Maintaining the Integrity of Denormalised Data Automatically

[peteroyle]

Are there any tools or techniques for automatically keeping denormalised data in sync when one instance is updated in one place and needs to be updated in several others?

eg: An instance of Book might appear on a User's WishList, and also on a Bookshelf. In a relational DB you would store Book once and use FKs (normalised). In my very limited understanding of NoSQL, you either invent your own FK system, or store the same Book instance in both places (denormalised), and keep them up to date explicitly in the application code. (Sorry this is a bit of an entry-level, and not specifically infinispan question).

I can imagine a tool might be able to do this housekeeping automatically, so wondering if there's anything existing? If not, is there a good reason why it can't be done that I'm unaware of?

Cheers,  Pete R

[peteroyle]

I've been looking into this some more and starting to think Hibernate OGM might be relevant here. Specifically, the second documented goal of Hibernate OGM:

- moves model denormalization from a manual imperative work to a declarative approach handled by the engine

Still keen to get any other feedback anyone has about this topic in general, or experiences/benefits/drawbacks to using Hibernate OGM.

[mircea.markus]

indeed Hibernate OGM would do that for you.