GraphAcademy

Using Neo4j with Java

The Driver

Handling results

Best practices

Setup

To experiment with Neo4j and Java during this course you will need to setup a development environment.

Get started

The repository, neo4j-graphacademy/drivers-java, has been created for this course. It contains any starter code and resources you need.

You can use a GitHub codespace as an online IDE and workspace for this course. It will automatically clone the course repository and set up your environment.

GitHub Codespaces

You will need to login with a GitHub account. The GitHub Codespaces free monthly usage will cover the duration of this course.

Open in GitHub Codespace

The repository contains an example Maven project with the required dependencies and a pom.xml file.

Develop on your local machine

You will need Java 17 or higher installed. You can check your version by running java -version. To download Java, you can choose from many supported vendor options. For example, Azul’s JDK or hOpenJDK.

Clone the github.com/neo4j-graphacademy/drivers-java repository:

bash
git clone https://github.com/neo4j-graphacademy/drivers-java

Fork the repository

You can fork the repository and have a copy for future reference.

Install the project and dependencies using Maven:

bash
cd drivers-java
./mvnw clean install -U -DskipTests

You do not need to create a Neo4j database as you will use the provided sandbox instance.

Driver installation

The Neo4j driver is included in the pom.xml file, so you do not need to install it separately.

xml
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.neo4j.driver</groupId>
      <artifactId>neo4j-java-driver</artifactId>
      <version>5.28.4</version>
    </dependency>
Click to view the complete pom.xml file
xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.neo4j.app</groupId>
  <artifactId>drivers-java</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <name>drivers-java</name>
  <url>https://github.com/neo4j-graphacademy/drivers-java</url>

  <properties>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.release>17</maven.compiler.release>
  </properties>

  <dependencyManagement>
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>org.junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit-bom</artifactId>
        <version>5.11.0</version>
        <type>pom</type>
        <scope>import</scope>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
  </dependencyManagement>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.neo4j.driver</groupId>
      <artifactId>neo4j-java-driver</artifactId>
      <version>5.28.4</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit-jupiter-api</artifactId>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <pluginManagement>
      <plugins>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.4.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.3.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.13.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.3.0</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.4.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.1.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.1.2</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.12.1</version>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
          <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>3.6.1</version>
        </plugin>
      </plugins>
    </pluginManagement>
  </build>
</project>

Setup the environment

Create a new /src/main/resources/application.properties file and copy the contents of the example.properties file into it.

Fill in the required values:

Create a resources/application.properties file
NEO4J_URI=
NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j
NEO4J_PASSWORD=

Update the Neo4j sandbox connection details:

NEO4J_URI

neo4j://{sandbox-ip}:{sandbox-boltPort}

NEO4J_USERNAME

{sandbox-username}

NEO4J_PASSWORD

{sandbox-password}

Test your setup

You can test your setup by running the test - src/test/java/com/neo4j/app/AppTest.java.

The test will attempt to load the values in the application.properties file and connect to the Neo4j sandbox.

bash
./mvnw test

You will see Tests run: 2, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0 and a BUILD SUCCESS message if you have set up your environment correctly.

If any tests fail, check the contents of the .application.properties file.

Continue

When you are ready, you can move on to the next task.

Summary

You have setup your environment and are ready to start this module.