---
id: getting-started
title: Getting Started with java FFI Module
sidebar_position: 1
---

## Overview

Based on an efficient FFI for Java and C++ called
[fastFFI](https://github.com/alibaba/fastFFI), the GraphAr Java
library allows users to write Java for generating, loading and
transforming GraphAr format files. It consists of several components:

- **Information Classes**: As same with in the C++ library, the
   information classes are implemented to construct and access the meta
   information about the **graphs**, **vertices** and **edges** in
   GraphAr.

- **Writers**: The GraphAr Java writer provides a set of interfaces
   that can be used to write Apache Arrow VectorSchemaRoot into GraphAr format
   files. Every time it takes a VectorSchemaRoot as the logical table
   for a type of vertices or edges, then convert it to ArrowTable, and
   then dumps it to standard GraphAr format files (CSV, ORC or Parquet files) under
   the specific directory path.

- **Readers**: The GraphAr Java reader provides a set of interfaces
   that can be used to read GraphAr format files. It reads a collection of vertices
   or edges at a time and assembles the result into the ArrowTable.
   Similar with the reader in the C++ library, it supports the users to
   specify the data they need, e.g., reading a single property group
   instead of all properties.

## Get GraphAr Java Library

### Building from source

Only support installing from source currently, but we will support
installing from Maven in the future.

Firstly, install llvm-11. `LLVM11_HOME` should point to the home of
LLVM 11. In Ubuntu, it is at `/usr/lib/llvm-11`. Basically, the build
procedure the following binary:

- `$LLVM11_HOME/bin/clang++`
- `$LLVM11_HOME/bin/ld.lld`
- `$LLVM11_HOME/lib/cmake/llvm`

Tips:

- Use Ubuntu as example:

```bash
sudo apt-get install llvm-11 clang-11 lld-11 libclang-11-dev libz-dev -y
export LLVM11_HOME=/usr/lib/llvm-11
```

- Or compile from source with this [script](https://github.com/alibaba/fastFFI/blob/main/docker/install-llvm11.sh):

```bash
export LLVM11_HOME=/usr/lib/llvm-11
export LLVM_VAR=11.0.0
sudo ./install-llvm11.sh
```

Make the graphar-java-library directory as the current working
directory:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/apache/incubator-graphar.git
cd incubator-graphar
git submodule update --init
cd maven-projects/java
```

Compile package:

```bash
mvn clean install -DskipTests
```

This will build GraphAr C++ library internally for Java. If you already installed GraphAr C++ library in your system,
you can append this option to skip: `-DbuildGarCPP=OFF`.

Then set GraphAr as a dependency in maven project:

```xml
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.apache.graphar</groupId>
      <artifactId>java</artifactId>
      <version>0.1.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>
```

## How to use

### Information classes

The Java library for GraphAr provides distinct information classes for
constructing and accessing meta information about graphs, vertices, and
edges. These classes act as essential parameters for constructing
readers and writers, and they can be built either from the existing meta
files (in the Yaml format) or in-memory from scratch.

To construct information from a Yaml file, please refer to the following
example code.

```java
// read graph yaml and construct information
String path = ...; // the path to the yaml file
Result<StdSharedPtr<GraphInfo>> graphInfoResult = GraphInfo.load(path);
if (!graphInfoResult.hasError()) {
    GraphInfo graphInfo = graphInfoResult.value().get();
    // use information classes
    StdVector<StdSharedPtr<@CXXReference VertexInfo>> vertexInfos = graphInfo.getVertexInfos();
    StdVector<StdSharedPtr<@CXXReference EdgeInfo>> edgeInfos = graphInfo.getEdgeInfos();
}
```

See [test for
graphinfo](https://github.com/apache/incubator-graphar/blob/main/maven-projects/java/src/test/java/org/apache/graphar/graphinfo)
for the complete example.

### Writers

The GraphAr Java writers wrap C++ interfaces to write arrow::Table into GraphAr
formatted files in a batch-import fashion. But arrow::Table is not easy
to build in Java. Instead, the GraphAr Java library provide a static
method to convert VectorSchemaRoot into arrow::Table. Warning: There are
some problems concerning this method which lead to memory leaks. We will
fix it or rewrite writers with Apache arrow Java.

With the VertexWriter, users can specify a particular property group to
be written into its corresponding chunks, or choose to write all
property groups. For edge chunks, besides the meta data (edge info), the
adjList type should also be specified. The adjList/properties can be
written alone, or alternatively, all adjList, properties, and the offset
(for CSR and CSC format) chunks can be written simultaneously.

To utilize the GraphAr Java writer, please refer to the following example
code.

```java
// common steps to construct VectorSchemaRoot
String uri = "file:" + ...; // data source
ScanOptions options = new ScanOptions(/*batchSize*/ 32768);
StdSharedPtr<ArrowTable> table = null;
try (BufferAllocator allocator = new RootAllocator();
        DatasetFactory datasetFactory =
           new FileSystemDatasetFactory(
                   allocator, NativeMemoryPool.getDefault(), FileFormat.PARQUET, uri);
        Dataset dataset = datasetFactory.finish();
        Scanner scanner = dataset.newScan(options);
        ArrowReader reader = scanner.scanBatches()) {
    while (reader.loadNextBatch()) {
        try (VectorSchemaRoot root = reader.getVectorSchemaRoot()) {
            // convert VectorSchemaRoot to ArrowTable
            table = ArrowTable.fromVectorSchemaRoot(allocator, root, reader);
        }
    }
} catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
}

// construct writer object
String path = ...; // file to be wrote
StdString edgeMetaFile = StdString.create(path);
StdSharedPtr<Yaml> edgeMeta = Yaml.loadFile(edgeMetaFile).value();
StdSharedPtr<EdgeInfo> edgeInfo = EdgeInfo.load(edgeMeta).value();
EdgeChunkWriter writer = EdgeChunkWriter.factory.create(
                        edgeInfo, StdString.create("/tmp/"), AdjListType.ordered_by_source);

// write table with writer object
writer.sortAndWriteAdjListTable(table, 0, 0); // Write adj list of vertex chunk 0 to files
```

See [test for
writers](https://github.com/apache/incubator-graphar/blob/main/maven-projects/java/src/test/java/org/apache/graphar/writers)
for the complete example.

### Readers

The GraphAr Java reader provides an extensive set of interfaces to read
GraphAr format files. It reads a collection of vertices or edges at a time as
ArrowTable. Similar with the reader in C++ library, it supports the
users to specify the data they need, e.g., a single property group.

To utilize the GraphAr Java reader, please refer to the following example
code.

```java
// construct vertex chunk reader
graphInfo = ...; // load graph meta info
StdString label = StdString.create("person");
StdString propertyName = StdString.create("id");
        if (graphInfo.get().getVertexInfo(label).get() == null) {
        // throw Exception or do other things
        }
StdSharedPtr<PropertyGroup> group =
        graphInfo.get().getVertexInfo(label).get().getPropertyGroup(propertyName);

Result<StdSharedPtr<VertexPropertyArrowChunkReader>> maybeReader =
        GrapharStaticFunctions.INSTANCE.constructVertexPropertyArrowChunkReader(
                graphInfo, label, group);
// check reader's status if needed
StdSharedPtr<VertexPropertyArrowChunkReader> reader = maybeReader.value();
Result<StdSharedPtr<ArrowTable>> result = reader.get().getChunk();
// check table's status if needed
StdSharedPtr<ArrowTable> table = result.value();
```

See [test for
readers](https://github.com/apache/incubator-graphar/blob/main/maven-projects/java/src/test/java/org/apache/graphar/readers)
for the complete example.