Graphflow: An Active Graph Database

Abstract

Many applications detect the emergence or deletion of certain subgraphs in their input graphs continuously. In order to evaluate such continuous subgraph queries, these applications resort to inefficient or highly specialized solutions because existing graph databases are passive systems that only support one-time subgraph queries. We demonstrate <i>Graphflow</i>, a prototype <i>active graph data-base</i> that evaluates general one-time and continuous subgraph queries. Graphflow supports the property graph data model and the Cypher++ query language, which extends Neo4j's declarative Cypher language with <i>subgraph-condition-action triggers</i>. At the core of Graphflow's query processor are two worst-case optimal join algorithms called Generic Join and our new Delta Generic Join algorithm for one-time and continuous subgraph queries, respectively.