v6.4.0 - Feedback wanted on HTTP Query API support

[robsdedude]

HTTP Query API support

In version 6.4.0 we're introducing support for the HTTP Query API of neo4j to the driver: https://neo4j.com/docs/query-api/current/

Getting Started

Dependencies

This feature relies on 3rd party HTTP libraries (aiohttp for the async driver and urllib3 for the sync driver). In order to not cause an ImportError when using the feature, install the http extra of the driver (pip install neo4j[http]==x.y.z instead of pip install neo4j==x.y.z or similar depending on the used package manager).

Configuration

This feature is designed to have the minimal possible impact on the driver API. All that is needed is to configure the driver with an http or https URI, e.g.,

with neo4j.GraphDatabase.driver(
    "http://neo4j.example.com:7474/",
    ...
) as driver:
    ...

Limitations

While the driver tries to abstract away as many implementation details as possible to provide a uniform API over both bolt and query API, the HTTP Query API does not have feature parity with bolt. Some of these gaps are expected to be closed in the future while others are by design and will likely remain.

At the time of writing, these are:

• Home database resolution is not supported (by design).
  Therefore, an explicit database name must be provided for every transaction (e.g., driver.execute_query(..., _database="myDb"), or driver.session(database="myDb")).
• Only authentication schemes basic (without realm) and bearer are supported.
• Transaction metadata and timeouts are being ignored.
• Some details in the summary (such as neo4j.ResultSummary.server.protocol_info) might be missing or inaccurate.
• Vector types, the UnsupportedType type, and UUIDs cannot be exchanged with the DBMS.
• Notifications and errors have fallback GQL status codes and status information.
• fetch_size has no effect, there is no backpressure mechanism.
• Notification filters (notifications_min_severity, notifications_disabled_categories, notifications_disabled_classifications) have no effect.

Additional Information

An up-to-date list of the above information as well as on this feature's interaction with other driver configuration options can be found in the API docs: https://neo4j.com/docs/api/python-driver/current/api.html#httpdriver

Feedback wanted

This new API is currently marked as preview. What it means is that we are eagerly waiting for your feedback. Does it work well in your scenario? Do you wish there was more?

Let us know so we can correct course in the next releases!