Managing Composite databases

Composite databases are managed using administrative commands. They are created with the CREATE COMPOSITE DATABASE command.

Create a Composite database

CREATE COMPOSITE DATABASE cineasts

Constituent graphs are added with the CREATE ALIAS administrative command, for example:

Create an alias on a Composite database

CREATE ALIAS cineasts.latest
  FOR DATABASE movies2022

Aliases can also be created for databases on other DBMSs:

Create an alias for a remote database on a Composite database

CREATE ALIAS cineasts.upcoming
  FOR DATABASE upcoming
  AT 'neo4j+s://other.dbms.com'
  USER $user
  PASSWORD $secretpassword

The SHOW DATABASE administrative command includes Composite databases.

Their type is reported as "composite", and the constituents column lists the names of the aliases contained.

Show a Composite database

SHOW DATABASE cineasts YIELD name, type, constituents
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name       | type        | constituents                             |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "cineasts" | "composite" | ["cineasts.latest", "cineasts.upcoming"] |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

The SHOW ALIASES FOR DATABASE administrative command can be used to inspect aliases on Composite databases in further detail.

Show Composite database aliases

SHOW ALIASES FOR DATABASE
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name                | database     | location | url                        | user      |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "cineasts.latest"   | "movies2022" | "local"  | NULL                       | NULL      |
| "cineasts.upcoming" | "upcoming"   | "remote" | "neo4j+s://other.dbms.com" | "cineast" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For a full description of the administrative commands for managing Composite databases, see Cypher Manual → Database management.

Connect to drivers and applications

Drivers and client applications connect to Composite databases just like standard databases. For more information, see the respective Neo4j Driver manual.