Comment by canadiantim
2 years ago
I want to be able to have a Postgres database as the central source of truth for all data and user accounts, but then have each users private content to be siloed and synced to their own SQLite database which they alone have access to (maybe even they’re have one SQLite file on server and one SQLite file on phone or etc.). Is this possible with electricSQL? I remember looking at it a year ago or so and was excited but not sure if worked for my use case. Great work tho looks really good and very much in line with what I’d like to be able to do.
Also is there a way to transition an existing Postgres data base into using electicsql?
Hey,
This is the exact pattern we target :)
Drop Electric onto an existing Postgres data model and use the Shape-based sync to manage dynamic partial replication of subsets of data between central Postgres and local SQLites: https://electric-sql.com/docs/usage/data-access/shapes
James
Congrats on the launch. I’ve been keeping an eye on these sorts of tools for a while and had a look at this after it was mentioned on HN the other day. Looks great.
We currently use Hasura subscriptions to pull data to the frontend (effectively select * from table where account_id = X and updated > recently). We then funnel changed rows into mobx objects so we have a lovely object graph to work with.
I’m imagining doing the same with electric so I guess you’d use notify to hear that there has been a change, then figure out if it’s in a table you care about and then select the updated records from that to merge into mobx?
Basing that off what I see in here: https://github.com/electric-sql/electric/blob/main/clients/t...
Interesting, I don’t know enough about MobX to be sure but yes, you can use the notifier to subscribe to data change notifications and query to get the changed rows.
We’d definitely be interested in chatting through the reactivity model you use if you’d be up for it.
This is awesome. I love the pattern, and the way you’ve built for this as a first-class concern is great.
You could store a SQLite database in a blob column for the user, though this would be an affront to $DEITY.
One cool feature would be to encrypt local SQL database with the user's key before syncing. The provider of the PostgreSQL database would have zero-access encryption while still having full SQL capabilities on the client.
;)
This is also the pattern targeted by PowerSync (disclosure: co-founder) — selectively syncing scoped data for the user from Postgres to their own client SQLite database. Sync Rules are used to define which data is synced to which users: https://docs.powersync.co/usage/sync-rules
This is the fifth comment I’ve counted plugging Powersync in this thread. I guess it’s the nature of the startup hustle game but this level of promotion in someone else’s Show HN thread feels a little distasteful. Maybe you could post your own Show HN?
I hear you, thanks for sharing your thoughts and for the suggestion. Noted. I didn’t mean to just plug — I thought I was contributing to the discussion and that some people may find another implementation relevant/interesting.
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