Exploring Graphs with Elixir: Connect Data with Native Graph Libraries and Graph Databases

Book Preface

This book opens up and makes accessible a technology which few developers have used so far in creating cutting-edge products, especially in the Elixir world. It will help Elixir software developers understand better why graph technology is great, and how easy it is to use to build applications in ways they had never thought of before.

Dmitry Russ
Lead Engineer, Appian Corporation

In Exploring Graphs with Elixir, Tony takes the reader through a hands-on journey with several major graph databases. While I had worked with a few already, the hands-on comparison across several provided a refreshing perspective. Enrich yourself by joining Tony on this journey and confidently tackle your next graph problem with ease.

David Swafford
VP, Product Engineering, LynkState

I really like that this book gives such a full overview of contemporary ways of working with graphs. I have never read anything that brings all the different types of graphs together so comprehensively, and I feel that for this reason the book gives valuable insights even to people like myself who are not working with Elixir.

Tony Seale Developer, UBS

This book presents cutting-edge topics that will be of interest to developers working in the field and utilizing graph databases, and it is certain to be a very valuable resource.

Eoghan O’Donnell Senior Staff Engineer

My beginning with this book, I suppose, was almost 30 years ago, in the sunshine, in Italy. I had just discovered the web and the graph of documents. Since then, I have been hooked. I don’t think I had ever really focused on graphs much before that.
Then after a handful and more years, I got hooked again a second time with the semantic web. I had the good fortune to work on a number of linked data projects in my day job in science publishing over the next twenty years. And then when that run eventually came to an end, I was lucky enough to find the time to do some new learning, explore Elixir, and start working on this book.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been working for a new outfit to build out a knowledge graph. I’ve continued to learn still more with a whole new group of incredible colleagues while having competing demands on my time to finish this book. But now it’s done.
My first callout is to Marcel Otto. When I was learning Elixir, I also wanted to see if I could apply it to any domain with which I was familiar. Was there any support in Elixir for graphs, especially RDF graphs? Marcel was there and had the whole thing covered with his wonderful set of Elixir packages (rdf, sparql, sparql_client, and json_ld). He has also been especially helpful to me both at the beginning of this trek and several times since in answering questions I have had.

I’d also like to thank the developers of the other Elixir packages I’ve used in this book. They all have taken the time to answer my questions: Paul Schoenfelder (libgraph), Florin Pătraşcu (bolt_sips), Barak Karavani (gremlex), and Dmitry Russ (dlex).
I didn’t shop around for a publisher. I didn’t have to. I only had The Pragmatic Bookshelf in my sights ever since they published the PickAxe Book. That book was such a joy to read. That publisher was the one for me.
As series editor, Bruce Tate has been really supportive in helping this book become a reality, believing in it, and helping me turn a bunch of blog posts into a more coherent package.
And then also my development editor Jackie Carter—what can I say?Maybe I should have listened to her from the outset. But then I had to learn for myself. She has kept me focused and helped me find a simpler, more direct voice. She has helped me turn my various writings into a book. She has stayed with me throughout this long haul.
And to all the other folks at The Pragmatic Bookshelf who have worked on this book. I can only mention a few names here: Michael Swaine who did an early review, Margaret Eldridge and Erica Sadun in publicity, Janet Furlow in operations, and Brian MacDonald as my acquisitions editor.
I especially need to thank all those who took the time to review the book and to provide heaps of feedback and constructive comments: Jesús Barrasa, Bob DuCharme, Victor Felder, Carlo Gilmar, Amos King, Carlos Krauss, Eoghan O’Donnell, Marcel Otto, Dmitry Russ, Tony Seale, Kim Shrier, Jason Stewart, Jo Stichbury, Alvise Susmel, David Swafford, and Dominique Vassard. You have all made this book so much better.
Other folks took time to answer questions I had along the way, in particular Bradley Fidler on ARPANET topology.

I’d also like to call out a couple of my former colleagues who acted as helpful sounding boards when I first started to work on the book: Azhar Jassal and Evangelos Theodoridis. Thank you, both. Your support was very much appreciated. And a special shoutout to Ilya Venger who hired me into my current gig on building an enterprise knowledge graph and who got to be such a graph enthusiast on the project.
Finally, I would like to thank my family who had to bear the burden of me talking about this book. I would especially like to thank my parents Peter and Elinor who started me out on my journey in life. I owe them so much.
And the very last words of thanks for being there go to my daughter Elsa, my son Ollie, and my grandchildren Corin and Juliet. You mean the world to me.