Update Friend Information in Social Neighborhood

This example shows how to create, update, and delete information in a social neighborhood, which is represented by a Neo4j® database, using the MATLAB® interface to Neo4j.

For details about the MATLAB interface to Neo4j, see Graph Database Workflow for Neo4j Database Interfaces.

Assume that you have graph data stored in a Neo4j database that represents the social neighborhood. This database has seven nodes and eight relationships. Each node has only one unique property key name with a value ranging from User1 through User7. Each relationship has the type knows.

The local machine hosts the Neo4j database with the port number 7474, user name neo4j, and password matlab. This figure provides a visual representation of the data in the database.

Connect to Neo4j Database

Create a Neo4j connection object neo4jconn using the URL http://localhost:7474/db/data, user name neo4j, and password matlab.

url = 'http://localhost:7474/db/data';
username = 'neo4j';
password = 'matlab';

neo4jconn = neo4j(url,username,password);

Check the Message property of the Neo4j connection object neo4jconn. The blank Message property indicates a successful connection.

neo4jconn.Message

ans =

     []

Add Two Friends to Social Neighborhood

Create two nodes in the database using the Neo4j database connection. Use the 'Labels' name-value pair argument to specify the label Person for each node.

label = 'Person';
user8 = createNode(neo4jconn,'Labels',label);
user9 = createNode(neo4jconn,'Labels',label);

Search for the node with the label Person and the property key name set to the value User7 by using the Neo4j database connection.

nlabel = 'Person';
user7 = searchNode(neo4jconn,nlabel,'PropertyKey','name', ...
    'PropertyValue','User7');

Create two relationships using the Neo4j database connection. Specify the relationship types as works with and studies with. The two relationships are:

• User8 works with User7

• User8 studies with User9

relationinfo is a table that contains the relationship and node information.

startnode = [user8,user8];
endnode = [user7,user9];
relationtype = {'works with','studies with'};
relationinfo = createRelation(neo4jconn,startnode,endnode,relationtype);

Update Node Information for Added Friend

Update the properties of the node User8. Create a table with one row that contains the name and job title for this person. nodeinfo is a Neo4jNode object.

properties = table("User8","Analyst",'VariableNames',{'Name','Title'});
nodeinfo = setNodeProperty(neo4jconn,user8,properties);

Add the node label Student to User9.

labels = 'Student';
nodeinfo = addNodeLabel(neo4jconn,user9,labels);

Update Relationship Information for Added Friends

Create a table that defines the relationship properties. Here, User8 works with User7 in the workplace, and User8 studies with User9 in the library. Also, User8 started working with User7 on January 2, 2017, and User8 started studying with User9 on March 6, 2017.

properties = table(["Workplace";"Library"],["01/02/2017";"03/06/2017"], ...
    'VariableNames',{'Location','Date'});

Update both relationships with these properties. relationinfo is a table that contains the updated relationships.

relations = relationinfo.RelationObject;
relationinfo = setRelationProperty(neo4jconn,relations,properties);

Delete Relationship for Added Friend

Delete the relationship that connects User8 to User7.

relation = relations(1);
deleteRelation(neo4jconn,relation)

Delete Friends

Delete the added nodes and any associated relationships.

nodes = [user8,user9];
deleteNode(neo4jconn,nodes,'DeleteRelations',true)

Close Database Connection

close(neo4jconn)