Research which database backend to use

[antoni-devlin]

Potentials off the top of my head:

• SQLite
  • Very small size, flat-file based, will scale
  • How do I serve an sqlite file safely without exposing it to the internet?
• localStorage API
  • very easy to implement, low overhead, can offer personalised results without needing to handle user authentication
  • a way of storing data, but not really a database system. It has storage limits, and converting back and forth form JSON isn't great practice for using an actual database or ORM.
• PostgreSQL/MySQL
  • Traditional database, can use natively, or with an ORM, I'm assuming?
  • A lot more overhead, more expensive to run, probably overkill for a project this size?
• Firebase (or similar)
  • cloud-based, low overhead, nothing to manage?

[huwd]

@jyoung-gds is looking at similar things over here: https://github.com/alphagov/learningtime-jy-sem1/issues/2#issuecomment-1545532386

Do take a look at the options and what places like the GDS way says, but also choose wisely where to spend your remaining time. If learning databases is your core interest pick that. If you just need a DB to do more interesting things, pick something easy and move on, you can always change it later.