license to users who intend to use this for non-commercial purposes, or are small startups; but still, it isn't as direct as using Dgraph as a server.

[runningwild]

I'd been banking on embedding DGraph, so this is sad news. I can't possibly embed it if I must do so under the AGPL, and having only now realized that the server is under the AGPL I'm hesitant using DGraph at all (I was aware of the Apache license, which I liked).

Do you have any idea what kind of commercial licensing you will offer? If I can't use DGraph under a less draconian license I will be forced back to using Cayley.