This month's session:

Introducing MongoDB and how to get the most out of it

One of the challenges that comes with moving to MongoDB is figuring how to best model your data. While most developers have internalized the rules of thumb for designing schemas for RDBMSs, these rules don't always apply to MongoDB. The simple fact that documents can represent rich, schema-free data structures means that we have a lot of viable alternatives to the standard, normalized, relational model. Not only that, MongoDB has several unique features,
such as atomic updates and indexed array keys, that greatly influence the kinds of schemas that make sense.

In this session, Derick Rethans will answer these questions and more, provide a number of data modeling rules of thumb, and discuss the tradeoffs of various data modeling strategies. He will also provide information on MongoDB's strong points, such as scalability and performance.

Derick (@derickr) is a PHP internals expert, author of Xdebug and an OpenStreetMap and mapping enthusiast. He's now working with 10gen to help improve the MongoDB PHP driver.

Should be a little something for everyone in there and it's a good chance to support home-grown talent. Doors open at 6.15pm for a 6.30pm start. After the meetup we'll head to one of the local pubs for food and drinks.

A regular meetup for folks from across the region who are practising or learning the art of programming with PHP. You can also keep up-to-date and follow the developments by joining in the online group.

Directions to the GIST Lab, a creative community collaboration space operated by The GIST Foundation in partnership with the Showroom Workstation, are here.