Environment Setup

In this course, you have the option to pick between two environment setups. You can use the cloud-hosted Neo4j Sandbox environment, or you can install the Neo4j Desktop application locally.

The Neo4j Sandbox is a great way that you can begin development with Neo4j. It is a temporary, cloud-based instance of a Neo4j Server with its associated graph that you can access from any Web browser. The Sandbox database has all required plugins and applications installed for this course by default.

The Neo4j Sandbox is available for three days, but you can extend it for up to 10 days. You must make sure that you extend your Sandbox lease as otherwise, you might lose your graph and any saved Cypher scripts you have created in the Sandbox.

To setup you local environment setup, you will use the Neo4j Desktop. Neo4j Desktop is a convenient, free desktop application that allows developers to easily create, work with and manage local Neo4j databases. It also makes it easier to install plugins and applications with a single click.