Storing feature flags as JSON (with indexing) 

😌😌 you're welcome

I really really appreciate this, you have no idea. I'm constantly trying to offer nuance on a platform that favors absolutes. Thanks for calling that out 🫶 Funny that you did a VHS store operation, because isn't that literally the domain that the old Sakila database uses too? Too funny

Thank you!

Haha steve is the funniest

I'll do a performance comparison as a separate video after the three in-depth ones. Good idea!

@@PlanetScale Any updates on this, would love to see some performance comparisons

@@kelvincjjIt might be a while. Aaron just had his second set of twins a couple weeks ago. But anything Aaron makes is well worth the wait!

I'm running my camera at 1080p but we're rendering out at 4k, so when I'm doing the talking heads I might be a bit soft! I'm using the Canon M50 with a sigma 16mm lens. I share some behind the scenes video stuff on Twitter! twitter.com/aarondfrancis

Oh man, I'm drooling over the sigma 16 rn 😂

Good idea! This channel is primarily focused on SQL, specifically MySQL. But I'll see if there's a way we can show it anyway

Steve has HAD IT

I thought the same, but it only works if the key is present. So, {"active": null} works if you SELECT * from table where flags->'$.active' != true. However, if you run the same select and the column value is {} (or null), the row is not selected.

TablePlus! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7V_CJBPZPes.html

Well, storing multiple values in one column is a 1NF violation first and foremost. So unless you don't care about basic properties of relation in relational databases then there's indeed no reason to store multiple values in one column, especially with the bit masking example as it's not only a violation but it's also very confusing to look at. I guess it's just about exploring the different ways of doing that. One other thing that might be useful with JSON storage is that you don't need to alter your database (so no migrations), you can just add new values to it. And if you map it in your code (via ORM library for example) as a Dictionary or other key-value based collection, you don't even need to alter your contract to add new values (talking about a simple 1 level JSON of course). Also if you have a no SELECT * policy in your code querying for JSON column always gets you the entire thing

@@_grigoryta thanks for the extensive answer, some good points there, I will have to look further into this.

We did a video on it here! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7V_CJBPZPes.html

Nope! Shouldn't matter at all.

Oh woah, maybe so! You'd have to be sure to query against the array... but yeah that kinda rules

@@PlanetScale that is true, query against the indexed column and insert, update, & del on the json (non-array) column... We can also make a function that converts json to json array, and use that as the index parameter for functional index

Ooo working on a video for that right now! Spoiler alert: just a Laravel command

@@PlanetScale you sly dog, you were psyopping me! Got my interest all piqued about the data seeding with subtle hints. I look forward to the video!

TablePlus! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7V_CJBPZPes.html

Use columns with default values, not jsonb.

Or have the default be something your app defines, and your "stored" option is just the override

I suppose you're right... If you wrap it all up in a scope or put it behind a builder, it'd be ok. I just was reading about how to do it and it was *gnarly*

@@PlanetScale At 12:27, it's very simple to remove array elements by value using built in functions in one line of code. Sample of JavaScript: // single value const oldValues = ['dark_mode', 'whatever']; // get from DB returning an array of strings const newValues = oldValues.filter(value => value != 'dark_mode'); console.log(newValues); // ['whatever'] OR // multiple values const oldValues = ['dark_mode', 'whatever']; // get from DB returning an array of strings const newValues = oldValues.filter(value => !['dark_mode', 'super_admin'].includes(value)); console.log(newValues); // ['whatever'] OR using functions with unique add function removeFlags (oldValues, ...flags) { return oldValues.filter(value => !flags.includes(value)); } function addFlags (oldValues, ...flags) { return removeFlags(oldValues, ...flags).concat(flags);; // to make the output unique } const oldValues = ['dark_mode', 'whatever']; // get from DB returning an array of strings const newValues = addFlags(oldValues, 'whatever', 'foobar'); console.log(newValues); // ['dark_mode', 'whatever', 'foobar'] console.log(removeFlags(newValues, 'dark_mode', 'whatever')); // ['foobar']

Here they are: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Kf8SWqljM18.html, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-csLHXmVLGbs.html

Could be either!

I showed the json object and then said the json array should be done in the app. Do I typically lie?