How do you use parameters with neo4j?

Question

I am looking at the documentation for neo4j and I see that I can use parameters when I create objects. Specifically when I look at this page I see the code:

{
  "props" : {
    "position" : "Developer",
    "name" : "Andres"
  }
}

Query.

CREATE ({ props })

Yet when I use the web interface to access my neo4j database on my local machine I do not know how to specify the parameter. Simply copy/pasting that JSON object yields an error. I see on the page that

Exactly how to submit them depends on the driver in use.

but how does one use them on that command line/web interface?

Answer 1

Cypher supports queries with parameters which are submitted as JSON. For example, the following is the REST API usage. For the Java embedded API please refer to the following documentation: http://docs.neo4j.org/chunked/milestone/tutorials-cypher-parameters-java.html

MATCH (x { name: { startName }})-[r]-(friend)
WHERE friend.name = { name }
RETURN TYPE(r)

Example request

POST http://localhost:7474/db/data/cypher
Accept: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Content-Type: application/json 

{
  "query" : "MATCH (x {name: {startName}})-[r]-(friend) WHERE friend.name = {name} RETURN TYPE(r)",
  "params" : {
    "startName" : "I",
    "name" : "you"
  }
}

Example response

200: OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8

{
  "columns" : [ "TYPE(r)" ],
  "data" : [ [ "know" ] ]
}

Parameters are not currently supported in regular Cypher statements in the Neo4j 2.0 browser. However, you can use the :POST syntax to achieve this.

Refer to the documentation for more information on Cypher queries via REST API.

http://docs.neo4j.org/chunked/milestone/rest-api-cypher.html

Update:

The following query allows you to accomplish this in the browser, although it is not an ideal experience:

:POST /db/data/transaction/commit {
    "statements": [
        {
            "statement": "MATCH (u:User {name:{username}}) RETURN u.name as username",
            "parameters": {
                "username": "my name"
            }
        }
    ]
}