PostgreSQL VS Docker Compose

Another key feature of txtai is being able to quickly move from prototyping to production. This article will demonstrate how txtai can integrate with Postgres, a powerful, production-ready and open source object-relational database system. After txtai persists content to Postgres, we'll show it can be directly queried with SQL from any Postgres client

SQL (Structured Query Language) databases are relational databases. They organize data into tables with rows and columns, and they use SQL for querying and managing data. Examples include MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

Node.js, MySQL and PostgreSQL servers installed on your machine

Each app’s front end is built with Qwik and uses Tailwind for styling. The server-side is powered by Qwik City (Qwik’s official meta-framework) and runs on Node.js hosted on a shared Linode VPS. The apps also use PM2 for process management and Caddy as a reverse proxy and SSL provisioner. The data is stored in a PostgreSQL database that also runs on a shared Linode VPS. The apps interact with the database using Drizzle, an Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) for JavaScript. The entire infrastructure for both apps is managed with Terraform using the Terraform Linode provider, which was new to me, but made provisioning and destroying infrastructure really fast and easy (once I learned how it all worked).

I've used MySQL for years. But recently, I found myself working PostgreSQL and simple things like dumping and restoring a database are different enough that I decided to document the process. It's straightforward enough once I knew how.

A running Rails application needs a database to connect to. You may already have your database of choice installed, but if not, I recommend PostgreSQL, or Postgres for short. On a Mac, probably the easiest way to install it is with Posrgres.app. Another option, the one I prefer, is to use Homebrew. With Homebrew installed, this command will install PostgreSQL version 16 along with libpq:

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL: Offers a robust feature set and strong compliance with SQL standards, making it suitable for a wide range of applications, from simple to complex, particularly where data integrity and extensibility are key.

FerretDB is an open source document database that adds MongoDB compatibility to other database backends, such as Postgres and SQLite. By using FerretDB, developers can access familiar MongoDB features and tools using the same syntax and commands for many of their use cases.

To better understand how SQL injection works, let's quickly create a vulnerable app using Node.js, Express, and a PostgreSQL database. The application takes user input from a form, constructs a SQL query, and executes it against the database to fetch some data.

Solutions are many, and could include Docker Compose, VS Code dev containers, Telepresence, Localstack or setting up temporary AWS accounts as a development environment for serverless applications.

Using Docker Compose to run Postgres and any third-party services locally provides a streamlined and consistent development environment. Developers can define services in a docker-compose.yml file, which enables them to configure and launch an entire stack with a single command. In this case, Postgres is encapsulated within a container with predefined configurations. Docker Compose also facilitates easy scaling, updates, and isolation of services, enhancing development efficiency and reducing the setup time for new team members or transitioning between projects. It encapsulates complex configurations, such as Postgres' performance monitoring and logging settings, in a manageable, version-controlled file, simplifying and replicating the service setup across different environments.

“Compose simplifies the control of your entire application stack, making it easy to manage services, networks, and volumes in a single, comprehensible YAML configuration file. Then, with a single command, you create and start all the services from your configuration file.” - Docker documentation

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh sudo sh get-docker.sh # Install docker compose sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose # Apply executable permissions to the binary sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose # Run Project docker-compose up -d

Docker,

This foundation now opens the door to even more powerful concepts. You can explore more advanced concepts such as container networking, streamlining the management of complex applications with Docker Compose, and how to make your application data persistent using volumes.

In many projects that are containerized, especially in cases where development is also done locally with docker-compose, teams often have two Dockerfiles, 1 for Development, the other for Production. If you happen to have multiple environments like pre-prod, staging and so on, some teams could have different Dockerfiles for these environments.

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/latest/download/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

You can also use Docker Compose to deploy the cluster, without having to write all the previous commands.