Code Examples

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Please visit the Apache TinkerPop website and latest documentation.

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This section will provide a collection of basic code examples that work with the Blueprints graph API. The in-memory TinkerGraph database will be used throughout the examples. Please feel free to alter the graph constructor to work with different graph databases.

1. Create a Simple Graph
2. Iterate through the Elements of a Graph
3. Iterate through the Edges of a Vertex

Create a Simple Graph

Create a graph. Add two vertices. Set the name property of each vertex. Create an knows edge between the two vertices. Print the components of the graph.

import com.tinkerpop.blueprints.impls.tg.TinkerGraph;
import com.tinkerpop.blueprints.Graph;
import com.tinkerpop.blueprints.Vertex;
import com.tinkerpop.blueprints.Edge;
import com.tinkerpop.blueprints.Direction;

Graph graph = new TinkerGraph();
Vertex a = graph.addVertex(null);
Vertex b = graph.addVertex(null);
a.setProperty("name", "marko");
b.setProperty("name", "peter");
Edge e = graph.addEdge(null, a, b, "knows");
System.out.println(e.getVertex(Direction.OUT).getProperty("name") + "--" + e.getLabel() + "-->" + e.getVertex(Direction.IN).getProperty("name"));

The System.out after the code executes is:

marko--knows-->peter

Use GraphFactory

The Blueprints GraphFactory provides a common way to instantiate different Graph implementations, thereby abstracting away the specifics of Graph instance construction. The benefit of this approach is that the construction of a Graph instance can become a configuration as opposed to explicitly specifying a Graph implementation in the code itself.

To demonstrate this concept, consider the explicit approach to instantiating a TinkerGraph:

Graph g = new TinkerGraph()

Compare the above to the approach using GraphFactory:

Graph g = GraphFactory.open("graph.properties")

where the graph.properties file contains:

blueprints.graph=com.tinkerpop.blueprints.impls.tg.TinkerGraph

Both approaches create an in-memory TinkerGraph, but the GraphFactory approach is a bit more resilient to change, as converting from TinkerGraph to a different Graph instance, such as Neo4jGraph, is accomplished by simply changing the configuration file:

blueprints.graph=com.tinkerpop.blueprints.impls.neo4j.Neo4jGraph
blueprints.neo4j.directory=/tmp/neo4j
blueprints.neo4j.conf.neostore.nodestore.db.mapped_memory=285M
blueprints.neo4j.conf.neostore.relationshipstore.db.mapped_memory=285M

The structure of the properties file is dependent on the implementation itself with the only common and required key of blueprints.graph, which must be the full class name of the Graph implementation.

It is also possible to construct a Graph from GraphFactory with a Map or dynamically constructed Configuration object as follows:

Map<String,Object> conf = new HashMap<String,Object>();
conf.put("blueprints.graph", "com.tinkerpop.blueprints.impls.tg.TinkerGraph");
Graph g = GraphFactory.open(conf);

Configuration c = new BaseConfiguration();
c.setProperty("blueprints.graph", "com.tinkerpop.blueprints.impls.tg.TinkerGraph");
Graph g = GraphFactory.open(c);

Not all Graph implementations will support GraphFactory. Those interested in learning which ones support it or those implementing the Graph API can read more about this requirement here.

Iterate through the Elements of a Graph

Load the TinkerPop play graph diagrammed in Property Graph Model. Iterate through all the vertices and print them to System.out. Iterate through all the edges and print them to System.out.

public void testIteratingGraph() {
  Graph graph = TinkerGraphFactory.createTinkerGraph();
  System.out.println("Vertices of " + graph);
  for (Vertex vertex : graph.getVertices()) {
    System.out.println(vertex);
  }
  System.out.println("Edges of " + graph);
  for (Edge edge : graph.getEdges()) {
    System.out.println(edge);
   }
}

The System.out after the code executes is:

Vertices of tinkergraph[vertices:6 edges:6]
v[3]
v[2]
v[1]
v[6]
v[5]
v[4]
Edges of tinkergraph[vertices:6 edges:6]
e[10][4-created->5]
e[7][1-knows->2]
e[9][1-created->3]
e[8][1-knows->4]
e[11][4-created->3]
e[12][6-created->3]

Iterate through the Edges of a Vertex

Load the TinkerPop play graph diagrammed in Property Graph Model. Get vertex 1 from the graph by its id. Print some information about the vertex. Iterate through the outgoing edges of the vertex and print the edges.

Graph graph = TinkerGraphFactory.createTinkerGraph();
Vertex a = graph.getVertex("1");
System.out.println("vertex " + a.getId() + " has name " + a.getProperty("name"));
for(Edge e : a.getEdges(OUT)) {
  System.out.println(e);
}

The System.out after the code executes is:

vertex 1 has name marko
e[7][1-knows->2]
e[9][1-created->3]
e[8][1-knows->4]