June 2021 Summaries

This post discusses various flavours and extensions of PostgreSQL that cater to specific use cases and how Hasura supports them natively. These include TimescaleDB for time series data, YugaByte for distributed SQL databases, Aurora Postgres for increased throughput performance, ZomboDB for full-text search capabilities, PostGIS for spatial and geographic objects, and Citus for transforming Postgres into a distributed database. Hasura supports these extensions by allowing users to configure them with its cloud service.

The Hasura Contributor Program has been launched to acknowledge and recognize the contributions made by individuals in various forms such as code contributions, speaking engagements, organizing meetups, answering questions, creating tutorials, translating content into regional languages, etc. A subset of contributors will receive special recognition as 'Hasura Champions'. The Hasura team actively monitors their GitHub, Discord, Discussions, and social channels to identify active community contributors. They also plan to include a gallery of recognized Hasura Champions on the website, sponsorship of Champion-organized events, support for content creation, special recognition at Hasura events, and a Champion-specific meeting with the Hasura team in the future. The program aims to be diverse and welcoming for everyone from different backgrounds and geographic regions.

HasuraCon'21 has kicked off with several major announcements from Tanmai Gopal, CEO and Co-founder of Hasura. The company aims to simplify data access, making it fast and secure regardless of where the data is stored. Key highlights include: 1. Hasura 2.0 is now stable, allowing users to connect multiple databases simultaneously and supporting REST in addition to GraphQL for user-facing APIs. It also enhances the authorization engine with features such as authorization on remote GraphQL services and support for inherited roles. 2. Cross Database Joins with GraphQL enables users to join data across multiple databases and remote GraphQL servers, providing a seamless experience of all data being in a single database. 3. Schema Sharing allows users to share permissions, relationships, and advanced Hasura features, as well as data models, logical implementations, and extension examples. 4. Git-based Workflows for CI/CD on Hasura Cloud enables automation from development to production by deploying local migrations with a simple git push. The conference also includes stories about Hasura in production at various organizations such as The Washington Post, McDonald's, and the US House of Representatives.

This blog post compiles insights and tips from discussions on platforms like Twitter, HackerNews, and Reddit about effectively using PostgreSQL for app development. It emphasizes the importance of selecting the right data types for scalability, using UUIDs as primary keys to avoid collision issues, and leveraging PostgreSQL’s JSON support for NoSQL use cases. The post advises on making most columns non-nullable to ensure data consistency, utilizing default timestamps for audit purposes, and organizing data with multiple schemas. It highlights the extensibility of PostgreSQL through community-driven extensions like PostGIS and pg_cron, and stresses the need for judicious indexing to enhance query performance. The author also discusses best practices for managing database users and sessions, constructing connection strings, and using views for data transformation. Additionally, the importance of version-controlling the schema and employing transactional DDL for complex operations is underscored, all aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of PostgreSQL in production environments.

Hasura has released version 2.0.0-beta.2 with a focus on console functionality improvements. The release includes foreign key CRUD functionality for MS SQL Server tables and the ability to track custom SQL functions with composite type input arguments. Additionally, input object presets in remote schema permissions have been added. Users are encouraged to test this beta version and provide feedback as Hasura moves towards its 2.0 stable release. The latest docker target is `hasura/graphql-engine:v2.0.0-beta.2`, and users can find updates on Twitter, Discord, and the GitHub Release page.

Hasura Cloud is a fully managed cloud offering that simplifies the process of running and managing Hasura applications in production. It provides features such as automatic upgrades, regression tests, API limits, scaling capabilities, built-in cache layer, rate limiting, monitoring, distributed tracing, and logs to ensure reliability, scalability, and observability for your applications. The platform is easy to migrate to from any functioning Hasura instance and offers a generous free tier for developers to get started.

In this guide, we'll explore how to build an end-to-end reactive API using Hasura in a scale-ready, event-driven architecture. We'll create a Pinterest-like feature for auto-tagging user images as a working example of this reactive programming pattern. The feature involves uploading an image, persisting it to storage, and notifying the user of the result. Reactive programming is ideal for modern applications with complex features powered by machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced architecture. Hasura provides native support for subscriptions, reliable eventing, and a flexible GraphQL API, allowing developers to create cloud-scale features with NoOps.

Hasura has released version 2.0.0-beta1 with numerous fixes and capabilities for SQL Server. This release includes a regression fix with SQL Server execution, added create table functionality for SQL Server to the Hasura Console, added drop table capability for SQL Server to the Hasura Console, and more. Additionally, users can now rename data sources in the Console. The latest stable release is available on Docker target hasura/graphql-engine:v2.0.0-beta.1. For ad-hoc conversation, join the Hasura Community Discord or contact them via Twitter (@HasuraHQ) and GitHub for more information.

The Hasura Community Call Roundup for May 2021 highlights the latest updates and demos from the monthly event. Topics covered include Tanmai's product update on Inherited Roles and Schema Sharing, Vamshi's discussion on one-to-one relationships and data sources, Solomon's presentation on Client SSL Certificates, Tiru's security updates, and a community demo by Gus Fune. The next Community Call is HasuraCon'21, scheduled for June 23-24, 2021.