Start the server

First, start the RethinkDB server. Under OS X or Linux, do this from a terminal window.

$ rethinkdb
info: Creating directory 'rethinkdb_data'
info: Listening for intracluster connections on port 29015
info: Listening for client driver connections on port 28015
info: Listening for administrative HTTP connections on port 8080
info: Server ready

From Windows, do this from a command prompt window. Use the cd command to go to the directory that you unpacked rethinkdb.exe in.

C:\Users\Slava\>cd RethinkDB
C:\Users\Slava\RethinkDB\>

Then, start RethinkDB with its default options.

C:\Users\Slava\RethinkDB\>rethinkdb.exe
info: Creating directory 'rethinkdb_data'
info: Listening for intracluster connections on port 29015
info: Listening for client driver connections on port 28015
info: Listening for administrative HTTP connections on port 8080
info: Server ready

Point your browser to localhost:8080. You’ll see an administrative UI where you can control the cluster (which so far consists of one server), and play with the query language.

Run some queries

Click on the Data Explorer tab in the browser. You can manipulate data using JavaScript straight from your browser. By default, RethinkDB creates a database named test. Let’s create a table:

r.db('test').tableCreate('tv_shows')

Use the “Run” button or Shift+Enter to run the query. Now, let’s insert some JSON documents into the table:

r.table('tv_shows').insert([{ name: 'Star Trek TNG', episodes: 178 },
                            { name: 'Battlestar Galactica', episodes: 75 }])

We’ve just inserted two rows into the tv_shows table. Let’s verify the number of rows inserted:

r.table('tv_shows').count()

Finally, let’s do a slightly more sophisticated query. Let’s find all shows with more than 100 episodes.

r.table('tv_shows').filter(r.row('episodes').gt(100))

As a result, we of course get the best science fiction show in existence.

Next steps

Congrats, you’re on your way to database bliss! Now move on to the ten-minute guide and learn how to use the client drivers, get more in-depth information on basic commands, and start writing real applications with RethinkDB.