3.9 KiB
Neo4j Installation and Configuration
Configure Enviroment
Set your Neo4j connection string and credentials in .env. For example:
{% code-tabs %} {% code-tabs-item title=".env" %}
NEO4J_URI=bolt://localhost:7687
NEO4J_USER=neo4j
NEO4J_PASSWORD=letmein
{% endcode-tabs-item %} {% endcode-tabs %}
Neo4j Installation
{% hint style="warning" %} You need to install APOC as a plugin for the graph you create in neo4j! {% endhint %}
Note that grand-stack-starter does not currently bundle a distribution of Neo4j. Now there are a lot alternatives to have Neo4J installed.
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Neo4j Desktop" %}
You can download Neo4j Desktop run locally for development. Chose tab Neo4j Desktop.
After the download is done install the Neo4j Desktop application and open it. E.g. we have the following version:
Neo4j Desktop 1.1.13
Click on the empty project My Project to chose it.
Click in the Add Graph area and after two buttons appear in it click on Create a Local Graph.
Set the name of the new Graph for clarity to Human Connection DB, though the name is free. And set the password to letmein (means: "let me in"). Than click on Create and the database will be generated.
After generation of the database was successful, please click in the Add Plugin area. And than click the Install button of the APOC area. Now an additional Install button appears and you click on it again. If the APOC-Plugin is installed by now close the litte Plugins window.
In the Human Connection DB area is a Manage button. By clicking it the area switches into a manage area with a lot of information and setting possibilities.
Start the Graph database by clicking the Play-Symbol button and its start up will be proceeded. In the Logs tab you'll find the status of the start up.
If you have a look in the Details tab you find the connection info. As you hopefully see the Bolt port is set by default to the number we set already for our enviroment configuration above.
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="Neo4j Non-Desktop Alternatives" %}
You can spin up a hosted Neo4j Sandbox instance, run Neo4j in one of the many cloud options, spin up Neo4j in a Docker container or on Debian-based systems install Neo4j from the Debian Repository. Just be sure to update the Neo4j connection string and credentials accordingly in .env.
Install APOC plugin on Debian-based systems
When you have install Neo4j from the Debian Repository, then download the APOC plugin to the /var/lib/neo4j/plugins directory manually or with:
wget https://github.com/neo4j-contrib/neo4j-apoc-procedures/releases/download/3.4.0.3/apoc-3.4.0.3-all.jar -P /var/lib/neo4j/plugins
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
Seeding Database with Data
Now we have to seed our database with default data, so that GraphQL requests or playing with our GraphQL Playground returns anything else than an empty response.
To fill the database with some seed data, run the following command in your terminal:
$ yarn run db:seed
To wipe out the database:
$ yarn run db:reset
Now your database is ready to request. You can click on the Open Browser button in Neo4j Desktop to have an insight if the seeding was successful or open http://localhost:7474/ in your browser.
Click the Data-Symbol at the left upper corner and than click on the Node Label + User to see a graph of the user relations, as an example.