Build a recommendation

engine with Neo4j

Logistics
Wi-fi
network: CodeNode
password: welovecode

Grab a USB key from one of the tables

Install Neo4j 3.x
Copy the data directory and apoc.jar onto
your machine

Join: meetup.com/graphdb-london
Join neo4j.com/slack #london-reco-201609

Introducing our data set...

meetup.coms recommendations

Recommendation queries
Several different types
groups to join
topics to follow
events to attend

As a user of meetup.com trying to find

groups to join and events to attend

The data

meetup.com/meetup_api/

What data do we have?

Groups
Members
Events
Topics
Time & Date
Location

Find similar groups to Neo4j

As a member of the Neo4j London group
I want to find other similar meetup groups
So that I can join those groups

What makes groups similar?

Recommend groups by topic

Open your browser to http://localhost:7474
Type the following command:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/file

Follow Along
Run the first guide with us

Take Note
Indexes and Constraints

Unique constraints
We create unique constraints to:
ensure uniqueness
allow fast lookup of nodes which match
these label/property pairs.

Unique constraints
We create unique constraints to:
ensure uniqueness
allow fast lookup of nodes which match
these label/property pairs.
CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (t:Topic)
ASSERT t.id IS UNIQUE

Indexes
We create indexes to:
allow fast lookup of nodes which match
these label/property pairs.

Indexes
We create indexes to:
allow fast lookup of nodes which match
these label/property pairs.
CREATE INDEX ON :Group(name)

Indexes
The following are index backed:

Equality
STARTS WITH
CONTAINS,
ENDS WITH
Range searches
(Non-)existence checks

How does Neo4j use indexes?

Indexes are only used to find the starting
point for queries.
Graph
Relational
Use index scans to look up
rows in tables and join them
with rows from other tables

Use indexes to find the starting

points for a query.

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Exercise
Explore the Graph

Solution
Explore the Graph

Explore the graph

Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/answers/1.html

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Next Step
Group Membership

Exclude groups Im a member of

As a member of the Neo4j London group
I want to find other similar meetup groups
that Im not already a member of
So that I can join those groups

Group memberships

Next Guide
Group Membership

Watch Out
Transactions & WITH

Periodic Commit
Cypher keeps all transaction state in memory
while running a query which is fine most of the
time.

Periodic Commit
Cypher keeps all transaction state in memory
while running a query which is fine most of the
time.
But when using LOAD CSV, this state can get
very large and may result in an OutOfMemory
exception.

Periodic Commit
// defaults to 1000
USING PERIODIC COMMIT
LOAD CSV
...

Periodic Commit
// defaults to 1000
USING PERIODIC COMMIT 10000
LOAD CSV
...

WITH
The WITH clause allows query parts to be chained
together, piping the results from one to be used
as starting points or criteria in the next.

WITH
Its used to:
limit the number of entries that are then
passed on to other MATCH clauses.
filter on aggregated values
separate reading from updating of the graph

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Exercise
Find yourself and your groups

Solution
Find yourself and your groups

Explore the graph

Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/answers/2.html

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Find my similar groups

As a member of several meetup groups
I want to find other similar meetup groups
that Im not already a member of
So that I can join those groups

Next Step
Member Interest

Member interests

Attention
Lists with split & UNWIND

Splitting up topic ids

The split function lets us convert a string
into a string array based on a delimiting
character.

Splitting up topic ids

The split function lets us convert a string
into a string array based on a delimiting
character.
RETURN split("1;2;3", ";") AS topicIds
[1, 2, 3]

Splitting up topic ids

We can use UNWIND to explode any array or list
back into individual rows.

Splitting up topic ids

We can use UNWIND to explode the resulting
array back into individual rows.
UNWIND [1,2,3] AS value
RETURN value
1
2
3

Splitting up topic ids

UNWIND split("1;2;3", ";") AS topicId
RETURN topicId
1
2
3

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Exercise
My inferred interests

Solution
My inferred interests

My inferred interests
Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/answers/3.html

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Next Guide
Events

Exercise
Event recommendations

Solution
Event recommendations

Event recommendations
Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:

:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/4.html

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Next Guide
Venues

Exercise
Import venues

Solution
Import venues

Import venues
Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/5a.html

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Next Step
Calculating Distances

Calculating distances
The distance function lets us find the
distance in metres between two points

Calculating distances
The distance function lets us find the
distance in metres between two points
Points can be maps or nodes which contain the
properties 'latitude' and 'longitude'.
RETURN distance(point1, point2)

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Exercise
Using venues in recommendation

Solution
Using venues in recommendation

Using venues in recommendations

Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/answers/5b.html

Using venues in recommendations

WITH {latitude: 51.518551, longitude: -0.086114} AS here
MATCH (member:Member {name: "Mark Needham"})
-[:MEMBER_OF]->()-[:HOSTED_EVENT]->(futureEvent),
(venue)<-[:VENUE]-(futureEvent)
WHERE futureEvent.time > timestamp()
RETURN group.name,
futureEvent.name,
round((futureEvent.time - timestamp()) / (24.0*60*60*1000)) AS days,
distance(venue, here) AS distance
ORDER BY days, distance

Venues close to here

WITH {latitude: 51.518551, longitude: -0.086114} AS here
MATCH (member:Member {name: "Mark Needham"})
-[:MEMBER_OF]->()-[:HOSTED_EVENT]->(futureEvent),
(venue)<-[:VENUE]-(futureEvent)
WHERE futureEvent.time > timestamp()
WITH group, futureEvent, distance(venue, here) AS distance
WHERE distance < 1000
RETURN group.name,
futureEvent.name,
round((futureEvent.time - timestamp()) / (24.0*60*60*1000)) AS days,
distance
ORDER BY days, distance

Next Guide
RSVPs

Exercise
Events at my venues

Solution
Events at my venues

Events at my venues
Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/6.html

Next Guide
Procedures

Exercise
Import photos metadata

Solution
Import photos metadata

Import photos metadata

Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/7.html

Next Guide
Latent Social Graph

Watch Out
Transaction State

Transaction State
Cypher keeps all transaction state in memory
while running a query which is fine most of the
time.
But when refactoring the graph, this state can
get very large and may result in an
OutOfMemory exception.

Batch all the things

We therefore need to take a batched approach
to large scale refactorings.
MATCH (m1:Process) WITH m1 LIMIT 1000
REMOVE m1:Process
WITH m1
// do the refactoring

Continue
Continue with the Guide

Exercise
Add friends to recommendation

Solution
Add friends to recommendation

Add friends to recommendation

Type the following command into the Neo4j
browser to see the answers:
:play http://guides.neo4j.com/reco/8.html

Next Guide
Scoring

Next Guide
Your turn

Thats all for today! Thank you!

Graph Connect San Francisco is only around the corner!

http://graphconnect.com/