# com.google.appengine.api.datastore
Date: 2012-02-24

## Package com.google.appengine.api.datastore

The datastore provides persistent storage for App Engine applications, used either directly or via the provided JDO or JPA interfaces.

See:
Description

Interface Summary
AsyncDatastoreService: An asynchronous version of `DatastoreService`.
BaseDatastoreService: Methods that are common between `DatastoreService` and `AsyncDatastoreService`.
CallbackContext<T>: Describes the context in which a callback runs.
DatastoreConfig: Deprecated. Use `DatastoreServiceConfig` instead.
DatastoreService: The `DatastoreService` provides synchronous access to a schema-less data storage system.
PreparedQuery: Contains methods for fetching and returning entities from a `Query`.
QueryResultIterable<T>: A class that produces `QueryResultIterator`s.
QueryResultIterator<T>: A class that iterates through the results of a `Query`
QueryResultList<T>: A list of results returned by executing a `Query`.
Transaction: Describes a logical unit of work to be performed against the datastore.

Class Summary
Blob: `Blob` contains an array of bytes.
Category: A tag, ie a descriptive word or phrase.
CompositeIndexManager: Composite index management operations needed by the datastore api.
Cursor: A cursor that represents a position in a query.
DatastoreApiHelper: Helper methods and constants shared by classes that implement the java api on top of the datastore.
DatastoreAttributes: Attributes of a datastore.
DatastoreServiceConfig: User-configurable properties of the datastore.
DatastoreServiceConfig.Builder: Contains static creation methods for `DatastoreServiceConfig`.
DatastoreServiceFactory: Creates DatastoreService implementations.
DataTypeTranslator: `DataTypeTranslator` is a utility class for converting between the data store's `Property` protocol buffers and the the user-facing classes (`String`, `User`, etc.).
DataTypeTranslator.ComparableByteArray: A wrapper for a `byte[]` that implements `Comparable`.
DataTypeUtils: `DataTypeUtils` presents a simpler interface that allows user-code to determine what Classes can safely be stored as properties in the data store.
DeleteContext: Concrete `CallbackContext` implementation that is specific to delete() callbacks.
Email: An e-mail address datatype.
Entity: `Entity` is the fundamental unit of data storage.
EntityProtoComparators: Utilities for comparing `OnestoreEntity.EntityProto`.
EntityProtoComparators.EntityProtoComparator
EntityTranslator: `EntityTranslator` contains the logic to translate an `Entity` into the protocol buffers that are used to pass it to the implementation of the API.
FetchOptions: Describes the limit, offset, and chunk size to be applied when executing a `PreparedQuery`.
FetchOptions.Builder: Contains static creation methods for `FetchOptions`.
GeoPt: A geographical point, specified by float latitude and longitude coordinates.
IMHandle: An instant messaging handle.
Index: A Datastore `Index` definition.
Index.Property: An indexed property.
Key: The primary key for a datastore entity.
KeyFactory: Allows you to create arbitrary `Key` objects in the root entity group group (no parent).
KeyFactory.Builder: Helper class that aids in the construction of `Keys` with ancestors.
KeyRange: Represents a range of unique datastore identifiers from `getStart().getId()` to `getEnd().getId()` inclusive.
Link: A `Link` is a URL of limited length.
PhoneNumber: A human-readable phone number.
PostalAddress: A human-readable mailing address.
PutContext: Concrete `CallbackContext` implementation that is specific to put() callbacks.
Query: `Query` encapsulates a request for zero or more `Entity` objects out of the datastore.
Query.FilterPredicate: FilterPredicate is a data container that holds a single filter predicate.
Query.SortPredicate: SortPredicate is a data container that holds a single sort predicate.
Rating: A user-provided integer rating for a piece of content.
ReadPolicy: Policy for reads.
ShortBlob: `ShortBlob` contains an array of bytes no longer than `DataTypeUtils.MAX_SHORT_BLOB_PROPERTY_LENGTH`.
Text: `Text` wraps around a string of unlimited size.
TransactionOptions: Describes options for transactions, passed at transaction creation time.
TransactionOptions.Builder: Contains static creation methods for `TransactionOptions`.

Enum Summary
DatastoreAttributes.DatastoreType: Indicates the type of datastore being used.
DatastoreService.KeyRangeState: Indicates the state of a `KeyRange`.
IMHandle.Scheme: Supported IM schemes.
ImplicitTransactionManagementPolicy: Describes the various policies the datastore can follow for implicit transaction management.
Index.IndexState: Indicates the state of the `Index`.
Query.FilterOperator: FilterOperator specifies what type of operation you want to apply to your filter.
Query.SortDirection: SortDirection controls the order of a sort.
ReadPolicy.Consistency: Setting the `Consistency` for reads allows you to decide whether freshness or availability is more important.

Exception Summary
CommittedButStillApplyingException: `CommittedButStillApplyingException` is thrown when the write or transaction was committed, but some entities or index rows may not have been fully updated.
DatastoreFailureException: `DatastoreFailureException` is thrown when any unknown error occurs while communicating with the data store.
DatastoreNeedIndexException: `DatastoreNeedIndexException` is thrown when no matching index was found for a query requiring an index.
DatastoreTimeoutException: `DatastoreTimeoutException` is thrown when a datastore operation times out.
EntityNotFoundException: `EntityNotFoundException` is thrown when no `Entity` with the specified `Key` could be found.
PreparedQuery.TooManyResultsException: Indicates that too many results were found for `PreparedQuery.asSingleEntity()`.

Annotation Types Summary
PostDelete: Identifies a callback method to be invoked after an `Entity` of any of the specified kinds is deleted from the datastore.
PostPut: Identifies a callback method to be invoked after an `Entity` of any of the specified kinds is written to the datastore.
PreDelete: Identifies a callback method to be invoked before an `Entity` of any of the specified kinds is deleted from the datastore.
PrePut: Identifies a callback method to be invoked before an `Entity` of any of the specified kinds is written to the datastore.

## Package com.google.appengine.api.datastore Description

The datastore provides persistent storage for App Engine applications, used either directly or via the provided JDO or JPA interfaces. It provides redundant storage for fault-tolerance. More information is available in the on-line documentation.

This package contains a low-level API to the datastore that is intended primarily for framework authors. Applications authors should consider using either the provided JDO or JPA interfaces to the datastore. If using the datastore API directly, a common pattern of usage is:

     // Get a handle on the datastore itself
     DatastoreService datastore = DatastoreServiceFactory.getDatastoreService();

     // Lookup data by known key name
     Entity userEntity = datastore.get(KeyFactory.createKey("UserInfo", email));

     // Or perform a query
     Query query = new Query("Task");
     query.addFilter("dueDate", Query.FilterOperator.LESS_THAN, today);
     for (Entity taskEntity : datastore.prepare(query).asIterable()) {
       if ("done".equals(taskEntity.getProperty("status"))) {
         datastore.delete(taskEntity);
       } else {
         taskEntity.setProperty("status", "overdue");
         datastore.put(taskEntity);
       }
     }

This illustrates several basic points:

- The actual datastore itself is accessed through a `DatastoreService` object, produced from a `DatastoreServiceFactory`.
- The unit of storage is the `Entity` object, which are of named kinds ("UserInfo" and "Task" above).
- Entities have a `Key` value, which can be created by a `KeyFactory` to retrieve a specific known entity. If the key is not readily determined, then `Query` objects can be used to retrieve one Entity, multiple as a list, `Iterable`, or `Iterator`, or to retrive the count of matching entities.
- Entities have named properties, the values of which may be basic types or collections of basic types. Richer objects, of course, may be stored if serialized as byte arrays, although that may prevent effective querying by those properties.
- Entities may be associated in a tree structure; the `Query` in the snippet above searches only for Task entities associated with a specific UserInfo entity, and then filters those for Tasks due before today.

In production, non-trivial queries cannot be performed until one or more indexes have been built to ensure that the individual queries can be processed efficiently. You can specify the set of indexes your application requires in a `WEB-INF/datastore-indexes.xml` file, or they can be generated automatically as you test your application in the Development Server. If a query requires an index that cannot be found, a `DatastoreNeedIndexException` will be thrown at runtime.

Although Google App Engine allows many versions of your application to be accessible, there is only one datastore for your application, shared by all versions. Similarly, the set of indexes is shared by all application versions.