Consider update to next main version of neo4j-php-client

[stefanak-michal]

I noticed your repo is active while original one isn't. So I would like to reach out here.

This project is currently using https://github.com/neo4j-php/neo4j-php-client version 2. Version 3 is out for some time (thanks php graph group) and it contains a lot of improvements, including using latest version of bolt protocol library https://github.com/neo4j-php/Bolt. That is very important because it allows to connect to latest Neo4j versions. Moving to next main version of neo4j-php-client gives you big leap in bolt library version from 4 to 7 where was a huge step forward. Would you consider update towards this dependency?

Anybody who is willing to help in the tech stack php/graph databases, or you are open for discussion you can reach out on https://discord.gg/WeHFjrnn

Btw low level bolt library allows you to connect to memgraph or amazon neptune, not only neo4j. But I understand that is different story.

[joseraul]

Hi @stefanak-michal! Thanks for the heads-up.

I’ll create a task in our backlog, and we’ll take a look.
Do you know if the public API differs significantly between neo4j-php-client and Bolt?

Cheers!

[stefanak-michal]

If you mean with API set of classes and methods to work with then neo4j-php-client and bolt are significantly different.

• neo4j-php-client is enterprise level which contains set of extra features available only in Neo4j ecosystem and it follows approach of other official Neo4j drivers (driver -> session -> transaction -> statement -> result)
• Bolt is low level and it's written to follow Bolt specification https://neo4j.com/docs/bolt/current/bolt/ (connection -> protocol -> bolt message -> response) you can check code example here https://github.com/neo4j-php/Bolt?tab=readme-ov-file#example
• The difference is also how you get the response, it is more raw in bolt than from neo4j-php-client

Of course it has advantages and disadvanteges, for example:

• using neo4j-php-client you have access to features you don't have to develop yourself, if you need them (connection pooling, handling cluster connection with routing, bookmarks manager, error recovery and even more)
• using neo4j-php-client you are protected from major change in low level library (bolt) ..but bolt library version 7 is very stable and mature, and so far I'm not aware of any planned bigger changes in bolt specification which would affect that
• using bolt you have access to any database which adopted bolt specification (I know about Memgraph, Amazon Neptune, ONgDB and DozerDB)
• using bolt library you will get update to latest Neo4j version faster

I hope this will provide some insight. I'm open for more questions.

[joseraul]

thanks! we will take a look