Book excerpt: Three of CouchDB's creators show you how to use this document-oriented database as a standalone application framework or with high-volume, distributed applications. With its simple model for storing, processing, and accessing data, CouchDB is ideal for web applications that handle huge amounts of loosely structured data. That alone would stretch the limits of a relational database, yet CouchDB offers an open source solution that's reliable, scales easily, and responds quickly. CouchDB works with self-contained data that has loose or ad-hoc connections. It's a model that fits many real-world items, such as contacts, invoices, and receipts, but you'll discover that this database can easily handle data of any kind. With this book, you'll learn how to work with CouchDB through its RESTful web interface, and become familiar with key features such as simple document CRUD (create, read, update, delete), advanced MapReduce, deployment tuning, and more. Understand the basics of document-oriented storage and manipulation Interact with CouchDB entirely though HTTP using its RESTful interface Model data as self-contained JSON documents Handle evolving data schemas naturally Query and aggregate data in CouchDB using MapReduce views Replicate data between nodes Tune CouchDB for increased performance and reliability