2024.09.12

📰 News & Discussions

MongoDB Atlas Device Sync Deprecation

Big news this week is that MongoDB deprecated their Atlas Device Sync product, which many developers used as a sync engine. "As of September 2024, Device Sync is deprecated for Atlas App Services. Device Sync will reach end-of-life and be removed on September 30, 2025. If you use Device Sync, you should migrate to alternative solution providers before Device Sync is removed." This has sparked fiery discussions on places like the MongoDB Developer Community, Twitter/X and Reddit.

Mobile and Edge Solutions with MongoDB and Ditto

In related news, MongoDB formed a partnership with Ditto, a provider of "mobile ad-hoc mesh networking and peer-to-peer data sync for your enterprise applications."

PowerSync As Alternative to MongoDB Atlas Device Sync

Also related: PowerSync discusses what options MongoDB Atlas Device Sync users are faced with, and where PowerSync could be an alternative. (Disclosure: PowerSync is a newsletter sponsor.)

A letter to founders: join the local-first movement!

An overview of local-first by Evil Martians, written in the language of business and case studies to help developers convince their CEO to try local-first.

Streamline JAMStack app development with a local-first database (upcoming event)

"Netlify and Fireproof join forces to show you how easy development can be when your data syncs anywhere you want, with zero setup." Scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM PDT in San Francisco.

Will JSON Work As a Database?

"The idea of JSON as your main data store is a powerful one for single-player apps, especially if those apps are local-first. Many local-first apps use the browser’s built-in IndexedDB to store data and persist state. IndexedDB is essentially a JSON document in the browser."

Going offline first with Flutter: Best practices (upcoming event)

@papa_gianfranco presents "key points on how to start creating apps that are offline by default to provide seamless experience to your users even in low connection environments, enhancing user experience regardless of connectivity." Thursday, September 19th 3:25 PM PDT at Fluttercon USA.

🛠️ Tools & Resources

Beehive lab notebook: Local-first access control

"Beehive is a project focused on local-first access control. Our goal is to design and build a production ready instance of such a system which is general enough for most local-first applications. In this lab notebook, we’ll share snippets of our findings as we explore the problem space and prototype potential solutions." See also HN discussion.

Local-First Vector Database with RxDB and transformers.js

"[We] combine RxDB and transformers.js to create a local vector database running in the browser with JavaScript. It stores data in IndexedDB, and uses a machine learning model with WebAssembly locally, without the need for external servers." See also Reddit discussion.

PremSQL: Towards end-to-end Local First Text to SQL pipelines

"PremSQL is a local-first, open-source Text-to-SQL solution that ensures data privacy and control by avoiding third-party models."

Personal Knowledge Graphs in AI RAG on user phone

"[We] shift from a classical all-in-cloud centralized model to a local-first architecture where data is stored and processed, a mesh of user devices, and potentially some cloud services or capabilities are involved. So we need to run complex RAG and vector search and vector graph clustering primarily on user device."

✨ Apps

Wealthfolio: "Beautiful, and Boring Investment Tracker"

"Wealthfolio is a simple, desktop-based investment tracker. Your financial data is stored safely on your own computer". See also Show HN and Product Hunt

CoCube: "local-first hierarchical spreadsheet"

"A hierarchical local-first spreadsheet for building multiplayer vector-rendered tools."

Pierre: "The product engineering tool"

"This summer we went into a hole and rewrote the bulk of Pierre off of RSC and onto a local first sync-engine called Replicache. It's… really fast." - @fat

Jan: "Turn your computer into an AI computer"

"[W]e're building a privacy-oriented personal AI, named Jan. It’s like ChatGPT but runs 100% offline and your chats with AI stay on your device. It’s fully open-source, local-first, and free. Privacy-wise, you should run open-source models locally on your device."

Radicle 1.0: "a sovereign {code forge} built on Git"

"We designed Radicle with a first-principles approach, as a natural extension to Git, expanding it to work in a collaborative, local-first, peer-to-peer setting." See also HN discussion and Lobsters discussion.

JVSG IP Video System Design Tool

"Our IP Video System Design Tool embodies this philosophy with its robust local-first, offline first approach, designed to enhance both productivity and security."

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