An Introduction to Realm Database
The Realm is a new database module that is improving the way databases are used and also supports relationships between objects. If you are part of the SQL development world, then you must be familiar with the Realm.
What is Realm?
The Realm is an object and mobile database. It’s a data-storage solution for mobile and web development. A simpler definition would be that the Realm is where your app’s or website’s data is stored and managed. One could say that the Realm mobile database is the perfect replacement for SQLite and Core Data.
Realm offers a database solution for development languages Java, Kotlin, Swift, Obj-C, JavaScript, and .NET. You can use the Swift Package Manager (SPM), CocoaPods, or Carthage to add Realm to your development project. We found that SPM is the quickest and easiest way to get started.
The Realm Platform is made up of two major components:
(a) The Realm Database
(b) The Realm Object Server
These two components work in conjunction to automatically synchronize data enabling a lot of use cases ranging from offline apps to complex backend integrations.
What Problem Does Realm Database Solve?
Most applications of these times will need some persistent data. Building such applications involves making the application more complex and adds more lines of code. Now, we all know the increased pain and work that goes behind developing such complex apps which results in longer development cycles, overburdened resources, and an unwieldy code base.
As a developer, you face a number of similar challenges during the development of any mobile application. The Realm database is the object-based database that will make it easier for you, especially in such complex development projects.
Realm helps developers in gracefully handling the unpredictable environment of mobile apps in which devices can shut down at any time; connections can be lost, etc. It provides an opportunity to coordinate between mobile clients, backend APIs, and databases.
What Does Realm Database have to offer?
We talked about all the challenges that Realm aims to solve like network reliability, local storage, keeping UIs reactive, etc. Now it’s time to learn about the offerings of Realm.
Realm Local Storage: Realm Database runs on the client devices. Storing, accessing, and updating your data is simple and lightweight as it accesses objects using the native query language for each platform.
Realm offers Network Reliability: The Realm database is offline-first. It means that you always read from and write to the local database and not over the network. When the Realm Sync is enabled, the Realm Database synchronizes data with MongoDB Realm over the network in a background thread. This sync protocol resolves conflicts consistently on each client and in the linked MongoDB Atlas cluster.
Reactive UI: Live objects always reflect the latest data stored in Realm Database and allow you to subscribe to changes, so you can keep your UI up-to-date at all times. The Realm SDK lets you connect to local realms for all the various development languages and platforms like Android, iOS, Node.js, React Native, and UWP development.
What are the Benefits of Realm Database?
Are you looking for a short, precise list of points to choose Realm? Here’s what you are looking for.
Benefits of using Realm:
- Build apps faster
- Build bigger & better apps
- Reduce experience latency & server bills
- Get “offline mode” for free
- Craft experiences to a higher level
- Program for more than one app platform
Conclusion
The React native database has several benefits and reasons for developers and development companies to implement it into their web and app development projects from here on. What are your thoughts about the same?
