Thrift to cql : mixed static and dynamic columns with secondary index

[Clement Honore]

Hi,

I'm trying to migrate from Cassandra 1.1 and Hector to a more up-to-date
stack like Cassandra 1.2+ and CQL3.

I have read http://www.datastax.com/dev/blog/thrift-to-cql3
<https://webmail.one.grp/owa/redir.aspx?C=d70889e7914440b0ad13875bf00770a8&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.datastax.com%2fdev%2fblog%2fthrift-to-cql3>
but
my use case adds a complexity which seems not documented : I have a mixed
column family with a secondary index.

The column family has one explicitly declared column, which is indexed
natively.
In this column family, I'm also adding columns dynamically : some with
predictive names, some with dynamic names.

If I try to query this table in cql, I can access only the declared column
(as stated in the documentation above).

If I change the declaration by removing the explicitly declared column (as
explained in the documentation above), I loose the secondary index on it.

If I explicitly declare all the columns with an already known name
(assuming I accept that I will get plenty of columns with a null value for
the lines which don't have those attributes), I still can't manage columns
with a dynamic name.
And I can't declare a collection as my  comparator is UTF8Type.

Should I migrate in a new table if I want to keep all the functionalities?
This is really a solution I want to avoid.

Here is an example representing my actual schema :

I have a column family "REF_File" referencing my files.
A file always has a "folder". The "folder" is indexed to easily find my
files.
A file may have some attributes like "name", "size", "mime ".
A file may have some comments referenced by a column "COM_X" where "X" is
the comment ID.

Column family creation :

Create column family REF_File with comparator=UTF8Type and
default_validation_class=UTF8Type and key_validation_class=UTF8Type and
column_metadata=[{column_name: folder, validation_class: UTF8Type,
index_type: KEYS}];

set REF_File['id1']['folder']=folder1;
set REF_File['id1']['name']=file1;
set REF_File['id1']['size']=1234;
set REF_File['id1']['COM_1']='';
set REF_File['id1']['COM_2']='';
set REF_File['id2']['folder']=folder1;
set REF_File['id2']['name']=file2;
set REF_File['id2']['mime']='image/jpeg';
set REF_File['id2']['COM_1']='';

Requesting :

[default@DUNE_metadonnees] list REF_File;
Using default limit of 100 Using default cell limit of 100
-------------------
RowKey: id1
=> (name=COM_1, value=, timestamp=1437034903045000) => (name=COM_2, value=,
timestamp=1437034911121000) => (name=folder, value=folder1,
timestamp=1437034833452000) => (name=name, value=file1,
timestamp=1437034851993000) => (name=size, value=1234,
timestamp=1437034871356000)
-------------------
RowKey: id2
=> (name=COM_1, value=, timestamp=1437035169011000) => (name=folder,
value=folder1, timestamp=1437035062080000) => (name=mime, value=image/jpeg,
timestamp=1437035145227000) => (name=name, value=file2,
timestamp=1437035073596000)

Thanks for your help !