MySQL is getting native support for JSON.  This blog post will show you how to quickly get the MySQL server with these new features running on your Windows rig and how to write a small C# program in Visual Studio 2015 that stores a JSON document using the new native JSON data type.

Schema or Schemaless

The upcoming 5.7 version of MySQL introduces a ton of new features, some of which I am quite excited about—in particular the …

“MySQL’s JSON data type is great! But how do you index the JSON data?” I was recently presenting at the CakePHP Cakefest Conference and was asked that very question. And I had to admit I had not been able to play, er, experiment with the JSON datatype to that level. Now I have and it is fairly easy.

1. Create a simple table
mysql> desc colors;
+--------------+----------+------+-----+---------+-------------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------------+----------+------+-----+---------+-------------------+
| popular_name | char(10) | YES | | NULL | |
| hue | json | YES | | NULL | |
+--------------+----------+------+-----+---------+-------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

2. Add in some data
INSERT INTO `colors` VALUES ('red','{\"value\": \"f00\"}'),('green','{\"value\": …

In the MySQL Labs version of MySQL version 5.7, there is a new HTTP plugin. The HTTP plugin documentation from the labs site provides this information (from MySQL Labs):

The HTTP Plugin for MySQL adds HTTP(S) interfaces to MySQL. Clients can use the HTTP respectively HTTPS (SSL) protocol to query data stored in MySQL. The query language is SQL but other, simpler interfaces exist. All data is serialized as JSON. This version of MySQL Server HTTP Plugin is a Labs release, which means it’s at an early development stage. It contains several known bugs and limitation, and is meant primarily to give you a rough idea how this plugin will look some day. Likewise, the user API is anything but finalized. Be aware it will change in many respects.

In …

Last week at Percona Live Facebook has presented for the first time Docstore which is a native JSON implementation in MySQL. Oracle has also presented their MySQL 5.7 lab release that includes the implementation of a native JSON type. This is an important move as MySQL was behind other other RDMS regarding JSON (PostgreSQL already [...]

Summary

We’re very happy to announce that the MySQL JSON Labs release is now available on MySQL Labs!

With this work, MySQL continues to grow as a hybrid SQL/NoSQL DBMS, one that can offer the best of both worlds to application developers. Please stay tuned for additional news that ensures MySQL remains the most popular Open Source database for next-generation web, mobile, and Cloud based applications!

A big THANK YOU to everyone in the development team that made this happen!

What’s New?

This Lab release is MySQL 5.7.7 with patches for the following Worklogs applied:

• …

What the MySQL team is doing with JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) in MySQL 5.7 is great! The MySQL Server Blog (Rick Hillegas and Dag Wanvik) published two key articles about new JSON functions. If you don’t follow these, let me highlight them as a set:

• JSON Functions, Part 1 – Manipulation JSON Data
• JSON Functions, Part 2 – Querying JSON Data

Most folks know how important JSON is to web development. I like the following visual that …

The MySQL 5.7.7 JSON Lab release introduces a native JSON datatype. In part 1 of this blog post series, Rick Hillegas introduced the new functions for creating and manipulating JSON documents using the new native JSON data type. In this blog post we will be using some of the same sample tables and JSON documents as in part 1, so it will be helpful to read that blog post now, if you haven’t already.

Here we look closer at the functions provided to search through and peer into JSON documents to find values inside of them, and we’ll also cover a few utility functions as we go along. The functions described here are also summarized at the end of this blog for ease of reference.

Please note that the exact set of functions and their semantics may evolve …

The MySQL 5.7.7 JSON Lab release introduces a native JSON datatype. See Knut Anders Hatlen’s blog post for more details on this new datatype. In this release we also introduced a number of functions for creating and querying JSON documents. In this post we’ll explore the following new functions related to manipulating JSON documents:

• jsn_array()
• jsn_object()
• jsn_insert()
• jsn_remove()
• jsn_set()
• jsn_replace()
• jsn_append()
• jsn_merge()
• jsn_extract()

Dag Wanvik’s follow up blog …

In the MySQL 5.7.7 JSON labs release, we have introduced a new data type for storing JSON data in MySQL tables. Now you can do this:

mysql> CREATE TABLE employees (data JSON);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0,01 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO employees VALUES ('{"id": 1, "name": "Jane"}');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0,00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO employees VALUES ('{"id": 2, "name": "Joe"}');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0,00 sec)

mysql> select * from employees;
+---------------------------+
| data                      |
+---------------------------+
| {"id": 1, "name": "Jane"} |
| {"id": 2, "name": "Joe"}  |
+---------------------------+
2 rows in set (0,00 sec)

Sure, you could always store JSON data in a TEXT or VARCHAR column, but having a native data type for JSON provides some major benefits over that approach:

1. Document Validation

   Only …

In MySQL 5.7.6, we added a new feature called Generated Columns. In the initial work all Generated Columns were materialized, even virtual ones. This not only resulted in unnecessary disk space being used and disk I/O being done, but it also meant that any table alteration required that the full table be rebuilt. In the new MySQL 5.7.7 JSON Lab release, we have resolved all of these issues by implementing new features that not only allow users to create non-materialized virtual …