Setting up the environment

To get the most out of this chapter, you should prepare your development environment with the following prerequisites:

• Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.8 for your platform, which can be obtained at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html .

• The Integrated Development Environment (IDE), or text editor of your choice.

• Either a local Cassandra installation, or the ability to connect to a remote cluster.

• The DataStax native Java driver for your Cassandra version. If you're using Maven for dependency management, add the following lines to your pom.xml file:

      <dependency> 
        <groupId>com.datastax.cassandra</groupId> 
        <artifactId>cassandra-driver-core</artifactId> 
        <version>[version_number]</version> 
     </dependency> 

Now that you're set up for coding, let's get familiar with some of the basics of the driver. The first step is to establish a connection to...