I have been using Redis with ServiceStack.net and Spine.js / Backbone.js for a number of Single-Page Web Applications. My exposure to Redis in these applications has been nothing short of amazing. Redis is far more than a key value store and its implementation of various data structures and functionality, like Lists, Sets, Pub/Sub, etc. will get you wondering how you can take advantage of these features in the real-world.
This is where a book like Redis Cookbook helps. It's goal isn't to teach you the basics of Redis. It'll take you all of about 1 hour to install Redis and get familiar with the various commands. The goal of Redis Cookbook is to take you to the next level by showing you various real-world problems solved by using the additional data structures. Exposure to these problem-solution scenarios will help you better understand the usefulness of the features and how best to use them. If you are just getting started with Redis, these real-world scenarios will probably provide you that aha moment you've been looking for.
The key to the book is Chapter 3, Leveraging Redis, which goes into examples like:
- Using Redis as a Typical Key Value Store.
- Implementing OAuth on Top of Redis
- Using Redis' Pub/Sub Functionality to Create a Chat System
- Implementing Inverted-Index Text Search with Redis
- Analytics and Time-Based Data
- Implementing a Job Queue with Redis
- etc...
Even if you don't find those examples useful or valuable, the real value is the explanation of the various data structures and ways to use them to solve problems that go beyond the problems mentioned in the book. In addition to explaining how to use the data structures, the book even discusses how not to use the Lists, Sets, Sorted Sets, etc. to avoid performance issues and other problems. I had my doubts about the book since it was fairly thin ( 76 pages ), but the problem-solution-discussion approach works well for teaching not only how to use Redis, but how the data structures help solve patterns of common problems faced in many applications.
If you have read the online documentation and samples for Redis and it is still not clear as to the usefulness of the data structures in your applications and how to use them, the Redis Cookbook should help you bridge that gap in your knowledge and give you a far better appreciation for Redis.
I received Redis Cookbook as part of OReilly Blogger Review Program.