Programming by wishful thinking Aaron Francis 2025-08-13 | What if your code could read the way you wish the framework worked? I'll show you how I built a powerful Laravel helper for finding all models that use a given trait starting with a made-up interface and ending with a flexible reflection-based collection.Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Programming by wishful thinking00:16 - The 'ModelsThat:useTrait' idea00:47 - The hasEmbedding trait pattern01:31 - Abstract methods for embeddings02:29 - Applying the trait to different models03:13 - Trait-provided relationships and scopes03:54 - Writing the embeddings:create command04:44 - Starting the helper: modelsThatUseTrait06:00 - Scanning files and resolving class names07:02 - Converting paths to PSR-4 class names08:03 - Using ReflectionClass to inspect traits09:00 - Filtering models by trait usage10:12 - Returning class names as a collection11:00 - Verifying the helper works11:16 - Next step: creating
The future of this channel Aaron Francis 2025-09-22 | I'm starting a new YouTube channel! Well, two actually. But don't worry, this channel isn't going anywhere. I'm hoping that this new strategy makes it easy for the algorithm to figure out who to show the videos to. This channel will remain PHP / Laravel / general web dev centric.New Database School Channel: youtube.com/@thedatabaseschoolNew Database School Podcast Channel: youtube.com/@DatabaseSchoolPodcast.And today I'm releasing an interview with PlanetScale CEO Sam Lambert! I used to work at PlanetScale so this is a fun full-circle moment. Please go subscribe to youtube.com/@DatabaseSchoolPodcast and watch that episode. That would be a massive help to me! Plus there's a surprise at the end of the episode!The full interview with Sam: youtube.com/watch?v=IB3mzON8IywThe second new channel is the Database School channel. There's nothing there yet, but this will be the home to all my database education videos. You can subscribe here: youtube.com/@thedatabaseschool
The database for all your AI needs Aaron Francis 2025-09-16 | Marcel Kornacker, the creator of Apache Impala and co-creator of Apache Parquet, joins me to talk about his latest project: Pixeltable, a multimodal AI database that combines structured and unstructured data with rich, Python-native workflows. From ingestion to vector search, transcription to snapshots, Pixel Table eliminates painful data plumbing for modern AI teams.Follow Marcel: Pixeltable: pixeltable.comPixeltable GitHub: github.com/pixeltable/pixeltableLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marcelkornackerFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school: databaseschool.comChapters:0:00 - Introduction 0:20 - Meet Marcel Kornacker 1:19 - Early career and grad school in databases 2:12 - Joining Google and building F1 3:42 - How F1 used Spanner at Google 4:01 - Starting Apache Impala at Cloudera 6:02 - Why SQL still matters 7:29 - What keeps Marcel fascinated with databases 9:37 - The “SQL is dead” waves and shift to AI 10:21 - Observing pain points in computer vision pipelines 13:02 - Multimodal data challenges and the idea for Pixetable 16:10 - How Pixeltable handles transformations with computed columns 26:29 - Example: processing video, audio, and transcripts in Pixeltable 33:12 - DAG execution and parallelism explained 37:00 - Transactional guarantees in Pixeltable 39:00 - Iterators and chunking data for search 42:26 - Using embeddings and semantic search 47:05 - Updating data and incremental recomputation 50:06 - Thoughts on RAG and hybrid search 53:14 - Real-world use cases and dataset curation 57:00 - Example: labeling food waste on cruise ships 1:02:00 - Labeling workflows and syncing annotations 1:02:41 - Pixel Table’s roadmap and cloud vision 1:07:10 - How to get involved with Pixeltable 1:09:03 - Closing and where to find Marcel
Sharding Postgres without extensions with PgDog founder, Lev Kokotov Aaron Francis 2025-08-19 | I chat with Lev Kokotov to talk about building PgDog, an open-source sharding solution for Postgres that sits outside the database. Lev shares the journey from creating PgCat to launching PgDog through YC, the technical challenges of sharding, and why he believes scaling Postgres shouldn’t require extensions or rewrites.Follow Lev: Twitter: twitter.com/levpgdogPgDog: https://pgdog.devFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school: databaseschool.comChapters:00:00 - Intro 01:27 - Lev’s self-taught to computer science degree journey04:50 - Transition to Postgres discussion05:24 - History of PgCat07:06 - What PG Cat does and key features08:59 - Why Lev built PgCat instead of extending PG Bouncer10:06 - PG Cat’s current status and usage12:20 - Moving from PgCat to PgDog13:09 - Applying to YC as a solo founder16:24 - YC pitch: the market gap for Postgres sharding18:52 - High-level overview of PgDog23:32 - Why PgDog is not an extension25:57 - When to build Postgres extensions vs standalone tools27:49 - PgDog architecture and query parsing30:39 - Handling cross-shard queries and current capabilities33:47 - How PgDog shards an existing large Postgres database36:37 - Parallel replication streams for faster sharding39:07 - Alternate resharding approaches42:52 - Where PgDog draws the orchestration line44:00 - Vision for PgDog Cloud vs bring-your-own-database46:47 - Company status: first hire, design partners, and production use50:45 - How deploys work for customers52:20 - Importance of building closely with design partners54:05 - Paid design partnerships and initial deployments56:23 - Benefit of sitting outside Postgres for compatibility58:32 - Near-term roadmap and long-term vision1:01:03 - Where to find Lev online
I made up this Laravel feature… then built it Aaron Francis 2025-08-13 | Ever see code so clean you wish the framework just worked that way? That’s what I did with modelsThat::useTrait. I wrote it first, then built it. This is called programming by wishful thinking, and it’s one of my favorite ways to design code. 💻 Watch the full tutorial here → youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1lYJmBTWI
Rewriting SQLite from scratch (yes, really) Aaron Francis 2025-08-08 | Want to learn more about SQLite? Check out my course on SQLite: highperformancesqlite.com/?ref=ytIn this episode of Database School, I chat with Glauber Costa, CEO of Turso, about their audacious decision to rewrite SQLite from the ground up. We cover the technical motivations, open contribution philosophy, and how deterministic simulation testing is unlocking new levels of reliability.Get your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guide.Follow Glauber: Twitter: twitter.com/glcstTurso: https://tur.so/afFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school: databaseschool.comChapters:00:00 - Intro to guest Glauber Costa 00:58 - Glauber's background and path to databases 02:23 - Moving to Texas and life changes 05:32 - The origin story of Turso 07:55 - Why fork SQLite in the first place? 10:28 - SQLite’s closed contribution model 12:00 - Launching libSQL as an open contribution fork 13:43 - Building Turso Cloud for serverless SQLite 14:57 - Limitations of forking SQLite 17:00 - Deciding to rewrite SQLite from scratch 19:08 - Branding mistakes and naming decisions 22:29 - Differentiating Turso (the database) from Turso Cloud 24:00 - Technical barriers that led to the rewrite 28:00 - Why libSQL plateaued for deeper improvements 30:14 - Big business partner request leads to deeper rethink 31:23 - The rewrite begins33:36 - Early community traction and GitHub stars 35:00 - Hiring contributors from the community 36:58 - Reigniting the original vision 39:40 - Turso’s core business thesis 42:00 - Fully pivoting the company around the rewrite 45:16 - How GitHub contributors signal business alignment 47:10 - SQLite’s rock-solid rep and test suite challenges 49:00 - The magic of deterministic simulation testing 53:00 - How the simulator injects and replays IO failures 56:00 - The role of property-based testing 58:54 - Offering cash for bugs that break data integrity 1:01:05 - Deterministic testing vs traditional testing 1:03:44 - What it took to release Turso Alpha 1:05:50 - Encouraging contributors with real incentives 1:07:50 - How to get involved and contribute 1:20:00 - Upcoming roadmap: indexes, CDC, schema changes 1:23:40 - Final thoughts and where to find Turso
How PlanetScale avoids downtime—database failover strategy explained Aaron Francis 2025-08-07 | Most people just replace a database server when it fails. At PlanetScale, they double the cluster before taking anything down so they never give up fault tolerance. It's called surging, and it's how they keep your data safe even when hardware fails. 🎥 Watch the full YouTube conversation with Richard Crowley of PlanetScale here: youtube.com/watch?v=3r9PsVwGkg4 🔊 Audio-only version: databaseschool.com
Make your site faster with this one technique Aaron Francis 2025-08-01 | When you hover over a link, it should feel like the page loads instantly. In this video, we push Inertia and Vue a little further by prefetching not just the data, but also the heavy images users will see first so pages feel faster without any extra clicks.Send down low-quality placeholder strategy video: youtu.be/UNODn5b52u4Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Why prefetching matters for performance00:49 - The problem with large above-the-fold images01:12 - Strategy 1: Low-quality image placeholders01:20 - Strategy 2: Prefetch full images on hover01:49 - Inspecting media card components02:17 - Looking into Inertia’s prefetch lifecycle03:44 - Verifying event details and response data04:53 - Parsing Inertia props to find prefetch targets05:29 - Sending additional prefetch info from server05:56 - Adding a `prefetch` prop with image URL06:52 - Triggering fetch for extra URLs in app.js07:42 - Confirming image fetch works in browser devtools08:11 - Cleaning up with a Laravel-style macro09:05 - Creating the Inertia prefetch macro09:57 - Making prefetch smarter with request context11:08 - Final test: Everything works!
Vibe coding a visual email editor with AI, Laravel & Vue Aaron Francis 2025-07-30 | I live-build a fully functional block-based email editor using Laravel, Vue 3, and Maizzle with AI as my pair programmer. Watch how I use Claude, GPT, and Junie to scaffold components, wire up real-time previews, and build something I’ll actually use every week.Sign up for my newsletter here: aaronfrancis.com/newsletterFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - What we're building: a block email editor 00:39 - Live preview and Maizzle integration 02:06 - Real dev workflow: AI-assisted coding 03:02 - Starting the Laravel + Vue project 04:00 - Drawing out the UI layout 05:56 - Why this editor uses constrained blocks 06:58 - Planning reusable components (YouTube, promo, etc.) 09:11 - Setting up the Laravel route and view 13:00 - Writing the first AI prompt 14:47 - Feeding layout into Claude and refining structure 18:12 - Why emails are hard and Maizzle helps 20:20 - JSON block structure and the roundtrip render flow 27:11 - Implementing dynamic components 32:01 - Building the Vue editor UI 38:50 - Creating the Maizzle.js project and dev server 43:02 - Replacing JSON debugger with live preview 47:38 - Live rendering emails using Maizzle server 53:14 - Real-time email preview inside the app 1:00:47 - Drag-and-drop reordering with blue drop indicators 1:13:00 - Markdown block rendering 1:20:00 - Tailwind CSS purging fix with inline tokens 1:28:00 - Dynamic email preview fully working 1:35:00 - Copy HTML to clipboard 1:44:00 - Augmenting blocks with backend data 2:00:00 - Adding the YouTube block with video preview 2:10:00 - Final thoughts and how I’ll use this editor every week
How I hacked Laravel to ignore missing route bindings Aaron Francis 2025-07-30 | Ever wish Laravel would just keep looking when a route binding fails? I implemented a custom ignoreMissingBindings macro to hook into the Laravel Core. Perfect for anyone who’s ever wanted graceful fall-through in their routes. ▶️ Watch the full tutorial here: youtu.be/NecBFUJmov4 🚨 Unfortunately, this won't work when routes are cached.
Stop overthinking your database Aaron Francis 2025-07-24 | DHH explains why SQLite being “just a file” is its greatest power. It pops the complexity balloon and frees your brain. Want to take advantage of SQLite's simplicity? 👉 Check out my High Performance SQLite video course, including my take on "It's just a file": highperformancesqlite.com/watch/its-just-a-file📂 Get your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guide
37signals almost ditched SQLite—here’s why they kept it Aaron Francis 2025-07-23 | 37signals nearly abandoned SQLite for their new multi-user web app, but instead they dug in, discovered the critical defaults to flip (like enabling WAL mode), and turned it into a rock-solid database for web workloads. The community’s shared knowledge has exploded in the past year, so much so that SQLite is now often a great choice for a lot of web apps. 🎥 Watch the full YouTube conversation with DHH here: youtube.com/watch?v=0rlATWBNvMw 🔊 Audio-only version: databaseschool.com 🚀 Want to get up to speed on modern SQLite for web apps? Check out this course: highperformancesqlite.com📂 Get your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guide
Downloading YouTube videos Aaron Francis 2025-07-22 | I automate the entire process of turning YouTube videos into podcast episodes using Laravel, yt-dlp, and the Transistor.fm API. From fetching videos to extracting audio and publishing drafts, we automate it all. Whether you're a Laravel dev or just love seeing behind-the-scenes automation, you're in for a fun and practical walkthrough.Host unlimited podcasts at: https://transistor.fmFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Automating tasks I don’t want to do01:08 - The Database School podcast setup01:49 - Tech stack for this automation03:18 - Starting with a Laravel command03:45 - Fetching videos from the YouTube API06:00 - Getting podcast episodes from Transistor07:16 - Comparing YouTube videos to existing episodes08:48 - Preparing new videos for publishing10:45 - Downloading audio13:35 - Storing audio and avoiding re-downloads15:03 - Authorizing file uploads to Transistor16:48 - Uploading the audio file18:19 - Creating the episode draft on Transistor20:00 - Confirming the episode was created21:21 - Wrapping it all in automation22:18 - Final test and wrap-up
I built a simple first-party tracking system for my ads Aaron Francis 2025-07-18 | I'm running ads for the first time and needed a way to track if LinkedIn and Reddit are actually driving sales without relying on invasive third-party platforms. In this video, I walk through how I built a simple, privacy-conscious tracking system using cookies and Laravel middleware.Check out my courses. Use the code YOUTUBE to get 20% off:masteringpostgres.comhighperformancesqlite.comscreencasting.comFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Running ads for our courses00:18 - Why I need first-party tracking00:42 - Using UTM parameters to track sources01:18 - Strategy: store UTM params on login01:52 - Using cookies for anonymous visitors02:35 - Logging in triggers cookie check03:02 - Writing UTM data to the user record03:40 - Building it as Laravel middleware04:01 - Capturing UTM params from requests04:48 - Fallback to cookies if no params05:06 - Logic for logged-in vs anonymous users05:55 - Storing UTM data in a cookie for one year06:31 - Reading and decoding the cookie07:22 - Storing UTM data in JSON column08:03 - Deleting the cookie after writing to user08:55 - Final logic review of the middleware09:49 - Benefits of simple, privacy-first tracking10:05 - Tracking ROI from LinkedIn and Reddit ads10:16 - Final thoughts and ad help request
I transformed my personal site into a magazine-style layout Aaron Francis 2025-07-16 | See how I transformed my personal site into a magazine-style layout using just CSS shape-outside, floats, and a bit of Tailwind ✨ Text wraps beautifully around my images! ▶️ Watch the full tutorial: youtu.be/ynExo2UUFro
Level up your design with this CSS property Aaron Francis 2025-07-16 | I’m redesigning my personal website with a bold, print-inspired layout and using a powerful but rarely used CSS property to pull it off. I walk through how to use shape-outside with floated images to wrap text around custom polygons for a truly standout design.Learn how to make videos like me at https://screencasting.com! Use the code YOUTUBE to get 20% off.shape-outside: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/shape-outsideUnused CSS clip path tool: unused-css.com/tools/clip-path-generatorFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters00:00 - Redesigning my site with a magazine layout01:19 - The CSS property you’ve never used: shape-outside02:20 - Why shape-outside needs floats02:56 - Laying out the initial images and content04:51 - The problem with box-shaped margins05:00 - Creating a polygon visually with a clip-path tool06:52 - Why percent-based coordinates are important08:48 - Applying the effect to the second image09:58 - Hiding the second image on small screens10:55 - Pulling inspiration from print design
Stateful Serverless Explained Aaron Francis 2025-07-16 | Stateful serverless? See how Durable Objects tie compute to local state and route you exactly where you need. Want to hear the full conversation? ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=C5-741uQPVU 🔊 Audio only: databaseschool.com
What exactly is a Durable Object? Aaron Francis 2025-07-15 | Durable Objects: the missing piece for stateful serverless apps. See how Josh Howard breaks down Cloudflare’s new primitive at the edge. Want to hear the full conversation? ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=C5-741uQPVU 🔊 Audio only: databaseschool.com
How YouTube prevented massive outages Aaron Francis 2025-07-09 | A simple database protection layer at YouTube was just a query limit. Sugu Sougoumarane, co-creator of Vitess, explains how they prevented numerous outages with just a query limit of 10,000 records during his time as a software engineer at YouTube.Want to watch the full conversation? ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=28q9mFh87KY🔊 Audio only: https://DatabaseSchool.com
Laravel Serializable Closure: serialize the unserializable Aaron Francis 2025-07-08 | PHP doesn’t let you serialize closures, but Laravel does, thanks to an underrated package that’s built into the framework. I show you exactly how Laravel serializable-closure works, how Laravel uses it internally, and how you can use it safely (and securely!) in your own projects.Check out Bento at: bentonow.com and be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter at aaronfrancis.com/newsletterGitHub repo: github.com/laravel/serializable-closureFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Why you can’t serialize closures in PHP00:22 - Introducing Laravel Serializable Closure01:12 - Don’t install it—Laravel already includes it02:35 - Demonstrating the closure serialization problem03:01 - What serialization means in PHP04:47 - How unserialization works05:20 - The problem with closures and serialization05:36 - How Laravel makes closures serializable08:03 - Bringing closures back to life10:13 - How Laravel uses serializable closures13:55 - How to sign a closure for security15:01 - Preventing tampering with signed closures16:30 - Why Laravel doesn’t always sign closures17:28 - Wrapping up
The coffee-shop spreadsheet that changed YouTube Aaron Francis 2025-07-08 | Hear how Sugu Sougoumarane and his co-creator sat a nearby coffee shop, mapped every database nightmare, and sparked the creation of Vitess, the proxy layer that saved YouTube's database from collapse.Want to hear the full conversation? ▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=28q9mFh87KY🔊 Podcast: https://DatabaseSchool.com”
Hacking the Laravel router Aaron Francis 2025-07-02 | 🚨 Unfortunately, this won't work when routes are cached.We dive into the Laravel core and hack together a feature I’ve always wanted, route bindings that gracefully fall through if a model isn’t found. Along the way, I show how to safely extend Laravel with macros and custom validators without breaking future upgrades.Check out Bento at: bentonow.com and be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter at aaronfrancis.com/newsletterFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - What we're building: Ignore missing bindings 01:42 - The feature idea: graceful fallthrough for bindings 04:47 - Source diving into Laravel to add a macro 05:52 - Storing custom route info in the action array 06:44 - How Laravel matches routes under the hood 07:57 - Planning the safest extension approach 09:06 - Writing a custom route validator 10:48 - Hooking our validator into Laravel’s matching process 12:03 - Understanding validators in Laravel routing 14:41 - Confirming our validator works 15:55 - How to substitute route bindings safely 17:17 - Mimicking Laravel’s binding behavior 19:03 - Handling model not found exceptions cleanly 21:10 - Verifying fall-through works for unknown routes 22:56 - Final test: podcasts and episodes working together
Vitess for Postgres, with the co-founder of PlanetScale Aaron Francis 2025-07-01 | Sugu Sougoumarane, co-creator of Vitess and co-founder of PlanetScale, joins me to talk about his time scaling YouTube's database infrastructure, building Vitess, and his latest project bringing sharding to Postgres with Multigres. This was a fun conversation with technical deep-dives, lessons from building distributed systems, and why he's joining Supabase to tackle this next big challenge.Want to learn more about Postgres? Check out my course on Postgres: masteringpostgres.com/?ref=ytSugu's Vitess videos: youtube.com/watch?v=6yOjF7qhmyY&list=PLA9CMdLbfL5zHg3oapO0HvtPfVx6_iJy6The big announcement: supabase.com/blog/multigres-vitess-for-postgresDatabase school. databaseschool.comFollow Sugu:Twitter: twitter.com/ssougouLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sougouFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Intro1:38 - The birth of Vitess at YouTube3:19 - The spreadsheet that started it all6:17 - Intelligent query parsing and connection pooling9:46 - Preventing outages with query limits13:42 - Growing Vitess beyond a connection pooler16:01 - Choosing Go for Vitess20:00 - The life of a query in Vitess23:12 - How sharding worked at YouTube26:03 - Hiding the keyspace ID from applications33:02 - How Vitess evolved to hide complexity36:05 - Founding PlanetScale & maintaining Vitess solo39:22 - Sabbatical, rediscovering empathy, and volunteering42:08 - The itch to bring Vitess to Postgres44:50 - Why Multigres focuses on compatibility and usability49:00 - The Postgres codebase vs. MySQL codebase52:06 - Joining Supabase & building the Multigres team54:20 - Starting Multigres from scratch with lessons from Vitess57:02 - MVP goals for Multigres1:01:02 - Integration with Supabase & database branching1:05:21 - Sugu's dream for Multigres1:09:05 - Small teams, hiring, and open positions1:11:07 - Community response to Multigres announcement1:12:31 - Where to find Sugu
Making MySQL faster Aaron Francis 2025-06-27 | In this episode, I chat with Richard Crowley from PlanetScale about their new offering: PlanetScale Metal. We dive deep into the performance and reliability trade-offs of EBS vs. locally attached NVMe storage, and how Metal delivers game-changing speed for MySQL workloads.Database School: databaseschool.comPlanetScale: planetscale.comPlanetScale Metal: planetscale.com/blog/announcing-metalFollow Richard:Twitter: twitter.com/rcrowleyWebsite: rcrowley.orgFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Intro: What is PlanetScale Metal? 00:39 - Meet Richard Crowley 01:33 - What is Vitess and how does it work? 03:00 - Where PlanetScale fits into the picture 09:03 - Why EBS is the default and its trade-offs 13:03 - How PlanetScale handles durability without EBS 16:03 - The engineering work behind PlanetScale Metal 22:00 - Deep dive into backups, restores, and availability math 25:03 - How PlanetScale replaces instances safely 27:11 - Performance gains with Metal: Latency and IOPS explained 32:03 - Database workloads that truly benefit from Metal 39:10 - The myth of the infinite cloud 41:08 - How PlanetScale plans for capacity 43:02 - Multi-tenant vs. PlanetScale Managed 44:02 - Who should use Metal and when? 46:05 - Pricing trade-offs and when Metal becomes cheaper 48:27 - Scaling vertically vs. sharding 49:57 - What's next for PlanetScale Metal? 53:32 - Where to learn more
Speed up your Inertia.js website with these 7 tactics Aaron Francis 2025-06-25 | Want your Laravel + Vue.js site to feel snappy? In this video, I show you seven practical techniques I used to make my site feel ridiculously fast from server-side rendering to clever link prefetching to those buttery-smooth image transitions. If you’re building with Inertia, Laravel, or just chasing that lightning fast feel then this one’s for you.Check out Bento at: bentonow.com and be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter at aaronfrancis.com/newsletterFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Snappy site demo00:58 - Overview of the 7 step checklist01:40 - 1. Server-side rendering setup06:32 - 2. Asset prefetching08:24 - 3. Link prefetching09:59 - 4. Partial reloads15:13 - 5. Walking the DOM19:01 - 6. Placeholder images22:41 - 7. Laravel optimize23:56 - Final thoughts
From Prisma Founder to LiveStore: Building local-first apps with Johannes Schickling Aaron Francis 2025-05-29 | Johannes Schickling, original founder of Prisma, joins me to talk about LiveStore, his ambitious local-first data layer designed to rethink how we build apps from the data layer up. We dive deep into event sourcing, syncing with SQLite, and why this approach might power the next generation of reactive apps.Want to learn more about SQLite? Check out my SQLite course: highperformancesqlite.com/?ref=ytGet your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guideLivestore website: https://livestore.devLiveStore repo: github.com/livestorejsLiveStore Discord: discord.gg/RbMcjUAPd7Follow Johannes:Twitter: x.com/schicklingLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schicklingWebsite: https://www.schickling.devLocalfirst.fm Podcast: https://www.localfirst.fmFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: databaseschool.comChapters00:00 - Intro to Johannes01:00 - From Prisma to LiveStore03:00 - Discovering local-first through Riffle05:00 - What is local-first and who is it for?07:00 - Why local-first is gaining popularity10:00 - The inspiration from apps like Linear13:00 - Gaps in local-first tooling in 202016:00 - Social apps vs. user-centric apps18:00 - Distributed systems and why they’re hard21:00 - The value of embracing local-first24:00 - What LiveStore is and what it's not26:00 - Event sourcing as the core of LiveStore30:00 - Benefits of event sourcing for apps33:00 - Schema changes and time travel via events37:00 - Materializers and how they work43:00 - Syncing data across clients and devices48:00 - Sync servers and cross-tab communication54:00 - Architecture choices and dev tooling59:00 - State of the project and future vision1:06:00 - How to get involved
How Durable Objects and D1 Work: A Deep Dive with Cloudflare’s Josh Howard Aaron Francis 2025-05-14 | Josh Howard, Senior Engineering Manager at Cloudflare, joins me to explain how Durable Objects and D1 work under the hood—and why Cloudflare’s approach to stateful serverless infrastructure is so unique. We get into V8 isolates, replication models, routing strategies, and even upcoming support for containers.Want to learn more about SQLite? Check out my SQLite course: highperformancesqlite.com/?ref=ytGet your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guideFollow Josh:Twitter: twitter.com/ajoshhoward LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshthoward Follow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fmChapters00:00 - Intro00:37 - What is a Durable Object?01:43 - Cloudflare’s serverless model and V8 isolates03:58 - Why stateful serverless matters05:14 - Durable Objects vs Workers06:22 - How routing to Durable Objects works08:01 - What makes them "durable"?08:51 - Tradeoffs of colocating compute and state10:58 - Stateless Durable Objects12:49 - Waking up from sleep and restoring state16:15 - Durable Object storage: KV and SQLite APIs18:49 - Relationship between D1, Workers KV, and DOs20:34 - Performance of local storage writes21:50 - Storage replication and output gating24:15 - Lifecycle of a request through a Durable Object26:46 - Replication strategy and long-term durability31:25 - Placement logic and sharding strategy36:35 - Use cases: agents, multiplayer games, chat apps40:33 - Scaling Durable Objects41:14 - Globally unique ID generation43:22 - Named Durable Objects and coordination46:07 - D1 vs Workers KV vs Durable Objects47:50 - Outerbase acquisition and DX improvements49:49 - Querying durable object storage51:20 - Developer Week highlights and new features52:44 - Read replicas and sticky sessions53:49 - Containers and the future of routing56:47 - Deployment regions and infrastructure expansion57:43 - Hiring and how to connect with Josh
New Laravel starter kit (with built-in billing) Aaron Francis 2025-05-08 | Laravel now ships with first- and third-party starter kits that make spinning up a full SaaS app faster than ever including billing, invoicing, and subscriptions. In this video, I walk through the new Chargebee-powered starter kit, show you how to get up and running in minutes, and explore some of the powerful billing tools available under the hood.Links:Chargebee Cashier Repository: github.com/chargebee/cashier-chargebeeChargebee: chargebee.comFeedback email: dx@chargebee.comFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Laravel's starter kit strategy 00:50 - Zero-code walkthrough of the starter app 01:52 - Testing the subscription and checkout flow 03:01 - Chargebee overview and new cashier driver 03:33 - Installing the starter kit via CLI 05:52 - Syncing subscription plans 06:43 - How the cashier driver works 07:10 - Why use Chargebee for billing? 08:01 - Chargebee’s built-in accounting features 08:46 - Exploring the cashier-chargebee repo 09:28 - Built-in billing portal support 10:00 - Handling customer balances and credit 10:33 - Flexible subscription trial handling 11:14 - How to give Chargebee product feedback 11:50 - Wrap-up
20 years of hacking Postgres with Heikki Linnakangas (cofounder of Neon) Aaron Francis 2025-05-06 | In this episode of Database School, I talk with Heikki Linnakangas, co-founder of Neon and longtime PostgreSQL hacker, to talk about 20+ years in the Postgres community, the architecture behind Neon, and the future of multi-threaded Postgres. From paternity leave patches to branching production databases, we cover a lot of ground in this deep-dive conversation.Links:Mastering Postgres Course: masteringpostgres.com/?ref=ytLet's make postgres multi-threaded: postgresql.org/message-id/31cc6df9-53fe-3cd9-af5b-ac0d801163f4%40iki.fiHacker News discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36284487Follow Heikki:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heikki-linnakangas-6b58bb203Website: https://neon.techFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fm00:00 - Introduction and Heikki's background01:19 - How Heikki got into Postgres03:17 - First major patch: two-phase commit04:00 - Governance and decision-making in Postgres07:00 - Committer consensus and decentralization09:25 - Attracting new contributors11:25 - Founding Neon with Nikita Shamgunov13:01 - Why separation of compute and storage matters15:00 - Write-ahead log and architectural insights17:03 - Early days of building Neon20:00 - Building the control plane and user-facing systems21:28 - What "serverless Postgres" really means23:39 - Reducing cold start time from 5s to 700ms25:05 - Storage architecture and page servers27:31 - Who uses sleepable databases28:44 - Multi-tenancy and schema management31:01 - Role in low-code/AI app generation33:04 - Branching, time travel, and read replicas36:56 - Real-time point-in-time query recovery38:47 - Large customers and scaling in Neon41:04 - Heikki’s favorite Neon feature: time travel41:49 - Making Postgres multi-threaded45:29 - Why it matters for connection scaling50:50 - The next five years for Postgres and Neon52:57 - Final thoughts and where to find Heikki
Building a model reservation system with atomic locks Aaron Francis 2025-05-02 | We're using Laravel's atomic locks and database-generated columns to build a reliable reservation system—without race conditions or extra tables. I'll show you how to hook into Laravel’s cache lock system, add polymorphic relationships, and use generated columns to power powerful query scopes.Atomic Locks Video: youtu.be/jGb5zIgwL4cFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Our courses:High Performance SQLite: highperformancesqlite.comMastering Postgres: masteringpostgres.comHigh Leverage Rails: highleveragerails.comScreencasting: screencasting.comChapters:00:00 - What is an atomic lock? 02:00 - Two real-world locking scenarios 03:10 - Desired API design using reservation scopes 04:44 - Basic cache lock implementation 06:54 - Improving lock key visibility in database 08:34 - Moving toward database query integration 11:05 - Setting up polymorphic relationships 12:13 - Reusing Laravel’s cache_locks table 15:00 - Generating reservation keys programmatically 19:00 - Using generated columns to parse reservation keys 22:00 - Verifying morph relationship and query behavior 25:00 - Handling timing and collision issues 29:00 - Making key parsing more robust 32:00 - Filtering out expired or invalid locks 34:00 - Implementing unreserved and reserveFor scopes 38:00 - Building a reserve() method on the model 40:00 - Live testing reservation behavior 41:30 - Wrapping up: robust, multi-database reservation system
Building AI into your software (without the hype) Aaron Francis 2025-04-25 | We’re building a multi-million dollar education business with just two and a half people—powered by AI and automation. I break down the real principles, code, and prompts that let us scale fast without adding headcount.Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Our education products:High Performance SQLite: highperformancesqlite.comMastering Postgres: masteringpostgres.comHigh Leverage Rails: highleveragerails.comScreencasting: screencasting.comChapters:00:00 - Using AI to scale a traditional business 00:36 - Overview of our education products 01:11 - Where AI fits into our workflow 02:00 - Let computers do what computers are good at 03:13 - Principles for working with AI 03:57 - How we transcode and deliver video 04:59 - Using AI to write deterministic scripts 06:04 - Leveraging domain knowledge with AI 06:32 - Breaking down the publish workflow 07:00 - Automating transcription and captions 08:59 - Creating markdown transcripts from captions 10:08 - Building a modular, fault-tolerant system 11:59 - Syncing Cloudflare R2 with our database 13:37 - Handling transcription with 11Labs 16:01 - Generating VTT caption files 18:46 - Creating markdown transcripts with OpenAI 21:08 - Generating descriptions and snippets automatically 23:20 - Why small discrete steps matter 24:50 - Key principles for scaling with AI and programming 26:34 - Final thoughts on scaling without scaling headcount
Building a serverless database replica with Carl Sverre Aaron Francis 2025-04-18 | Want to learn more SQLite? Check out my SQLite course: highperformancesqlite.comIn this episode, Carl Sverre and I discuss why syncing everything is a bad idea and how his new project, Graft, makes edge-native, partially replicated databases possible. We dig into SQLite, object storage, transactional guarantees, and why Graft might be the foundation for serverless database replicas.Get your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guideSQLSync: https://sqlsync.devStop syncing everything blog post: https://sqlsync.dev/posts/stop-syncing-everythingGraft: github.com/orbitinghail/graftFollow Carl:Twitter: twitter.com/carlsverreLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carlsverreWebsite: carlsverre.comFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: databaseschool.comChapters:00:00 - Intro and Carl’s controversial blog title 01:00 - Why “stop syncing everything” doesn't mean stop syncing 02:30 - The problem with full database syncs 03:20 - Quick recap of SQL Sync and multiplayer SQLite 04:45 - How SQL Sync works using physical replication 06:00 - The limitations that led to building Graft 09:00 - What is Graft? A high-level overview 16:30 - Syncing architecture: how Graft scales 18:00 - Graft's stateless design and Fly.io integration 20:00 - S3 compatibility and using Tigris as backend 22:00 - Latency tuning and express zone support 24:00 - Can Graft run locally or with Minio? 27:00 - Page store vs meta store in Graft 36:00 - Index-aware prefetching in SQLite 38:00 - Prefetching intelligence: Graft vs driver 40:00 - The benefits of Graft's architectural simplicity 48:00 - Three use cases: apps, web apps, and replicas 50:00 - Sync timing and perceived latency 59:00 - Replaying transactions vs logical conflict resolution 1:03:00 - What’s next for Graft and how to get involved 1:05:00 - Hacker News reception and blog post feedback 1:06:30 - Closing thoughts and where to find Carl
Designing the data model for our course platform (with Stripe) Aaron Francis 2025-04-14 | This is a long form video describing how I built out the complex data model for our course and e-commerce platform. Our platform powers:- highperformancesqlite.com- masteringpostgres.com- highleveragerails.com- screencasting.comand even more coming soon! Check out the whiteboard app I was using here: tldraw.com.Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Setting the stage: course vs e-commerce01:40 - Why we’re moving to Stripe02:12 - Requirements for access types03:30 - Course tiers, bundles, and upgrades06:50 - Access control and enrollments07:57 - Digital downloads and bundling10:00 - Separation of billing and access11:45 - Modeling digital and physical access13:20 - How Stripe products fit in14:50 - Why we can’t link directly to assets19:30 - Entitlements: the key concept21:00 - Syncing Stripe data locally22:40 - Attaching entitlements to products24:10 - Why we use JSON for flexibility27:00 - How entitlements generate access28:40 - Checkout and checkout lines30:40 - Linking Stripe prices to access32:00 - Fulfillment and processing logic34:30 - Admin UI for defining entitlements39:00 - How checkouts are built and stored43:50 - Stripe integration flow46:20 - Access and fulfillment separation47:50 - Checkout-instant explained49:00 - Final database walkthrough50:05 - End-to-end flow summary52:00 - Avoiding webhooks with polling54:00 - Stripe redirect and payment verification56:00 - Offers: upsells and cross-sells1:00:00 - Creating and configuring offers1:03:40 - Final thoughts on modeling
I built Cloudflare Images in PHP (to scale & compress images) Aaron Francis 2025-04-11 | Prefer to read instead of watch? Here you go! aaronfrancis.com/2025/a-cookieless-cache-friendly-image-proxy-in-laravel-inspired-by-cloudflare-9e95f7e0.In this video I built a very basic version of Cloudflare's image proxy that we use on our various sites, like highperformancesqlite.com. It's a single controller in our Laravel application! Cloudflare Images: cloudflare.com/developer-platform/products/cloudflare-imagesIntervention: image.intervention.io/v3Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - What we’re building: Cloudflare-style image transforms in Laravel 00:59 - Defining the route with dynamic options and path 02:41 - Writing regex constraints for the route 03:56 - Creating the image controller 05:01 - Verifying the image exists 06:40 - Installing and using Intervention Image 07:15 - Parsing the options from the URL 08:45 - Transforming options into a usable array 09:13 - Scaling and manipulating the image 10:00 - Supporting format and quality options 11:58 - Encoding the image with format and quality 13:17 - Returning the image with proper headers 14:49 - Adding cache-control headers for CDN caching 15:59 - Preventing cookies from disabling CDN caching 18:59 - Creating middleware to strip cookies 20:56 - Implementing simple rate limiting 22:32 - Gracefully handling rate limit errors 24:07 - Wrapping up: why this approach works for us
Postgres on bare metal with the CEO of Prisma Aaron Francis 2025-02-17 | Prisma started as a GraphQL backend and pivoted into one of the most widely used ORMs in the world. Now, they’ve launched Prisma Postgres, and CEO Søren Bramer Schmidt is here to break down the journey, the challenges, and the massive technical innovations behind it—including bare-metal servers, Firecracker microVMs, and unikernels. If you care about databases, performance, or scaling, this one’s for you.Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.Follow Søren:Twitter: twitter.com/sorenbsGitHub: github.com/prisma/prismaPrisma Postgres: prisma.io/postgresFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fmChapters:00:00 - Introduction01:15 - The Origins of Prisma: From GraphQL to ORM02:55 - Why Firebase & Parse Inspired Prisma04:04 - The Pivot: From GraphQL to Prisma ORM06:00 - Why They Abandoned Backend-as-a-Service08:07 - The Open Source Business Model Debate10:15 - The Challenges of Monetizing an ORM12:42 - Building Prisma Accelerate & Pulse14:55 - How Prisma Accelerate Optimizes Database Access17:00 - Real-Time Database Updates with Prisma Pulse20:03 - How Prisma Pulse Handles Change Data Capture (CDC)23:15 - Users Wanted a Hosted Database (Even When Prisma Didn’t)25:40 - Why Prisma Finally Launched Prisma Postgres27:32 - Unikernels, Firecracker MicroVMs & Running Millions of Databases31:10 - Bare Metal Servers vs. AWS: The Controversial Choice34:40 - How Prisma Routes Queries for Low Latency38:02 - Scaling, Cost Efficiency & Performance Benefits42:10 - The Prisma Postgres Roadmap & Future Features45:30 - Why Prisma is Competing with AWS & The Big Cloud Players48:05 - Final Thoughts & Where to Learn More
Testing my TUI Aaron Francis 2025-02-06 | Support the development of Solo: aaronfrancis.com/backstage.Here is the latest code, as shown in the video: github.com/soloterm/solo/pull/56.Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Demo00:39 - What we're after02:05 - Defining the actions04:03 - Crash course on how it works08:53 - Laravel Dusk
I built a way to write PHP alongside your frontend Aaron Francis 2025-02-04 | Introducing Fusion: Seamlessly combine React and Vue with Laravel. I built a way to write PHP inside Vue & React components—and it actually works. No routes, no controllers, just instant backend-to-frontend magic in your Laravel app. Fusion bridges the gap between PHP and JavaScript like never before. Watch as I demo its power, from hot module reloading to full two-way state sync, all without leaving your Javascript file. This is Laravel + JavaScript like you've never seen before.Support the development of Fusion: aaronfrancis.com/backstageFusion GitHub repository: github.com/fusion-php/fusion (Note: this is a developer preview -- still has some rough edges, but we must ship! Hope you like it!)Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Mind-Blowing PHP in Javascript! 🤯00:48 - Writing PHP Inside a Javascript Component?!01:16 - What is Fusion? A Laravel + JavaScript Revolution02:00 - No Routes, No Controllers—Just Magic ✨02:48 - File-Based Routing & Route Model Binding04:08 - Reactive Props and State Syncing05:00 - Full Laravel Database Queries in Vue06:26 - Automatic Type Safety (Coming Soon!)07:14 - Seamless Error Handling for PHP & Vue08:08 - Real-Time Search with Two-Way Data Flow10:06 - Fusion's Built-In Loading & Success States12:00 - Exposing PHP Functions Directly to Vue14:00 - Alternative Syntax for PHP Purists17:00 - The Future of Fusion: React, Svelte & More19:32 - How to Get Involved & Support Fusion
I built a GUI in the terminal (with PHP) Aaron Francis 2025-01-31 | Solo for Laravel is a package to run multiple commands at once, to aid in local development. All the commands needed to run your application live behind a single artisan command `php artisan solo`. Each command runs in its own tab in Solo. Enjoy a powerful, unified development environment.Visit the Solo GitHub repository: github.com/soloterm/soloFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Intro: A Laravel CLI Tool00:41 - Navigating the Solo Interface01:27 - What is Solo? A Laravel Task Runner02:48 - Viewing and Managing Laravel Logs04:00 - Running NPM and Laravel Commands04:56 - Interactive Mode: Creating Models06:26 - Lazy Commands: Starting and Stopping Tasks07:57 - Customizing Key Bindings and Vim Mode08:42 - Configuring Solo for Your Workflow09:52 - Quick Navigation with the Popup Menu11:09 - Graceful Shutdown and Process Cleanup11:30 - Try Solo for Laravel
Moving from Redis to SQLite with Mike Buckbee Aaron Francis 2024-11-26 | Want to learn more SQLite? Check out my SQLite course: highperformancesqlite.comIn this episode, I sit down with Mike Buckbee to dive into the nitty-gritty of web application firewalls and his journey from using Redis to SQLite in Wafris. We talk about database architecture, operational challenges, and the fascinating ways SQLite improves performance and usability in cybersecurity tools.Get your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guideFollow Mike:Twitter: twitter.com/mbuckbeeLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelbuckbeeWafris website: wafris.orgRearchitecting Redis to SQLite article: wafris.org/blog/rearchitecting-for-sqliteFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Database school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: databaseschool.comChapters:00:00 - Introduction and Guest Overview01:06 - What is Wafris?02:43 - Naming and Origins of Wafris04:00 - Mike's Cybersecurity Background07:17 - Challenges with Web Application Firewalls10:01 - Wafris Architecture Overview16:15 - Why Switch to SQLite?18:01 - Handling IP Address Ranges24:00 - Wild Redis Data Structures Explained28:51 - Transitioning to SQLite32:02 - Operational Advantages of SQLite37:04 - How Wafris Leverages Threat Lists40:13 - Performance Gains with SQLite46:51 - Splitting Reads and Writes in the New Architecture52:29 - Closing Thoughts and Where to Learn More
Building a new Laravel dev runner (as a TUI) Aaron Francis 2024-10-30 | Building a new command runner for local development
Vectors in SQLite! (with libSQL) Aaron Francis 2024-10-23 | In this video, I explore how to improve related article recommendations on a website by leveraging SQLite with experimental vector support in libSQL, a package created by Turso. Follow along as we use OpenAI's API to generate embeddings, store them in a database, and calculate nearest neighbors for more relevant content suggestions.Want to learn more SQLite? Check out my SQLite course: highperformancesqlite.comGet your free SQLite reference guide: highperformancesqlite.com/products/sqlite-reference-guideMentioned Links:Turso: https://tur.so/alibSQL: https://turso.tech/libsqlNuno Maduro's OpenAI PHP client: github.com/openai-php/clientMy video about using SQLite for my site: youtu.be/QiocnnlcXIUFollow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction and Website Overview00:26 - SQLite Database for the Website00:39 - LibSQL Vector Support Introduction01:21 - Creating Article Embeddings with OpenAI API02:32 - Cleaning Article Contents03:06 - Generating Embeddings from Article Data04:55 - Storing Embeddings in libSQL06:00 - Setting up Database for Embeddings07:00 - Indexing and Storing Embeddings in SQLite08:45 - Writing SQL Query for Related Articles10:15 - Querying Article Embeddings for Nearest Neighbors12:00 - Testing and Fetching Related Articles14:10 - Improved Related Articles Display16:00 - Conclusion and Future Plans
Bootstrapping an email service provider (with Jesse Hanley) Aaron Francis 2024-10-14 | Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.In this interview, I talk with Jesse Hanley, founder of Bento, about running a lean email service from Japan. We chat about the challenges of scaling infrastructure, managing databases, and maintaining a calm business while serving a global customer base.Links Mentioned:Bento: bentonow.comDatabase school on YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI72dgeNJtzqElnNB6sQoAn2R-F3Vqm15Database school audio only: https://databaseschool.transistor.fmFollow Jesse:Twitter: twitter.com/jessethanleyBento on Twitter: twitter.com/BentoFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction to Jesse Hanley01:02 - Running Bento from Japan01:48 - The Lean Team Structure at Bento03:00 - Managing Support via Discord05:01 - Benefits of Using Discord for Customer Support06:45 - The Role of Community in Customer Feedback09:01 - How Bento Gained Traction13:00 - Bootstrapping Bento and Profitable Growth16:00 - Running Your Own Mail Servers19:03 - The Economics and Redundancy of Email Delivery21:00 - Bento's Heroku Setup and Scaling Challenges26:00 - Handling and Querying Massive Data in Bento29:52 - Leveraging Elasticsearch for Data Queries35:40 - Moving Toward Multi-Database Solutions37:45 - Exploring Crunchy Data and Citus for Database Scaling42:00 - Optimizing Bento for Performance and Scalability54:02 - Jesse’s Advice on Building a Calm and Profitable Business57:00 - How Bento Uses WebSockets and Background Jobs1:00:00 - Optimizing Bento with Action Cable1:02:25 - Avoiding N+1 Queries with WebSockets1:04:50 - Scaling Redis and Postgres at Bento1:09:00 - Jesse’s Approach to Managing Growth and Multiple Services1:11:00 - Final Thoughts on Scaling and Optimizing Databases1:13:10 - Advice for Aspiring Builders: Stay Patient and True to Your Vision1:16:00 - Bento’s Unique Approach to Email Marketing and Transactional Emails1:19:50 - Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Jesse Hanley Online
Creating a Postgres platform with Monica & Tudor from Xata.io Aaron Francis 2024-10-07 | Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.Production ready Postgres for teams that ship fast: xata.ioIn this interview, I talk with Monica Sarbu and Tudor Golubenco from Xata about their journey from Elastic to founding Xata. We deep dive on building a Postgres hosting platform, handling schema changes, and how they've made their free tier economical.Links Mentioned:Xata.io: xata.ioThe economics of a Postgres free tier: xata.io/blog/postgres-free-tierFollow Monica & Tudor:Monica on Twitter: twitter.com/monicasarbuMonica on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/monicasarbuTudor on Twitter: twitter.com/tudor_gTudor on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tudorgolubencoFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction00:26 - What is Xata? Overview and Mission01:32 - Open Source Projects: PG Roll and PG Stream02:33 - Synchronizing Data: Postgres to Elastic Search03:12 - Monica and Tudor's Background & Journey to Elastic04:00 - Founding of Packetbeat: The Start of Open Source Monitoring06:08 - Transition from Elastic to Starting Xata07:00 - Launching a Nonprofit and Insights on Database Challenges08:29 - The Idea Behind Xata: Simplifying Application Development10:00 - Tudor Joins Xata: The Decision to Start Again10:47 - The Technical Vision for Xata's Platform12:06 - Founding Xata During the Pandemic13:11 - Funding Journey: From Seed to Series A15:07 - Building a Platform, Not Just a Hosted Database17:20 - Introducing Postgres to Xata's Stack20:19 - Navigating Postgres as a DBA22:44 - Open Source Strategy & Community Building27:48 - PG Stream Use Cases & Postgres Replication32:08 - PG Roll for Zero Downtime Schema Changes36:05 - Implementing Safe and Fast Schema Changes39:49 - Blob Storage and Cloudflare Integration45:11 - Xata's Unique Features: Serving Builders and Larger Teams49:20 - Free Tier Economics and Why It Matters56:04 - Working as a Husband-Wife Team
Tips for handling timezones in Postgres Aaron Francis 2024-09-27 | Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.Production ready Postgres for teams that ship fast: xata.ioIn this video, I'll show you how to keep your sanity by using best practices (aka the least frustrating way) to handle timezones in PostgreSQL!Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction to Time Zones in PostgreSQL00:51 - Why Time Zones Are Frustrating01:42 - Best Practices for Handling Time Zones02:24 - Using UTC for Consistency03:04 - Setting the Time Zone for Your Database and Session04:07 - Impact of Session Time Zone on Timestamps05:00 - How PostgreSQL Stores and Displays Timestamps06:03 - Converting UTC to Local Time Zones06:40 - The Importance of Using Named Time Zones07:06 - Using at time zone for Conversion07:59 - Potential Pitfalls of Using Abbreviations (CST/CDT)08:58 - The Problem with Hour Offsets10:30 - Understanding Posix Style Time Zone Specifications11:55 - Avoiding Mistakes with Time Zone Offsets12:46 - Listing and Selecting Time Zone Names in PostgreSQL13:39 - Final Recommendations for Handling Time Zones
Herokus glory days & Postgres vs the world, w/ Craig Kerstiens Aaron Francis 2024-09-24 | Want to learn more Postgres? Check out my Postgres course: https://masteringpostgres.com.In this interview, I dive deep with Craig Kerstiens from Crunchy Data into the world of Postgres, covering its rise to prominence, scaling at Heroku, and the power of Postgres extensions. Craig also shares insights on database sharding, the future of Postgres, and why developers love working with it.Follow Craig:Twitter: twitter.com/craigkerstiensCrunchy Data Blog: crunchydata.com/blogFollow Aaron:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction: Welcome to Database School 00:20 - Guest Introduction: Craig Kerstiens and Crunchy Data 01:40 - Craig's Journey from Heroku to Crunchy Data 02:55 - Scaling Postgres at Heroku 04:50 - Mastering Postgres Course Announcement 05:30 - The Importance of Postgres at Heroku 07:50 - The Value of Live SQL with Data Clips 09:25 - Data Clips for Business Intelligence and Real-Time Analytics 11:05 - Heroku’s Unique Company Culture and How Data Clips Came to Be 12:30 - Postgres Extensions and Marketplace 14:00 - Citus: Scaling Postgres for Multi-Tenant Applications 15:40 - The Challenges of Sharding in Databases 18:00 - Managing Large Databases and Sharding Keys with Citus 24:00 - The Evolution of Postgres and Its Growing Popularity 31:00 - Postgres for Developers and the Importance of Extensions 35:00 - Extensions as Proving Grounds for Core Postgres Features 37:50 - Building an Extension Marketplace for Postgres41:00 - Postgres as a Data Platform and Developer Flexibility 46:00 - Why Developers Love Postgres: Stability, Extensions, and Ownership 51:00 - DuckDB: A Fascinating New Database Approach 53:30 - Crunchy Data: What They Offer and Why It Matters58:30 - Expanding Postgres with DuckDB for Data Warehousing 01:00:00 - Wrapping Up: Where to Find Craig and Crunchy Data
Building a Flyio driver for Laravel Sidecar Aaron Francis 2024-09-19 | Working on a new open source driver for Fly.io and Laravel Sidecar.Follow me:Twitter: twitter.com/aarondfrancis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aarondfrancisWebsite: aaronfrancis.com - find articles, podcasts, courses, and more.
