Cassandra Data Modeling Tools

There are several tools available to help you design and manage your Cassandra schema and build queries.

• Hackolade is a data modeling tool that supports schema design for Cassandra and many other NoSQL databases. Hackolade supports the unique concepts of CQL such as partition keys and clustering columns, as well as data types including collections and UDTs. It also provides the ability to create Chebotko diagrams.

• Kashlev Data Modeler is a Cassandra data modeling tool that automates the data modeling methodology described in this documentation, including identifying access patterns, conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling, and schema generation. It also includes model patterns that you can optionally leverage as a starting point for your designs.

• DataStax DevCenter is a tool for managing schema, executing queries and viewing results. While the tool is no longer actively supported, it is still popular with many developers and is available as a free download. DevCenter features syntax highlighting for CQL commands, types, and name literals. DevCenter provides command completion as you type out CQL commands and interprets the commands you type, highlighting any errors you make. The tool provides panes for managing multiple CQL scripts and connections to multiple clusters. The connections are used to run CQL commands against live clusters and view the results. The tool also has a query trace feature that is useful for gaining insight into the performance of your queries.

• IDE Plugins - There are CQL plugins available for several Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), such as IntelliJ IDEA and Apache NetBeans. These plugins typically provide features such as schema management and query execution.

Some IDEs and tools that claim to support Cassandra do not actually support CQL natively, but instead access Cassandra using a JDBC/ODBC driver and interact with Cassandra as if it were a relational database with SQL support. Wnen selecting tools for working with Cassandra you’ll want to make sure they support CQL and reinforce Cassandra best practices for data modeling as presented in this documentation.

Material adapted from Cassandra, The Definitive Guide. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Jeff Carpenter, Eben Hewitt. All rights reserved. Used with permission.