Cassandra: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. Clients

We’re used to connecting to relational databases using drivers. For example, in Java, JDBC is an API that abstracts the vendor implementation of the relational database to present a consistent way of storing and retrieving data using Statements, PreparedStatements, ResultSets, and so forth.  To interact with the database, you get a driver that works with the particular database you’re using, such as Oracle, SQL Server, or MySQL; the implementation details of this interaction are hidden from the developer. Drivers are typically provided for a wide variety of programming languages to connect to a wide variety of databases.

There are a number of client drivers available for Cassandra as well, including support for most popular languages. There are benefits to these clients, in that you can easily embed them in your own applications (which we’ll see how to do) and that they frequently offer more features than the CQL native interface does, including connection pooling and JMX integration and monitoring. In the following sections, we’ll learn about the various clients available and the features they offer.

Hector, Astyanax, and Other Legacy Clients

In the early days of Cassandra, the community produced a number of client drivers for different languages. These contributions were a key enabler of Cassandra adoption. Some of the most notable early drivers included Hector and Astyanax.

Named after Cassandra’s brother, a warrior of Troy in Greek mythology, Hector was ...