RavenDB is moving at quite a pace, and there is actually more stuff happening than I can find the time to talk about. I usually talk about the big-ticket items, but today I wanted to discuss some of what we like to call Quality of Life features.

The sort of things that help smooth the entire process of using RavenDB - the difference between something that works and something polished. That is something I truly care about, so with a great sense of pride, let me walk you through some of the nicest things that you probably wouldn’t even notice that we are doing for you.

RavenDB Node.js Client - v7.0 released (with Vector Search)

We updated the RavenDB Node.js client to version 7.0, with the biggest item being explicit support for vector search queries from Node.js. You can now write queries like these:

const docs = session.query<Product>({collection: "Products"})
   .vectorSearch(x => x.withText("Name"),
      factory => factory.byText("italian food"))
  .all();

This is the famous example of using RavenDB’s vector search to find pizza and pasta in your product catalog, utilizing vector search and automatic data embeddings.

Converting automatic indexes to static indexes

RavenDB has auto indexes. Send a query, and if there is no existing index to run the query, the query optimizer will generate one for you. That works quite amazingly well, but sometimes you want to use this automatic index as the basis for a static (user-defined) index. Now you can do that directly from the RavenDB Studio, like so:

You can read the full details of the feature at the following link.

RavenDB Cloud - Incidents History & Operational Suggestions

We now expose the operational suggestions to you on the dashboard. The idea is that you can easily and proactively check the status of your instances and whether you need to take any action.

You can also see what happened to your system in the past, including things that RavenDB’s system automatically recovered from without you needing to lift a finger.

For example, take a look at this highly distressed system:

As usual, I would appreciate any feedback you have on the new features.

We recently published an article on Getting started with GraphQL and RavenDB, it will walk you through setting up Hot Chocolate to create a RavenDB-based GraphQL endpoint in your system.

Here is what this looks like:

Another new feature is the New Database Wizard, which was completely redesigned and made much simpler. We have a great number of features & options, and the idea is that we want to give you better insight into what you can do with your system.

Here is a quick peek, but take a look at the link. I’m biased, of course, but I think the team did a really great job in exposing a really complex set of options in a very clear manner.

The About Page of RavenDB Studio has undergone major updates. In particular, we have made it easier to see that new versions are available, what changes are included in each version, and check for updates. Additionally, you can now review your license details and compare features available in different editions.

Furthermore, we pushed an update to the About Page of RavenDBitself. Here we try to tell the story of RavenDB and how it came about. Beyond the narrative, our goal is to explain the design philosophy of RavenDB.

The idea is quite simple, we aim to be the database that you don’t have to think about. The one component in your system that you don’t need to worry about, the cog that just keeps on working. If we do our job right, we are a very boring database. Amusingly enough, the actual story behind it is quite interesting, and I would love to get your feedback on it.

We also published our new roadmap, which has a bunch of new goodies for you. I’m quite excited about this, and I hope you’ll too (in a boring manner 🙂). Upcoming features include data governance features, Open Telemetry integration, extremely large clusters, and more.

One of our stated goals in the roadmap is better performance, with a focus on ARM hardware, which is taking the server / cloud world by storm. To that end, we are performing many “crimes against code” to squeeze every last erg of performance from the system.

Initial results are promising, but we still have some way to go before we can publicly disclose numbers.

As usual, I would appreciate your feedback about the roadmap and the new features in general.