7 ms·

PGlite – Postgres in WASM

116 points by samuba 3y ago

erichocean 3y ago
This seems possible due to the separation of Postgres storage and compute work done by Neon?
- thruflo 3y ago
  Yup, this is based on work by Neon. Also the Neon model allows you to sync in a database on demand, whilst scaling to zero when you’re not using it.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
andrenotgiant 3y ago
How is this different than the one done by CrunchyData here https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/crazy-idea-to-postgres-in-the-web-browser https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/crazy-idea-to-postgres-in-t...
- thruflo 3y ago
  The previous PG WASM projects from Crunchy and Snaplet have run Postgres in a VM and required a large 32MB download. This is pure WASM, no VM, 3.7MB download. Plus it has persistent storage.
nalgeon 3y ago
Fitting PostgreSQL into a 12MB binary with a simple API is amazing! I was so excited to try it out it that I just released an in-browser PostgreSQL playground on top of PGlite. It's also open source and easy to integrate: https://codapi.org/postgres-pglite https://codapi.org/postgres-pglite
- vbalegas 3y ago
  Awesome! Will check it out
ejb999 3y ago
Interesting that it could be done at all - but having a hard time coming up with any real world use cases for this. Are there any?
- throwaway92374 3y ago
  It can persist data to indexedDB, so web applications can use it if they want a more flexible alternative
  - creatonez 3y ago
    That's neat, I wonder what the overhead is though.
- tjelen 3y ago
  Code testing is a big one for me. I'm currently using in-memory sqlite for tests and I'm often running into differences between sqlite and postgres (default values, JSON handling, etc). This could allow me to use the real thing without running a full Docker instance.
- amcaskill 3y ago
  I think performance and cost are the big motivators here. I work on a web framework for building data apps like reports and dashboards, and we use duckDB’s WASM runtime for interactions (e.g when a user changes a date range filter). It’s really fast, and you don’t spend snowflake credits.
- iansinnott 3y ago
  No one using postgres in the cloud is going to use this as an alternative, but there are at least two use cases where this could be very useful: - You want your app to be local first (snappy, great offline support, etc) but sync data to a server. This is the ElectricSQL use case. - You want a serious data store in-browser. SQLite via wasm already fits this use case, but it's nice to have options.
tyrauber 3y ago
This is awesome. Are extensions like PostGIS supported? I wish react-native natively supported WASM. It would be cool to run this client-side instead of sqlite.
- nilslice 3y ago
  join us on the Extism discord https://extism.org/discord https://extism.org/discord, we're working on some things that will enable this. would love to hear what you're thinking!
philippemnoel 3y ago
This is super cool. Postgres is slowly overlapping on every part of the data stack, even SQLite isn't safe!
dang 3y ago
Related (but different): Postgres WASM - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33067962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33067962 - Oct 2022 (185 comments)
milesokeefe 3y ago
This is amazing! I’ve been wanting this to exist for years for use in unit tests. This made my day (and maybe upcoming work week)

116 points by samuba 3y ago

erichocean 3y ago

This seems possible due to the separation of Postgres storage and compute work done by Neon?

thruflo 3y ago
Yup, this is based on work by Neon. Also the Neon model allows you to sync in a database on demand, whilst scaling to zero when you’re not using it.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

andrenotgiant 3y ago

How is this different than the one done by CrunchyData here https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/crazy-idea-to-postgres-in-the-web-browser https://www.crunchydata.com/blog/crazy-idea-to-postgres-in-t...

thruflo 3y ago
The previous PG WASM projects from Crunchy and Snaplet have run Postgres in a VM and required a large 32MB download. This is pure WASM, no VM, 3.7MB download. Plus it has persistent storage.

nalgeon 3y ago

Fitting PostgreSQL into a 12MB binary with a simple API is amazing! I was so excited to try it out it that I just released an in-browser PostgreSQL playground on top of PGlite. It's also open source and easy to integrate: https://codapi.org/postgres-pglite https://codapi.org/postgres-pglite

vbalegas 3y ago
Awesome! Will check it out

ejb999 3y ago

Interesting that it could be done at all - but having a hard time coming up with any real world use cases for this. Are there any?

throwaway92374 3y ago
It can persist data to indexedDB, so web applications can use it if they want a more flexible alternative
- creatonez 3y ago
  That's neat, I wonder what the overhead is though.
tjelen 3y ago
Code testing is a big one for me. I'm currently using in-memory sqlite for tests and I'm often running into differences between sqlite and postgres (default values, JSON handling, etc). This could allow me to use the real thing without running a full Docker instance.
amcaskill 3y ago
I think performance and cost are the big motivators here. I work on a web framework for building data apps like reports and dashboards, and we use duckDB’s WASM runtime for interactions (e.g when a user changes a date range filter). It’s really fast, and you don’t spend snowflake credits.
iansinnott 3y ago
No one using postgres in the cloud is going to use this as an alternative, but there are at least two use cases where this could be very useful: - You want your app to be local first (snappy, great offline support, etc) but sync data to a server. This is the ElectricSQL use case. - You want a serious data store in-browser. SQLite via wasm already fits this use case, but it's nice to have options.

tyrauber 3y ago

This is awesome. Are extensions like PostGIS supported? I wish react-native natively supported WASM. It would be cool to run this client-side instead of sqlite.

nilslice 3y ago
join us on the Extism discord https://extism.org/discord https://extism.org/discord, we're working on some things that will enable this. would love to hear what you're thinking!

philippemnoel 3y ago

This is super cool. Postgres is slowly overlapping on every part of the data stack, even SQLite isn't safe!

dang 3y ago

Related (but different): Postgres WASM - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33067962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33067962 - Oct 2022 (185 comments)

milesokeefe 3y ago

This is amazing! I’ve been wanting this to exist for years for use in unit tests. This made my day (and maybe upcoming work week)