sequelts VS postgres-typed

You can use these template literal types + infer to build an entire SQL parser. I did a POC that infers SQL query types by parsing the SQL query on a type level:

https://github.com/nikeee/sequelts

However, building this parser is pretty cumbersome and supporting multiple SQL dialects would be lots of pain. While I'm not a fan of query builders per se, Kysely pretty much covers everything that my POC tried to cover (except that 0 runtime overhead). However, you get the option to use different DBMs in tests than in production (pg in prod, sqlite in tests), which is a huge benefit for a lot of people. sequelts was designed to work with sqlite only. And it's not a hack.

The only thing I can imagine where this would be useful is when you don't have control about what DB is being used, for example, when building a product that should be compatible with Postgres and MariaDB (and each is getting used). However, in the age of containerization, this isn't a big problem any more.

In some ORMs, I need to create types that the result of a query containing JOINs is mapped to. Others don't support them _at all_. In TypeORM, there is a query builder which forces you to put in _some_ SQL for things like "WHERE a in (b, c)".

I created a proof of concept of a different approach: Just embrace SQL and provide static typing based on the query. The return type of a query is whatever that thing is that the query returns in the context of the database schema. It's possible to do in TypeScript, by parsing the SQL query at development time:

https://github.com/nikeee/sequelts

One benefit is that it does not need any runtime code, as it's just a type layer over SQL. You don't have to rely on some type-metadata that TypeScript emits. That's why it also works with JavaScript only.

I don't like ORMs that use runtime types either. Most of the time, I want to write raw SQL.

So as an experiment, I created a library that statically types raw SQL:

https://github.com/nikeee/sequelts

The idea is to parse the SQL queries using TS's type system. The parsed query is combined with the database schema and therefore, we know what type the query will return.

This is especially useful due to TS's structural type system.

This is really cool, will look into using it in future projects!

I also made a tool (https://github.com/vramework/schemats) that generates the types directly from the db, which means whenever you do a DB migration your database types automatically update. Was forked from the original schemats library a couple years ago.

I also created a lightweight library ontop of pg that is less of a query builder and more of a typed CRUD + SQL for non trivial queries (https://github.com/vramework/postgres-typed). Most queries I deal with in a day to day is usually crud so I find it a little easier, but it's much less powerful then Kysely! I fall more into the camp of writing complex queries in SQL with small helpers and writing simple ones with util functions and typescript

I'm working on a few projects, from one/two days to platforms.

The first is OS and is a simple nodeJS environment to deploy applications via lambda and express quickly. Sort of like nestJS except less decorators and more functional (https://vramework.io/). I already know of a few other colleagues that rolled their own propriety versions of this to support enterprise and cloud deployments so decided to OS it.

The other OS project is a strongly typed postgres/mysql driver. The idea is to generate typescript definitions directly from postgres (https://github.com/vramework/schemats) and then have a think layer ontop of pg-node that gives you strongly typed queries (https://github.com/vramework/postgres-typed).

An open-source project I spent a few years on the core team is https://deepstream.io/, a realtime-server that allows you to mix and match multiple streaming protocols (mqtt/websocket/others) and allow those clients to talk to each other using pub-sub and records. I'm not longer working for it but wanted to give it a shout out!

On a non OS project, I have been working on an immersive audio platform for a while now. The main goal is to allow users to pick and choose how audio books progress, and also have a live session mode which allows users to record their pulse / answer questions and a few other metrics and associate it with sentences. I pretty much built and deployed all of it but require some advice/brainstorming on how to proceed now. I built it to satisfy an itch when I was practicing shamanism during the first lockdown when I was in-between contracts / taking time off.

I also want to build a simple web-pages strategy game based around eco-education, but don't have the bandwidth . If anyone is interested in mixing together gamification and eco-village building might be a fun conversion to bounce ideas!

All the OS projects above were used to support my personal/a couple professional projects over the last few years.

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I agree with your point that adding multiple layers = more attack vectors and abstraction of a really good domain specific language. But what seems to happen on most of the projects I work on is we end up hiding away extremely common logic behind helper functions. It always starts off with SQL and then slowly gets moved into higher level functions that offer a better developer experience.

Shameless plug, but I just posted a library I wrote (for node https://github.com/vramework/postgres-typed/blob/master/READ...) which pretty much is a tiny layer ontop of pg-node (which is query based / with value parameters) and provides small util functions with typescript support derived straight from postgres tables.

In an ideal world (one I think we are getting very close to) I think we will end up having SQL queries validated in our code against the actual DB structure the same way we have any other compilation error. But until then we'll need to rely on tests or helper libraries, and for the purpose of refactoring and development I find the latter more enjoyable (although still far from perfect).