Graph Databases in Action

2 Graph data modeling

This chapter covers

• Defining project goals and terminology with business or end users
• Building a conceptual data model for the entities and their relationships
• Translating a conceptual data model into a graph data model
• Comparing graph data modeling concepts to relational data modeling concepts
• Constructing the graph data model for our social network use case

Let’s say you want to build a fire pit in your backyard. How would you approach this problem? Would you just start building something and hope that it comes out all right, or would you sit back and draw a picture of what you want to accomplish? When building anything, be it software or a backyard fire pit, it’s crucial that you start with a good mental picture of ...