October 2024 Summaries

The emerging trend for AI customers is the use of Postgres and ClickHouse as their default data stack, with Supabase and ClickHouse partnership aiming to create a seamless experience between these two technologies. Postgres is ideal for storing and querying application data while ClickHouse is optimized for analytics and reporting. Supabase customers generally use clickhouse_fdw to query their ClickHouse data from their Postgres database, and PeerDB to replicate their data from Postgres to ClickHouse. The partnership between Supabase and ClickHouse has led to improvements in the ClickHouse Foreign Data Wrapper, more granular replication control, and better disk management for Postgres databases.

Database.build, an in-browser Postgres sandbox with AI assistance, has introduced a new feature called Live Share. This feature allows users to connect to their in-browser PGlite databases from outside the browser using any Postgres client. The connection is established through a unique Postgres connection string that appears when choosing Live Share from the sidebar menu of a database created on database.build. Some tools that can be connected to this include pg_dump, ORM, and IDEs. However, there are limitations such as only one Postgres client being able to connect at a time due to PGlite's single-user mode compilation. Additionally, the service is transitioning from postgres.new to database.build for clarity and accurate representation of its offerings. All projects mentioned in this update are open source.

MongoDB Realm's deprecation has led developers to seek alternatives that support offline-first and real-time sync capabilities in their apps. Supabase offers several tools and integrations for this purpose, including Legend-State, a local-first state management solution; WatermelonDB, a high-performance offline database for React Native apps; PowerSync, an offline-first Supabase integration with intelligent conflict handling; Replicache, which enhances real-time syncing capabilities; and ElectricSQL, a tool that simplifies automatic sync for offline-first applications. These options can help developers transition from MongoDB Realm while maintaining performance and consistency during network outages.

Brick is an all-in-one data manager for Flutter that focuses on offline-first data parity, ensuring that apps function the same with or without connectivity. It handles querying and uploading between Supabase and local caches like SQLite. The main advantage of using Brick is its ability to provide a better user experience when steady bandwidth cannot be guaranteed. It also offers a third cache in memory for improved performance. Developers can use Brick by adding the necessary dependencies, setting up directories for generated code, defining model definitions, and configuring the repository. The Repository class serves as a single entry point for interacting with SQLite or Supabase while handling caching decisions. Brick also supports advanced queries, reactivity to local data updates, and upserting of models. Additionally, it allows easy configuration of foreign keys/associations between related models/tables.