MySQL Observer concept
I have been playing with Redis, MongoDB and CouchDB, in my exploration of the burgeoning NoSQL movement.
Having used MySQL for years, I have used most of the features, short of clustering and stored procedures. MySQL has a LOT of great features, but most require careful planning to exploit fully.
Briefly I was enamored with fulltext search, but it tends to cause issues as your database grows and you need to make changes to the schema.
As I thought about replicating data, in the context of MySQL and the new NoSQL kids, an idea took hold - the MySQL Observer.
What if MySQL could replicate data to a different kind of server? One with different indexes?
For example, in a typical master - slave replication deployment, servers replicate the data, structure and indexes.
If you want a few servers optimized for search or reporting, its not possible today.
In steps the MySQL Observer, which is a MySQL server configured to observe the replication stream from any slave or master server. The difference being, it would only capture structure and data, but could overlay its own indexes.
The Observer could never replicate or be elevated to master, and significant schema changes would require the indexes be rebuilt.
Your data could be used in the all sorts of ways, while relying on the MySQL engine.
This lead me to another thought, we need a uniform standard for replicating data between data stores. But thats another post...
