Neo4j Graph Database
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Neo4j’s primary product and focus is our graph database that stores data in the form of nodes and relationships. It handles both transactional and/or analytics workloads and is optimized for traversing paths through the data using the relationships in the graph to find connections between entities.
New 4.x features
With each update of Neo4j, the database improves performance and features (plus bug fixes, too!). It can be difficult to locate which features and improvements belong to which releases, as well as the best resources for learning and using them. This guide will provide some insight into the highlights and where to go for more information.
Multi-database
This capability allows you to operate and manage multiple databases within a single installation of the Neo4j DBMS. The data can be segmented by use case, sensitivity, or business applications into different databases.
Neo4j Fabric
Neo4j Fabric provides the ability to shard graph data by allowing users to break a larger graph down into individual, smaller graphs and store them in separate databases. These shards can be accessed individually or aggregated to see all of the data, when required.
Cypher
Cypher is a graph query language that allows you to read and write data to the graph. It is a very visual, yet powerful, way to interact with nodes and relationships. Consistent improvements for built-in functions, syntax, and performance are announced nearly every release.
Some of the significant improvements include:
Data access controls
Securing data is important and complex, especially when dealing with sensitive data and regulations surrounding it. There are many ways to of securing the data - access, user roles, protected environments, system architecture, and more. Neo4j provides these capabilities and regularly improves or adds to them.
Reactive drivers
Neo4j reactive drivers incorporate the principles of the reactive manifesto in passing data between the database and clients using the drivers. Developers can take advantage of the reactive approach to process queries and return results. This means that communication between the driver and the database can be managed and adjusted dynamically according to data needs of the client.
Neo4j Versions
Though there are many versions of Neo4j still in use and available for download, we will focus on the few latest releases here and leave you with some resources for accessing information about each.
Support plans
There are a few terms Neo4j uses to categorize support plans and timelines for each release version. We can cover a brief overview here.
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Short-term support (STS) - the minimum support length of 18 months after release date. Every version of Neo4j comes with this minimum support time.
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Long-term support (LTS) - the support length of 36 months after release date. Each last minor release of a major version comes with this minimum support time (example, 3.5).
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Extended-term support (ETS) - optional support agreement for customers willing to purchase. Provides 36 months of support from release date, rather than the standard 18 months.
The table below shows the latest releases and planned support timelines and extensions for each Neo4j version.
Version |
Support category |
Support Start |
Support End |
Extended support end |
version 4.1 |
Short-term support |
June 2020 |
December 2021 |
June 2023 |
version 4.0 |
Short-term support |
January 2020 |
June 2021 |
December 2022 |
version 3.5 |
Long-term support |
November 2018 |
December 2021 |
N/A |
Neo4j 4.1 (June 2020)
Blog post: 4.1 Announcement
Neo4j 4.1 Docs
Release Notes
4.1 Changelog
YouTube playlist: 4.1 Features presented by the engineers who built them
Video: 4.1 Whirlwind Tour with Michael Hunger
Neo4j 4.0 (January 2020)
Official documentation -
Docs: Neo4j 4.0 Operations
Docs: 4.0 Cypher
Migration guide
Feature highlights -
Initial Release Notes
DZone article: What’s new in 4.0
Blog post: 4.0 Resource Treasure Map
Technical deep-dives -
Developer guides: multiple databases, Neo4j sharding, multi-tenancy example, Cypher subqueries
Video: Migrating from Neo4j 3.5 to 4.0
Blog post: Copy a database
NODES online developer conference sessions: 4.0 security, Spring Data Neo4j Reactive, Behind-the-Tech in 4.0
Drivers for Neo4j 4.0
Blog post: Database dump in a Docker container
Blog post: Connecting an application with multi-tenancy and multi-db
Blog post: How and when to implement sharding
Blog post: Securing a fraud graph