3 Mapping domain classes to Neo4j node space - Reference Documentation
Authors: Stefan Armbruster
Version: 1.0.0.M1
3 Mapping domain classes to Neo4j node space
Since the nodespace in Neo4j has no schema as opposed to SQL, there must be some structure applied to map a given set of domain classes.Starting with Neo4j's reference node each domain class itself is represented by a subreference node. The subreference node has a relationship to the reference node, type "SUBREFERENCE". Each instance of this domain class is represented by a node connected to the respective subreference node by a relationship of type "INSTANCE".All simple properties of a domain instance are mapped to the node's properties. Since a node can only store primitives, Strings and arrays of both, properties of any other type must be converted before persisting. The conversion uses Spring's ConversionService, Neo4jMappingContext adds a couple of converters to it. References to other domain classes are mapped by relationships.Type conversion is not 100% complete for now. If you experience conversion problems, please file a ticket in Github's issue tracker.The described mapping of domain classes to the node space is best illustrated with an picture:
