kstulgys•4mo ago

Ents is in maintenance mode. Should I use it?

"Ents is in maintenance mode. We're open to taking PRs, and will make sure it doesn't break. There will not be active feature development from the Convex team." Is it OK to use ents? Should I avoid using it if I started a new project?

11 Replies

Convex Bot•4mo ago

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erquhart•4mo ago

No danger in using it, really comes down to preference. It can save boilerplate on relationship related code for sure. Just comes with the caveats you mentioned.

kstulgysOP•4mo ago

Thanks for the response. What caveats?

ballingt•4mo ago

We're open to taking PRs, and will make sure it doesn't break. There will not be active feature development from the Convex team.

We like the stuff in Ents and are thinking about how to incorporate some of it into Convex core. We're not adding new feature to Ents.

Micha•4w ago

Does that mean if I go now with Ents, I can expect some relevant migration later if you ship your own version as part of the convex core?

ballingt•4w ago

Migration as in a stack post comparing the two approaches and outlining the differences and how to update, yes. An automated codemod, probably not; the changes may be deep enough that it would be difficult automatically convert the code.

ian•4w ago

You should check out the new helpers here: https://stack.convex.dev/merging-streams-of-convex-data and article on doing SQL with it here: https://stack.convex.dev/translate-sql-into-convex-queries I'd love to know if this is sufficient to skip using Ents, or if there was something else you really liked - e.g. edge definition & traversal sugar

Merging Streams of Convex data

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Translate SQL into Convex Queries

Here’s a cheatsheet with examples of conversions between SQL queries and Convex queries. This article is geared towards developers (and LLMs) who have...

Micha•4w ago

Thanks for sharing—I will check it. The second article about SQL is probably not so relevant to me as I come from Fauna (their service is ending at the end of May—eventually, this is an opportunity for you to get more Fauna customers a new home 😉 ).

ian•4w ago

I never actually used Fauna - what's an example query look like? It's their special graphql-style declarative syntax?

Micha•4w ago

They had GraphQL support, but they dropped it in favor of their more powerful FQL language, which is inspired by JavaScript, Python, and GraphQL. Collections (Table) Written in a language file called fsl (fauna schema language). I appreciated the co-location of collection constraints, making it easy to understand a collection and its associated rules.

collection User {
    firstName: String
    ...
    compute emailVerification: String? = doc => { getVerificationEmail(doc.id)} // A field that will be resolved while fetching

    compute roles: Array<String> = (user => currentRoles()) 
    activeOrganization: Ref<Organization>?
    organizations: Array<Ref<Organization>>?

    // A check constraint ensures the created/updated/replaced data comply a specific shape
    check isActiveOrganizationPartOfOrganizations ((user) => {
        if(user.activeOrganization != null) {
            user.organizations?.includes(user.activeOrganization)
        } else {
            true
        }
    })

    check uniqueEmails (user => user.emails.length == user.emails.distinct().length)
    unique [mva(.emails)]
    check uniqueAccounts (user => user.accounts.length == user.accounts.distinct().length)
    unique [mva(.accounts)]
}

collection User {
    firstName: String
    ...
    compute emailVerification: String? = doc => { getVerificationEmail(doc.id)} // A field that will be resolved while fetching

    compute roles: Array<String> = (user => currentRoles()) 
    activeOrganization: Ref<Organization>?
    organizations: Array<Ref<Organization>>?

    // A check constraint ensures the created/updated/replaced data comply a specific shape
    check isActiveOrganizationPartOfOrganizations ((user) => {
        if(user.activeOrganization != null) {
            user.organizations?.includes(user.activeOrganization)
        } else {
            true
        }
    })

    check uniqueEmails (user => user.emails.length == user.emails.distinct().length)
    unique [mva(.emails)]
    check uniqueAccounts (user => user.accounts.length == user.accounts.distinct().length)
    unique [mva(.accounts)]
}

CRUD (Written in FQL - Fauna query language) I liked the short, but powerful syntax.

// Read
User.byId("123")
User.all()
User.first()

// They make it amazingly easy to filter based on or retrieve related ents
User.all().where((user) => user.activeOrganization.plan == "Pro")
User.first().activeOrganization

// Create
User.create({
  firstName: "John"
})

// Delete
User.byId("123").delete()

// Update & Replace
User.byId("123").update({})
User.byId("123").replace({})

// Projection 
User.first() {
  firstName,
  lastName,
  primaryEmail
}

// Read
User.byId("123")
User.all()
User.first()

// They make it amazingly easy to filter based on or retrieve related ents
User.all().where((user) => user.activeOrganization.plan == "Pro")
User.first().activeOrganization

// Create
User.create({
  firstName: "John"
})

// Delete
User.byId("123").delete()

// Update & Replace
User.byId("123").update({})
User.byId("123").replace({})

// Projection 
User.first() {
  firstName,
  lastName,
  primaryEmail
}

More queries: https://docs.fauna.com/fauna/current/reference/fql-api/cheat-sheet/ Security (ABAC) - written in FSL I love their simple yet powerful ABAC system - in my opinion, the best part of Fauna, because it makes security relatively easy.

role role_user {
  privileges User {
    read {
      predicate (doc => 
        doc == Query.identity()
      )
    }
    write {
      predicate ((oldDoc, newDoc) => {
        oldDoc.emails == newDoc.emails &&
        oldDoc.accounts == newDoc.accounts &&
        oldDoc == Query.identity()
      })
    }
  }

  privileges createOrganization {
    call {
      //A user can only be part of 5 organizations to prevent organization abuse. 
      // Limit can be lifted if you have a specific use case.
      predicate ((data) => { 
        Query.identity()!.organizations == null || Query.identity()!.organizations.length < 5 
      })
    }
  }


  membership User {
    predicate ( (doc) => isCalledWithAccessToken() )
  }
}

role role_user {
  privileges User {
    read {
      predicate (doc => 
        doc == Query.identity()
      )
    }
    write {
      predicate ((oldDoc, newDoc) => {
        oldDoc.emails == newDoc.emails &&
        oldDoc.accounts == newDoc.accounts &&
        oldDoc == Query.identity()
      })
    }
  }

  privileges createOrganization {
    call {
      //A user can only be part of 5 organizations to prevent organization abuse. 
      // Limit can be lifted if you have a specific use case.
      predicate ((data) => { 
        Query.identity()!.organizations == null || Query.identity()!.organizations.length < 5 
      })
    }
  }


  membership User {
    predicate ( (doc) => isCalledWithAccessToken() )
  }
}

ian•4w ago

Thanks! Looks pretty nifty - similar to a few existing helpers in Convex. Best of luck with the migration!

Ents is in maintenance mode. Should I use it?

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