April 2021 Summaries

In March 2021, Supabase released several new features and updates including Storage for images, audio, and video clips; Connection Pooling with PgBouncer; a React UI Component Library; Command Line Interface (CLI) for local development; and pricing details. They also open-sourced their internal UI component library, which became the #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt. Additionally, they rebranded from repository.surf to supabase.com and made improvements to their website and documentation. The Supabase team is currently working on a Workflow engine for triggering actions like Slack alerts or sending emails after user sign-ups.

We have released several new features and improvements in the past month, including Supabase Storage for storing images, audio, and video clips, Connection Pooling for handling database connections, an open-sourced React UI component library, a CLI with local development capabilities, and a Free Plan with no costs beyond 500mb storage and 10k auth users. We have also introduced OAuth scopes in our authentication system, made several changes to our website design and user interface, and are working on a new Workflow engine that will allow users to trigger custom actions after sign-ups. The Supabase team is committed to community involvement and collaboration, with many resources available for developers to get started with the platform.

Supabase is introducing Workflows, a feature that orchestrates and executes functions in response to database events or HTTP calls. This open-source orchestration engine will coordinate existing functions across various platforms such as AWS, GCP, Azure, OpenFaas, and Postgres. Built with Elixir, the engine is deeply integrated with Postgres for job processing and storage of queues, logs, and jobs. Workflows are stateless and can be defined using Amazon States Language. The feature aims to provide a rapid development environment for microservices without worrying about servers.

PgBouncer, an open-source connection pooler for Postgres, is now available in Supabase. Connection pooling helps manage connections to a PostgreSQL database and mitigates the problem of opening many connections to the database in serverless environments. With PgBouncer, connections are opened beforehand and recycled across users and applications. This feature allows developers to use their preferred tools while maintaining efficient connection management. Supabase now includes connection pooling for all new projects, with plans to expose more PgBouncer settings to the UI in the future.

Supabase is migrating from "supabase.io" to "supabase.com". There are no changes required on the user end, as API URLs will remain unchanged. The company was founded by CEO Paul Copplestone and Co-Founder Ant, who chose the name "Supabase" after searching for available domain names with "base" in them. They eventually purchased supabase.com from a seller located near their office. Users of Supabase databases and APIs will not be affected by this change.

In the upcoming week, Supabase will transition from "supabase.io" to "supabase.com". Users do not need to make any changes as API URLs remain on "supabase.co", and only website URLs will change. The company's origin traces back to late 2019 when a Postgres Realtime engine was released on GitHub, which gained popularity leading to the formation of an open-source company with Postgres at its core. After considering various domain names, "supabase.io" was chosen as a placeholder due to its meme potential but eventually became permanent. The company later acquired "supabase.com" from a seller located near their headquarters. Users should expect minimal impact during this migration process.

PgBouncer, an open source connection pooler for Postgres, has been added by Supabase to support developers using Postgres and other popular Javascript frameworks. Connection pooling helps manage connections in serverless environments where middleware servers are not available to maintain a connection. It keeps connections open and idle, ready to accept clients, allowing the database to handle more than it can without a connection pool. Supabase now includes connection pooling for all new projects, with options for different pool modes such as session, transaction, and statement.

Supabase Storage has been launched, but Functions are not available yet. Instead, Supabase is building Workflows, an orchestration engine that coordinates and executes existing functions in response to database events or HTTP calls. This tool will be built with Elixir and integrated with Postgres for deep integration with databases. It will have a Zapier-like interface for prototyping and version control with Git. Workflows are designed to be stateless, persistent, and transient, allowing developers to rapidly develop microservices without worrying about servers.

Supabase, a company with a history in NFT development, has announced the launch of an NFT marketplace called BuyMeth.com to address the "Copy-Paste Problem" that exists in current NFTs. The platform encrypts images and updates ownership keys upon each sale, ensuring security and verification for buyers. However, it should be noted that this announcement is an April Fools' joke, and Supabase is not launching a dedicated NFT marketplace at this time.

The Supabase team has a history in the NFT space, having minted NFTs on Blockpunk.net and helped build the world's first tokenized anime premiere. They were also founding members of the Guacchain Foundation, an economic experiment in a deflationary-based monetary system. The current problem with NFTs is the Copy-Paste Problem, where anyone can access the image linked to an NFT without owning it. To address this issue, Supabase has announced BuyMeth.com, an NFT marketplace that stores encrypted images on IPFS and updates ownership keys upon sale. However, this announcement is an April Fools joke, with no actual plans for a Supabase NFT platform launch.