This document is the reference guide for Spring Data - Document Support. It explains Document module concepts and semantics and the syntax for various stores namespaces.
This section provides some basic introduction to Spring and Document database. The rest of the document refers only to Spring Data Document features and assumes the user is familiar with document databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB as well as Spring concepts.
Spring Data uses Spring framework's core functionality, such as the IoC container, type conversion system, expression language, JMX integration, and portable DAO exception hierarchy. While it is not important to know the Spring APIs, understanding the concepts behind them is. At a minimum, the idea behind IoC should be familiar for whatever IoC container you choose to use.
The core functionality of the MongoDB and CouchDB support can be
used directly, with no need to invoke the IoC services of the Spring
Container. This is much like JdbcTemplate which
can be used 'standalone' without any other services of the Spring
container. To leverage all the features of Spring Data document, such as
the repository support, you will need to configure some parts of the
library using Spring.
To learn more about Spring, you can refer to the comprehensive (and sometimes disarming) documentation that explains in detail the Spring Framework. There are a lot of articles, blog entries and books on the matter - take a look at the Spring framework home page for more information.
NoSQL stores have taken the storage world by storm. It is a vast domain with a plethora of solutions, terms and patterns (to make things worth even the term itself has multiple meanings). While some of the principles are common, it is crucial that the user is familiar to some degree with the stores supported by DATADOC. The best way to get acquainted to this solutions is to read their documentation and follow their examples - it usually doesn't take more then 5-10 minutes to go through them and if you are coming from an RDMBS-only background many times these exercises can be an eye opener.
The jumping off ground for learning about MongoDB is www.mongodb.org. Here is a list of other useful resources.
The online shell provides a convenient way to interact with a MongoDB instance in combination with the online tutorial.
MongoDB Java Language Center
Several books available for purchase
Karl Seguin's online book: "The Little MongoDB Book"