I am an iOS developer and I've an idea how backend works, but to build basic apps creating a server based backend is time consuming and complicated, I was looking for leanest solutions, among them Supabase has more love from developer community. I gave a shot, tbh it was mind-blown.
How?
- When you create a table, you get all CRUD endpoints for free which actually saves you an easy 4-8 hours of time.
- You can also run CRON job using Postgres (this has nothing to do with Supabase but they let you create CRON jobs from Supabase directly.)
- Supports third party logins many more...
How I built a Mac app using Supabase?
I took a user problem from blockchain where users are paying hefty gas fee on a transaction. The gas fee is highly volatile that it changes every second, so I've decided to go for an alternate solution.
here is the website: https://ethgas.carrd.co/
here are few screenshots: https://photos.app.goo.gl/iD3My9Lm8vH9E7LF9
I've built a simple solution where the app asks the user "What is the gas fee that you are ready to pay for?" Based on the user's input the app will notify when the gas fee is low.
For example: If user input 20 Gwei, then the backend checks every X mins to see if the fee is <=20 Gwei. While it looks so simple from the solution and UI pov, backend was little tricky to me as I've never worked before, but this is how I tackled it.
- Got access to blockchain API where it sends the gas fee information.
- I stored this information on Supabase for X mins using CRON job. Initially I had no idea that Supabase allows you to write CRON jobs but glad it did.
- To manage the storage space on Supabase, I've written another CRON job to delete the rows for the last X days.
So on the backend side, all I did was create a table and cron jobs. It felt like writing nocode/lowcode on backend.
To build this entire app, it took me
- 1-2 days on Idea, design & frontend
- 1-2 days on backend.
Conclusion: Don't try to build from scratch unless you want to learn or your job demands.
Srly, if you've not tried Supabase, give a shot. They are also planning to launch:
- Triggers
- Functions many more..
(I am not affiliated to Supabase)
You can checkout my other blog post: https://dev.to/pradeepb28_/ive-built-an-iosmacosipados-app-using-low-code-within-3-days-158o
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