CouchDB filtered replication

One of the greatest features of CouchDB is its replication which allows for great distributed computing. It reminds me when in 1999 I met Erlang language for the first time (Working for a Telco). Erlang is made for distributed computing and so CouchDB which of course is built in Erlang.

I have to say I have successfully tested this in upcoming version 1.1.1 ( built from a branch) Do not try this in 1.1.0.

The example below is based on the document that I have been discussing in the three part tutorial about building a Document Management System (DMS) with CouchDB.

Filtered or selective replication is a two step process:

1. First create a filter named for example "clientFilter" in a new document called "replicateFilter". This sample filter will reject any client not matching the clientId parameter (step 2 explains what this parameter is about). Any deleted documents will be deleted from the target as well.
   
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   curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X PUT http: //127 .0.0.1:5984 /dms4/_design/replicateFilter -d \ '{    "filters" :{      "clientFilter" :" function (doc, req) {        if (doc._deleted) {          return true ;        }           if (!doc.clientId) {          return false ;        }           if (!req.query.clientId) {          throw(\"Please provide a query parameter clientId.\");        }           if (doc.clientId == req.query.clientId) {          return true ;        }        return false ;      }"    } }'

2. Create a replication document called "by_clientId". This example passes clientId=1 as a parameter to the filter we created in step number 1 ("replicateFilter/clientFilter"). You figured we will end up replicating documents for that client.
   
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   curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -X POST http: //127 .0.0.1:5984 /_replicator -d \ '{    "_id" : "by_clientId" ,    "source" : "dms4" ,    "target" : "http://couchdb.nestorurquiza.com:5984/dms4" ,    "create_target" : true ,    "continuous" : true ,    "filter" : "replicateFilter/clientFilter" ,    "query_params" :{ "clientId" :1} }'

Deleting a replication document is how you turn off that replication. This is not any different than deleting any other document:

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nestor:~ nestor$ curl -X GET http: //127 .0.0.1:5984 /_replicator/by_clientId { "_id" : "by_clientId" , "_rev" : "5-e177ca7f79d9ba6f91b803a2cb2abc1e" , "source" : "dms4" , "target" : "http://couchdb.nestorurquiza.com:5984/dms4" , "create_target" : true , "continuous" : true , "filter" : "replicateFilter/clientFilter" , "query_params" :{ "clientId" :1}, "_replication_state" : "triggered" , "_replication_state_time" : "2011-10-20T13:09:56-04:00" , "_replication_id" : "d8dc09e97f4948de0294260dda19fc6f" } nestor:~ nestor$ curl -X DELETE http: //127 .0.0.1:5984 /_replicator/by_clientId ?rev=5-e177ca7f79d9ba6f91b803a2cb2abc1e { "ok" : true , "id" : "by_clientId" , "rev" : "6-0d20d90cbed22837eb3233e2bd8dfb2c" }

The same applies for getting a list of the current defined "selective replicators". You can use a temporary view like I show here or create a permanent view to list all the replicators:

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$ curl -X POST http: //127 .0.0.1:5984 /_replicator/_temp_view -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{    "map" : " function (doc) {              emit(null, doc);            }" }'