Category: RavenDB

I have seen a few people ask how to go about accessing the RavenDB studio when they use RavenDB in embedded mode, normally you would tend to use embedded mode when unit testing.

In the following article I show you how to get the RavenDB Management Studio working in an MVC 3 application.

1. File, New, MVC 3 Application as below:-
2. Choose whatever you prefer in the next window, I chose Internet Application:-
3. Now using Nuget add in the RavenDB Embedded package:-
4. Now we need to add in some details for the application to talk to RavenDB, lets do that now, so edit the global.asax.cs file to have the following code:- [sourcecode language=”csharp”] public static IDocumentStore Store { get; set; }

   public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
   {
   filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
   }

   public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
   {
   routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

   routes.MapRoute(
   "Default", // Route name
   "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
   new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } // Parameter defaults
   );
   }

   protected void Application_Start()
   {
   AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
   RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
   RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

   Store = new EmbeddableDocumentStore {
   DataDirectory = "Data",
   UseEmbeddedHttpServer = true
   };
   Store.Initialize();
   }
   [/sourcecode]

5. Now in order to be able to view the RavenDB Management Studio we need to locate the file Raven.Studio.xap from the packages folder which was created when we added in the Nuget package above.

   The packages folder is located in the directory above the folder in which your solution currently resides, once you locate the packages folder locate the RavenDB-Embedded(version number) folder in my case this is RavenDB-Embedded.1.0.701 – the file we are looking for is in the packages\RavenDB-Embedded.1.0.701\lib\net40\

   Copy the Raven.Studio.xap to the root of your website and now try running your MVC website.

6. Once that loads up now browse to http://localhost:8080 and the RavenDB Studio should load up – and that’s you.
7. If you see this:-

   It means you havent copied the Raven.Studio.xap to the root of your website.

I hope this helps someone out.

Your application is starting to take shape and you want to be able to quickly see what’s going on when using RavenDB.

Step forward the in-built profiling dll which is very easy to set up and get going with, lets implement that along with MiniProfiler.

1. Add the Nuget package MiniProfiler.RavenDb to your application
2. Add the Raven.Client.MvcIntegration dll which can be found in the Client folder when you download the source for RavenDB
3. Add the following to your global.asa.cs file:-
   [sourcecode language=”csharp”] protected void Application_BeginRequest()
   {
   if (Request.IsLocal)
   {
   MiniProfiler.Start();
   }
   }
   [/sourcecode]

   and then :-

   [sourcecode language=”csharp”] protected void Application_EndRequest()
   {
   MiniProfiler.Stop();
   }
   [/sourcecode]
4. Add the following to your global.asa.cs file in the Application_Start event:- [sourcecode language=”csharp”] Raven.Client.MvcIntegration.RavenProfiler.InitializeFor(Store);
   MvcMiniProfiler.RavenDb.Profiler.AttachTo((DocumentStore)Store);
   [/sourcecode]
5. Lastly add the following lines into your _Layout.cshtml file in the Shared folder, under Views:- [sourcecode language=”csharp”] @MvcMiniProfiler.MiniProfiler.RenderIncludes()
   @Raven.Client.MvcIntegration.RavenProfiler.CurrentRequestSessions()
   [/sourcecode]

That’s it – you have now adedd the built in profiler and MiniProfiler for RavenDB, run your application and you can
see that in the top left hand corner you can view the details of whats going on in both profilers:-

MiniProfiler for RavenDB looks like this:-

and this:-

while with the RavenDB profiler we see something like this:-

The in-built profiler from RavenDB shows us how long the query took, the status, result, Method, Url, Query and Actions as well as the actual request details.

All in all both profilers are very hand and very easy to install – go get them installed.

Here is a list of hints and tips if you’re looking for some help with RavenDB.

• Sign up for the mailing list where you can see other people’s previous questions and answers to problems on the View the Google Group.
• To make sure RavenDB doesn’t clash with routing used in MVC change the global.asa.cs file from:-

  {controller}/{action}/{id} to {controller}/{action}/{*id} – Note the * next to the {id} or you can do this.

• If I choose the Embedded version of RavenDB how do I start the server – to start the RavenDB server locate the RavenDB folder and then look for the server folder and then run Raven.Server.Exe
• If I install RavenDB using Nuget then what do I do, locate the packages folder which is in the folder one above the solution you’ve added it to on the file system, locate the RavenDB folder and then look for the server folder and then run Raven.Server.Exe
• How do you view the RavenDB Studio – easiest way is to browse to http://localhost:8080, that’s the default location of installation when you first run the Raven.Server.Exe
• Unit testing – how best to go about it – the recommended way to go about this is by using the EmbeddedDocumentStore
  which is basically all done in memory, you can set it up like this:-
  [sourcecode language=”csharp”] var documentStore = new EmbeddableDocumentStore
  {
  DataDirectory = "Data",
  RunInMemory = true,
  UseEmbeddedHttpServer = true
  };
  [/sourcecode]
• Good RavenDB Samples RavenOverFlow and Racoon Blog

If your stuck with something give me a shout I’ll see if I can shed some light, I’ll be adding more tips as I learn more RavenDB.

This is the first post in a series I will be doing on learning RavenDB, RavenDB is a NoSQL document database written by Ayende Rahien (@ayende on twitter)
The concept is quite new to me and so I have spent a few hours looking at RavenDB.

For those of you who are new to RavenDB and the whole NoSql thing take a look here:-

• Getting Started in RavenDB:- Getting Started in RavenDB
• Pluralsight webcast on RavenDB:- Free Pluralsight webcast on RavenDB
• When should you use RavenDB?:- Why use RavenDB
• When you should not use RavenDB?:- When you should not
• More on RavenDB here:- More posts on RavenDB

Updated: This link is to a blog by one of the devs who works on RavenDB.