Does anyone know whether it’s possible to emulate a graph database with a relational by adding specific meta-data tables or indices? Emulate in the sense that you can do efficient graph traversals that drill along a path for a certain non-trivial depth.
Of course it can be done more efficiently… with a non-relational database xD
If you want performance look into real graph databases implementations. Optimizing a graph database over a relational database seems a waste of time IMHO. I may be mistaken.
If you haven’t read this, start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplestore