Node.js HBase is a Node.JS client for the Apache HBase database. It use the Rest API (Stargate) to communicate with HBase. Currently, all the API is implemented and the data exchange format is JSON (but protocol buffer could follow).

Apache HBase is part of the Hadoop ecosystem. It describes itself as the Hadoop database optimized for random, realtime read/write access to big data. It is an open-source, distributed, versioned, column-oriented store modeled after Google Bigtable.

Client features include:

• Intuitive API following Apache HBase naming conventions
• Documentation and tests
• Full Implementation of the REST API
• Transparent encoding/decoding of values
• Scanner and filter support implementing the stream.Readable API
• Kerberos Support

About HBase

Apache HBase is part of the Hadoop ecosystem from the Apache Software Foundation. It is a column oriented database (think NoSql) that really scale and is modelled after Google papers and its BigTable database.

Installing

Via npm:

npm install hbase

Documentation

• Index
  Getting started
• Client
  Server information and object factory
• Connection
  HTTP REST requests
• Row
  CRUD operation on rows and columns
• Scanner
  Retrieve multiple rows and columns
• Table
  Create, modify and delete HBase tables

Quick example

The following code initialise a new HBase instance, create a table and a column family, insert a record and read it.

const hbase = require('hbase')
// Instantiate a new client
client = hbase({ host: '127.0.0.1', port: 8080 })
// Create a table
client
.table('my_table' )
.create('my_column_family', function(err, success){
  // Insert a record
  client
  .table('my_table' )
  .row('my_row')
  .put('my_column_family:my_column', 'my value', function(err, success){
    // Read a record
    client
    .table('my_table' )
    .row('my_row')
    .get('my_column_family', function(err, [cell]){
      // Validate the result
      assert(cell.key, 'my_row')
      assert(cell.column, 'my_column_family:my_column')
      assert(cell.$, 'my value')
    })
  })
})

Or shortly as:

// Instantiate a new client
require('hbase')({ host: '127.0.0.1', port: 8080 })
// Create a table
.table('my_table' )
.create('my_column_family', function(err, success){
  // Insert a record
  this.put('my_column_family:my_column', 'my value', function(err, success){
    // Read a record
    this.get('my_column_family', function(err, [[cell]]){
      // Validate the result
      // ...
    })
  })
})

Using Kerberos/SPNEGO

Options accepts a krb5 object. Password and keytab authentication are supported. Refer to the krb5 package for additionnal information on how to configure the krb5 option.

Using a keytab:

const hbase = require('hbase');
hbase({
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 8080,
  "krb5": {
    "principal": "{username}@{REALM}",
    "keytab": "{path/to/keytab}",
    "service_principal": "HTTP@{fqdn}"
  }
})
.version();

Using a password:

const hbase = require('hbase');
hbase({
  host: '127.0.0.1',
  port: 8080,
  "krb5": {
    "principal": "{username}@{REALM}",
    "password": "{password}",
    "service_principal": "HTTP@{fqdn}"
  }
})
.version();

Scanner and Filters

The scanner implement the stream.Readable API. For ease of usage, an optional callback argument may be provided. For example:

client
.table('node_table')
.scan({
  startRow: 'my_row',
  maxVersions: 1
}, function(err, rows){
  console.log(err, rows);
});

is equivalent to:

const rows = [];
scanner = client
.table('node_table')
.scan({
  startRow: 'my_row',
  maxVersions: 1
});
scanner.on('readable', function(){
  while(chunk = scanner.read()){
    rows.push(chunk);
  }
});
scanner.on('error', function(err){
  console.log(err);
});
scanner.on('end', function(){
  console.log(rows);
});

It can be quite a pain to figure out what options can be sent with a scanner request. You will find a lot of examples inside the Scanner test and also look at the examples published by Marc Trudel.

More documentation

• Developer Guide
• Contributor Guide

Related projects

• Official Apache HBase project
• REST server bundled with HBase (Stargate)

Contributors

• David Worms: https://www.adaltas.com
• Michael Kurze: https://github.com/michaelku
• Michal Taborsky: https://github.com/whizz
• Pierre Sauvage: https://github.com/Pierrotws

This package is developed by Adaltas.