Using Cypher without Neo4j

Question

How can I use Neo4j's Cypher query language without Neo4j ?

Our open source project can build system dependency graphs, and we would like to allow users to run custom queries.

The graph does not need to be stored in a database, a simple in-memory cache is enough for most use cases.
We don't want to reinvent a graph query language though, and Cypher is the most user friendly.
I'm looking for a way to use Cypher directly on some kind of Graph Java object. The API seems decoupled enough to allow it.

Answer 1

Cypher is an open specification (not a language) delivered over the openCypher project .

Here you can find some open implementations of this specification including:

• Neo4j Cypher DSL Implementation using Jetbrains MPS
• A Cypher Parser written in C language
• and a Cypher Parser written in Erlang

I believe that if these implementations are not useful for you, then you can use the ANTLR grammar of Cypher to generate a parser targeting another programming language. ANTLR can generate parsers targeting Java, C#, JavaScript and others.

Answer 2

Cypher is an open language, with the opencypher initiative : http://www.opencypher.org/

So you will find on the website, all you need to implement cypher (grammar, tck, ...).

Cheers