#2 – Aaron Boodman: From Google Gears to Replicache & Reflect.net
Jan 30, 2024
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Aaron Boodman, Google Gears developer and local-first expert, discusses his journey in local-first software, advancements in web app building and storage challenges, implementation of Replica Hash, using Next JS for websites and Vee for web apps, replicas and Reflect in a React app, and the concept of local first and its collaboration capabilities.
Browsers now have significant storage capabilities, opening up new possibilities for web developers.
Replikache and Reflect.net provide solutions for building local first apps, simplifying the development process.
Challenges in creating local first apps include cross-tab consistency, schema migrations, and reliable storage mechanisms.
Deep dives
The Importance of Browsers Having Storage
The podcast highlights the significance of browsers now having storage capabilities. This development opens up new possibilities for web developers by providing access to sizable local storage, which can store hundreds of megabytes of data. The host encourages developers to take advantage of this storage to improve performance and create more advanced web apps.
Interview with Aaron Bootman
The podcast features an interview with Aaron Bootman, the founder of Reflec.net. He discusses his journey in web development and his work on local first products like Replkache and Reflec.net. Aaron shares his insights on the challenges faced in implementing storage solutions in browsers and explains how Replkache, a client-side library, enables synchronization protocols and high-quality storage for web apps.
The Evolution of Web Storage Mechanisms
The podcast delves into the history of web storage mechanisms and how they have evolved over time. Starting with Google Gears, which aimed to improve web app functionality by adding APIs, the conversation explores the use of SQLite as a database within browsers. It further explains how Web SQL Database was introduced and eventually led to today's storage mechanisms in browsers.
Challenges in Building Local First Apps
The podcast discusses the challenges faced in building local first apps, particularly in terms of cross-tab consistency and schema migrations. It acknowledges the need for robust synchronization protocols, authorization strategies, and reliable storage mechanisms. The speaker emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between web and native app experiences, making storage easier to use, and providing better tools and libraries for developers.
Replica Cache and Reflect.net
The podcast introduces Replica Cache and Reflect.net as solutions for building local first apps. Replica Cache is a client-side library that acts as a wrapper around local storage, providing synchronization protocols and high-quality storage. Reflect.net offers a complete package, including a hosted service that synchronizes data. Both tools aim to simplify the development process and make local first app creation more accessible to developers.
In this episode we talk about Aaron's history in local-first, which goes back to 2008 with the release of Google Gears – the first time sqlite was added to the browser - and his perspective on where we're at now and why local-first is finally happening.