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NextDB: The Hosted AJAX Database

11 points by IsaacSchlueter 18y ago

cpr 18y ago
Dang, this is an idea I explored doing about 4 years ago (using PostgreSQL as the engine and Sun Thumpers for the hardware). Underlines that execution is everything... My main business concern was whether people who were already savvy enough to run a website wouldn't just as soon run their own database server (MySQL or PostgreSQL), which ain't really rocket science.
- bprater 18y ago
  Agreed, it's not rocket science. But I think it's super important to explore these types of esoteric models and allow developers to "get creative".
bprater 18y ago
Very interesting model. The big question I have (and can't seem to figure it out reading the docs) is how security is handled. (That's been the huge issue with JS talking to a DB.) From the security FAQs: "It is the responsibility of the application to create secure queries and to perform appropriate security testing." Ack! What the heck is a secure query?!
- flashgordon 18y ago
  does that mean queries related to authentication and authorization or ensuring valid queries?
- nextdb 18y ago
  Take a look at this section of the manual. This explains how we encrypt a data structure encoding change permissions with data that leaves the database: http://www.nextdb.net/devguide/index.html#Up http://www.nextdb.net/devguide/index.html#Up At a thirty-thousand foot level, we explain the "round trip security model" here: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=df7mdmdw_11c5rmfbg9 http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=df7mdmdw_11c5rmfbg9
volida 18y ago
In the case of building a platform, trusting someone with your data is the most crucial thing. So, this a barrier that will limit this only to non-profesional applications, e.g. create simple forms? Something they can already do using Google spreadsheets. Far from that advanced applications need not-only a storage system.
patentsFTW 18y ago
Yay software patents!
ryan-allen 18y ago
It's patent pending! Patended the combination of two buzzwords 'AJAX' and 'Database'.
rantfoil 18y ago
How does this compare to CouchDB (restful http-based json doc-oriented, etc.)?

cpr 18y ago

Dang, this is an idea I explored doing about 4 years ago (using PostgreSQL as the engine and Sun Thumpers for the hardware). Underlines that execution is everything... My main business concern was whether people who were already savvy enough to run a website wouldn't just as soon run their own database server (MySQL or PostgreSQL), which ain't really rocket science.

bprater 18y ago
Agreed, it's not rocket science. But I think it's super important to explore these types of esoteric models and allow developers to "get creative".

bprater 18y ago

Very interesting model. The big question I have (and can't seem to figure it out reading the docs) is how security is handled. (That's been the huge issue with JS talking to a DB.) From the security FAQs: "It is the responsibility of the application to create secure queries and to perform appropriate security testing." Ack! What the heck is a secure query?!

flashgordon 18y ago
does that mean queries related to authentication and authorization or ensuring valid queries?
nextdb 18y ago
Take a look at this section of the manual. This explains how we encrypt a data structure encoding change permissions with data that leaves the database: http://www.nextdb.net/devguide/index.html#Up http://www.nextdb.net/devguide/index.html#Up At a thirty-thousand foot level, we explain the "round trip security model" here: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=df7mdmdw_11c5rmfbg9 http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=df7mdmdw_11c5rmfbg9

volida 18y ago

In the case of building a platform, trusting someone with your data is the most crucial thing. So, this a barrier that will limit this only to non-profesional applications, e.g. create simple forms? Something they can already do using Google spreadsheets. Far from that advanced applications need not-only a storage system.

patentsFTW 18y ago

Yay software patents!

ryan-allen 18y ago

It's patent pending! Patended the combination of two buzzwords 'AJAX' and 'Database'.

rantfoil 18y ago

How does this compare to CouchDB (restful http-based json doc-oriented, etc.)?