Joe Lennon

My book “Beginning CouchDB” is now available in the United States, and should be available internationally in the coming days. The final manuscript comes in at exactly 300 pages, and features everything you need to know to get started with the Apache CouchDB database – from installing it on Mac OS X or Linux to creating applications that work with CouchDB data using JavaScript, Python and Ruby. The following are links to Websites where you can purchase the book:

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Books-A-Million
Amazon.co.uk
Waterstones
WHSmith
Apress (Buy e-Book Version for $27.99)

The following is the Table of Contents for the completed work:

• About the Author
• About the Technical Reviewer
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: Getting Started
  • Chapter 1: Introduction to CouchDB
    • What is CouchDB?
    • CouchDB: The Story So Far
    • Document-Oriented Databases
    • CouchDB Documents
    • The JavaScript View Engine
    • Restful HTTP API
    • Futon
    • So…Now What?
  • Chapter 2: Installing CouchDB on Linux
    • Installing CouchDB on Ubuntu Linux 8.10
    • Installing CouchDB on Fedora Linux Using yum
    • Building CouchDB (and Prerequisites) from Source Code
      • Building Erlang
      • Building libcurl
      • Building ICU
      • Building Spidermonkey
      • Building Subversion
      • Building CouchDB
  • Chapter 3: Installing CouchDB on Mac OS X
    • Installing the Xcode Developer Tools
    • Installing Macports
    • Installing CouchDB
    • CouchDBX: A One-Click CouchDB Package for Mac OS X
  • Chapter 4: Creating Your First CouchDB Database
    • Tools of the Trade
    • HTTP Requests
    • JSON Response
    • Using curl
    • Creating Your First Database
    • Creating Documents in Your Contacts Database
    • Getting Started with CouchDB Views
    • Summary
• Part 2: Managing CouchDB Databases
  • Chapter 5: Using Futon: The CouchDB Administration Interface
    • Creating a Database
    • Creating a Document
    • Uploading Attachments
    • Compacting the Database
    • Futon Tools
    • Summary
  • Chapter 6: Introduction to JSON
    • What is JSON?
    • Why JSON?
    • JSON 101: Syntax and Data Types
    • Working with JSON
      • Defining JSON Structures
      • Looping Through JSON Arrays
    • CouchDB and JSON
    • Summary
  • Chapter 7: Introduction to CouchDB Views
    • Creating Views
    • Permanent Views
    • Design Documents
    • Views and the CouchDB API
    • Summary
  • Chapter 8: Map/Reduce
    • What is Map/Reduce?
    • Map/Reduce in CouchDB
    • Map/Reduce in Futon
    • Map/Reduce Views and the CouchDB API
    • Map/Reduce vs. SQL Queries
    • Word Count Example
    • Summary
  • Chapter 9: Advanced CouchDB Views
    • Advanced Aggregation
    • Ordering and Filtering Results
    • Working with Related Data
    • Summary
• Part 3: Advanced CouchDB Topics
  • Chapter 10: Developing CouchDB Applications with CouchApp
    • Installing CouchApp
    • Your First CouchApp
    • Creating CouchTasks: A Simple Task Manager
    • Suggested Improvements
    • Summary
  • Chapter 11: Developing Applications with CouchDB
    • Developing in Python with Couchdbkit
    • Developing in Ruby with CouchRest
    • Creating a Bookmarks Application with CouchDB and Django
    • Summary
  • Chapter 12: Advanced CouchDB Topics
    • Replication
    • Compaction
    • Fetching Documents in Bulk
    • Writing Documents in Bulk
    • Show Functions
    • Summary
  • Chapter 13: Mechanics of CouchDB Deployment
    • Measuring Performance
    • Configuring CouchDB
    • Conflict Resolution
    • Security
    • Backup
    • Fault Tolerance and Load Balancing
    • Clustering
    • Summary
• Appendices
  • Appendix A: CouchDB API Reference
  • Appendix B: HTTP and curl Reference
• Index

Beginning CouchDB by Joe Lennon

I recently posted a short blog entry about my forthcoming book on CouchDB. A lot of you have been asking me for more information about the book, so I decided to put together a page with much more detail about it. The book is titled “Beginning CouchDB” and is going to be published in December 2009 by Apress Publishing. The printed version of the book will sell for a RRP of $34.99 in the United States, with the e-Book selling for $24.49. It will be roughly 300 pages in length, spread over thirteen chapters and 2-3 appendices. Its target audience will be people who have very little or no experience with Apache CouchDB, and will guide readers through getting the software installed on their computer, creating their first database, managing the database, using the tools that come with CouchDB and other basic topics. It will also explore some of the more advanced areas of CouchDB, such as Map/Reduce, the JavaScript View engine, replication and scaling a CouchDB deployment. The book’s cover image is shown below. I will post a larger image as soon as I get it!

As for how the book is coming along, it’s going very well! I’m not a full-time writer so all of my writing is done in the evenings or over weekends. I’m learning things I never knew about Couch all the time, and with each passing day I grow fonder and fonder of this excellent database server. The book’s page is up on Apress.com at the following URL: http://apress.com/book/view/9781430272373. This page can also be found through a CouchDB.org link - http://books.couchdb.org/beginning – thanks to @CouchDB on Twitter! It’s not currently available for Pre-Order but it should be in the not too distant future. It should also become available on Amazon.com soon.

I’m currently working with the guys in Apress to get the book into their “Alpha Program”, which allows you to purchase the e-Book now and get access to each draft chapter as it becomes available. When the book is complete you will of course get access to the finished work as an e-Book. Purchasing the book through the Alpha Program will likely cost $24.49.

I’m delighted to announce that I have signed a book deal with Apress publishing (the black and yellow techie books). The book is on Apache CouchDB, an exciting document-oriented database management system that is in active development. I was approached by Apress about the prospect of writing a book on CouchDB after my article “Exploring CouchDB” was published on IBM developerWorks back in March 2009. The book is coming along quite nicely and I’ll have much more information to share shortly.

For now, check out my “Exploring CouchDB” article on IBM developerWorks.

Also, please check out Apress.com for similar books. Apress have published over 700 books on a wide range of technology areas including Programming, Web Development, iPhone Development, Open Source, Operating Systems and much more. Below are some of the excellent books they have published (my book will have a similar cover):