Fauna Query Language tamed to appeal to developers

Fauna, which offers a distributed document-relational database service, connected Tuesday introduced a caller type of its Fauna Query Language, promising a amended developer acquisition pinch little database code.

FQL is not to beryllium confused pinch Microsoft's FAST Query Language, Postman's Flows Query Language, Falcon Query Language, Facebook Query Language, Filter Query Language, Feature Query Language, aliases different F-encumbered query languages that tin beryllium likewise abbreviated.

"The founding squad started getting going connected this successful 2016 and was moving connected nan first architecture and nan first type of FQL," explained CEO Eric Berg successful an question and reply pinch The Register.

The team, he said, had been dealing pinch nan situation of scaling Twitter – co-founders Matt Freels and Evan Weaver served arsenic nan method lead of Twitter's database squad and head of infrastructure of Twitter respectively.

They created nan first type of Fauna and FQL, said Berg, which offers distributed document-relational capabilities pinch beardown consistency crossed aggregate regions that scales easily.

"The connection that they created, nan first type of FQL, they fundamentally optimized it for powerfulness users," Berg explained, citing arsenic an illustration really indexes were required to interact pinch everything because that's nan optimal measurement to activity pinch databases astatine scale. "Some developers really loved it because they loved nan power and powerfulness it would springiness them. But it was besides very verbose and it had immoderate constraints."

The extremity pinch nan new type of FQL, said Berg, is to unfastened up nan underlying architecture of Fauna to developers while making it much acquainted and capable. So nan Fauna squad took inspiration from modern programming languages for illustration TypeScript and Python and from GraphQL, a query connection for APIs.

"The [FQL] syntax is very acquainted and inspired by TypeScript and Python," said Berg. "So you get that familiarity, but you besides get each nan logic constructs that you get successful a modern programming language... that you don't get successful SQL."

SQL, which will beryllium 50 years aged adjacent year, stands for Structured Query Language arsenic almost anyone successful nan IT business will show you. It's nan modular connection for managing information successful relational databases.

The folks astatine Fauna picture their database work – which you entree via API alternatively of done package that you instal connected a server – arsenic a "NoSQL database that has nan relational capabilities of [a relational database guidance system]."

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It's positioned arsenic an replacement to AWS's managed NoSQL database work DynamoDB. But Fauna besides sees itself competing pinch MongoDB, Postgres, and "serverless" AWS Aurora, among others.

"We besides return inspiration from GraphQL," said Berg. "So that you tin do projections of your data. You tin fundamentally manipulate nan information and bring it backmost to your exertion successful nan format that it needs to fresh into – nevertheless your UI consumes that data. And you do that natively successful Fauna. Whereas successful SQL, because each nan information is stored successful tables and rows and columns, you person to spell done immoderate benignant of translator layer, usually what's called ORM (object relational mapping)."

Fauna, he said, has a benignant of autochthonal ORM that does amended successful position of capacity and efficiency.

Fauna is besides adding support for a declarative database schema. "With Fauna, you tin commencement successful an unstructured mode and past you tin adhd that schema complete clip to building and power your data," said Berg, who observed that this helps Fauna spot nicely pinch DevOps tooling.

Berg said Fauna has much than 350 paying endeavor customers, successful summation to much than 3,000 teams actively processing applications pinch Fauna that whitethorn germinate beyond nan free tier.

Pointing to nan service's caller web shell, bid statement interface, administrative dashboard, intelligent codification completion and hold for Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Berg said: "We've really made judge that, on pinch nan familiarity from a connection perspective, nan improvement acquisition that you person is besides leveraging champion successful people package improvement practices." ®