efault/
Kiji instance lifecycle:
An instance to Kiji can be retrieved using {@link Kiji.Factory#open(KijiURI)}. Cleanup is requested with the inherited {@link #release()} method. Thus the lifecycle of a Kijiobject looks like:
Kiji kiji = Kiji.Factory.open(kijiURI); // Do some magic kiji.release();
Base Kiji tables within an instance:
Upon installation, a Kiji instance contains a {@link KijiSystemTable}, {@link KijiMetaTable}, and {@link KijiSchemaTable} that each contain information relevant to the operation of Kiji.
- System table: Kiji system and version information.
- Meta table: Metadata about the existing Kiji tables.
- Schema table: Avro Schemas of the cells in Kiji tables.
These tables can be accessed via the {@link #getSystemTable()}, {@link #getMetaTable()}, and {@link #getSchemaTable()} methods respectively.
User tables:
User tables can be accessed using {@link #openTable(String)}. Note that they must be closed after they are no longer necessary.
KijiTable kijiTable = kiji.openTable("myTable"); // Do some table operations kijiTable.close();
Administration of user tables:
The Kiji administration interface contains methods to create, modify, and delete tables from a Kiji instance:
- {@link #createTable(TableLayoutDesc)} - creates a Kiji table with a specified layout.
- {@link #modifyTableLayout(TableLayoutDesc)} - updates a Kiji table with a new layout.
- {@link #deleteTable(String)} - removes a Kiji table from HBase.