Add recipe to cookbook for 'Persist Data with Realm Database'

[mongodben]

What information is missing?

Hello!

I'm a technical writer at MongoDB working on the docs for the Realm Flutter SDK.

Currently, the Recipes section of the Flutter docs does not have a page covering Realm Database. Realm Database is a SQLite alternative that recently went to general availability. Michael Thomsen wrote a blog post about Realm, which you can read here. A Realm Flutter SDK Engineer also appeared on the Observable Flutter show on Feb 23, 2023, which you can watch here.

I think it'd benefit the Flutter docs to have a recipe for a not SQLite-based local database like Realm. I envision the recipe looking similar to the Persist Data with SQLite recipe.

I also think it'd be appropriate to only have the recipe covering Realm Database, the open source project (not the freemium Device Sync and Atlas App Services functionality).

How would you like us to fix this problem?

I'd be happy to write the Realm Database recipe myself if the Flutter docs team is open to it.

Just let me know on this issue if you're interested, and I can start on a PR for it. I might have a few questions on your docs tool chain, but I can ask here, Discord, or another place of the team's preference.

Hope we can work on this together!

[mongodben]

hello @danagbemava-nc, any updates on this issue?

as indicated in the issue description, i'd be happy to work on this page if the flutter team is interested in including this content in the flutter docs.

[danagbemava-nc]

Hi @mongodben, I believe this would be a fine addition to the docs and PRs are always welcome

cc @sfshaza2 for further insight

[mongodben]

@sfshaza2, do you support this as well?

i just want to make sure that the docs team is open to the addition to the docs before i spend the time creating the documentation.

[sfshaza2]

Hi, @mongodben! Actually, we don't want to offer docs every 3rd party package in our cookbook. That kind of thing is very difficult to maintain over time.

What I'd like to do is to add a new "Database support" page under "/development/data&backend/databases" that provides links to solutions. It could link to the sqlite package, as well as the cookbook recipe. It could also have a MongoDb section that links to the Flutter/MongoDb tutorial on your site, as well as Mit's article on Realm.

I'm not sure what other things it should also link to, but I think this makes the most sense.

Thoughts?

[mongodben]

Hi, @mongodben! Actually, we don't want to offer docs every 3rd party package in our cookbook. That kind of thing is very difficult to maintain over time.

i understand, seems reasonable!

What I'd like to do is to add a new "Database support" page under "/development/data&backend/databases" that provides links to solutions. It could link to the sqlite package, as well as the cookbook recipe. It could also have a MongoDb section that links to the Flutter/MongoDb tutorial on your site, as well as Mit's article on Realm.

and i think a more index-style page like this makes a lot of sense as a long term solution. i'm of course biased toward realm, but could be a nice place to mention the different approaches.

i'd be happy to contribute to this page for the realm section if you'd like.

also, if the flutter team supports it, i wonder if realm would be a good candidate for the happy paths recommendations for structured local storage.

[sfshaza2]

That would be great, @mongodben! So long as you don't mind my "red wedding" reviews. ;). Right now I'm REALLY hammered with work.

[sfshaza2]

Oh, one more thing. Both Happy Paths and Flutter Favorites are on hiatus. I (believe) I added a note to both pages to say that. Since the PM who owned that left, we do have new PMs who want to take it on, but they have zero cycles in the foreseeable future.

[mongodben]

That would be great, @mongodben! So long as you don't mind my "red wedding" reviews. ;). Right now I'm REALLY hammered with work.

thanks for the warning 😄. would you like me to start drafting that page, or wait for you to have a draft, and then i'll add the realm content.

Oh, one more thing. Both Happy Paths and Flutter Favorites are on hiatus. I (believe) I added a note to both pages to say that. Since the PM who owned that left, we do have new PMs who want to take it on, but they have zero cycles in the foreseeable future.

ah yes, see that now.