TomeDB

Urbit's web3 and composability bridge

TomeDB is an Urbit database and JavaScript client package with native permissioning and subscription support. With TomeDB, developers can build full-stack Urbit applications entirely in JavaScript (no Hoon). Tome currently supports multiple storage types, including key-value, log, and feed.

Features

  • Designed for migration from preexisting dApps: With the key-value store, TomeDB can dynamically use JavaScript local storage if an Urbit connection is not made. This means that developers can prepare and distribute applications both on and off Urbit from a single codebase.

  • Enables app composability: With Urbit, your users' data is theirs, forever. Applications using TomeDB can directly read and write from other data stores, with the simplicity of saving files to disk.

  • Preload, caching, and callback system: TomeDB supports both preloading and caching values directly in JavaScript, reducing the number of requests to Urbit and making it easy to deliver a snappy user experience. Callback functions are also provided to make re-rendering and state management a breeze.

  • Fully integrated and modular permissions: Developers can specify exactly which users or groups have read / write / overwrite access for each data store.

  • Bootstraps Automatically: Applications using TomeDB will create and set access to data stores on launch - no user or developer configuration required.

Example

Here’s a simple example of setting and retrieving a value with Tome and an Urbit connection:

import Urbit from '@urbit/http-api'
import Tome from '@holium/tome-db'

const api = new Urbit('', '', window.desk)
api.ship = window.ship

const db = await Tome.init(api)
const store = await db.keyvalue()

const result = await store.set('foo', 'bar')
// result === true

const value = await store.get('foo')
// value === 'bar'

Limitations

  • TomeDB currently cannot support large datasets or concurrent user counts. All data is stored and delivered by the host ship, whose max capacity is ~2-8 GB. Future plans include support for load balancing and data distribution.

  • Data stores are somewhat static (key-value, log, or feed). TomeDB is not a full graph or relational database replacement. It can still be useful for rapid prototyping, however.

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