A lightweight replacement for SwiftData and @Query.
This library was motivated and designed over the course of many episodes on Point-Free, a video series exploring advanced programming topics in the Swift language, hosted by Brandon Williams and Stephen Celis. To support the continued development of this library, subscribe today.
SharingGRDB is lightweight replacement for SwiftData and the @Query macro.
| SharingGRDB | SwiftData |
|---|---|
@SharedReader(
.fetchAll(
sql: "SELECT * FROM items"
)
)
var items: [Item] |
@Query
var items: [Item] |
Both of the above examples fetch items from an external data store, and both are automatically
observed by SwiftUI so that views are recomputed when the external data changes, but SharingGRDB is
powered directly by SQLite using Sharing and GRDB, and is
usable from UIKit, @Observable models, and more.
Note: It is not required to write queries as a raw SQL string, and a query builder can be used instead. For more information on SharingGRDB's querying capabilities, see Fetching model data.
Before SharingGRDB's property wrappers can fetch data from SQLite, you need to provide–at runtime–the default database it should use. This is typically done as early as possible in your app's lifetime, like the app entry point in SwiftUI, and is analogous to configuring model storage in SwiftData:
| SharingGRDB | SwiftData |
|---|---|
@main
struct MyApp: App {
init() {
prepareDependencies {
let db = try! DatabaseQueue(
// Create/migrate a database
// connection
)
$0.defaultDatabase = db
}
}
// ...
} |
@main
struct MyApp: App {
let container = {
// Create/configure a container
try! ModelContainer(/* ... */)
}()
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
.modelContainer(container)
}
}
} |
Note: For more information on preparing a SQLite database, see Preparing a SQLite database.
This defaultDatabase connection is used implicitly by SharingGRDB's strategies, like
fetchAll:
@SharedReader(.fetchAll(sql: "SELECT * FROM items"))
var items: [Item]And you can access this database throughout your application in a way similar to how one accesses a model context, via a property wrapper:
| SharingGRDB | SwiftData |
|---|---|
@Dependency(\.defaultDatabase)
var database
var newItem = Item(/* ... */)
try database.write { db in
try newItem.insert(db)
} |
@Environment(\.modelContext)
var modelContext
let newItem = Item(/* ... */)
modelContext.insert(newItem)
try modelContext.save() |
Note: For more information on how SharingGRDB compares to SwiftData, see Comparison with SwiftData.
This is all you need to know to get started with SharingGRDB, but there's much more to learn. Read the articles below to learn how to best utilize this library:
- Fetching model data
- Observing changes to model data
- Preparing a SQLite database
- Dynamic queries
- Comparison with SwiftData
SQLite is one of the most established and widely distributed pieces of software in the history of software. Knowledge of SQLite is a great skill for any app developer to have, and this library does not want to conceal it from you. So, we feel that to best wield this library you should be familiar with the basics of SQLite, including schema design and normalization, SQL queries, including joins and aggregates, and performance, including indices.
With some basic knowledge you can apply this library to your database schema in order to query for data and keep your views up-to-date when data in the database changes. You can use GRDB's query builder APIs to query your database, or you can use raw SQL queries, along with all of the power that SQL has to offer.
This repo comes with lots of examples to demonstrate how to solve common and complex problems with Sharing. Check out this directory to see them all, including:
-
Case Studies: A number of case studies demonstrating the built-in features of the library.
-
SyncUps: We also rebuilt Apple's Scrumdinger demo application using modern, best practices for SwiftUI development, including using this library to query and persist state using SQLite.
-
Reminders: A rebuild of Apple's Reminders app that uses a SQLite database to model the reminders, lists and tags. It features many advanced queries, such as searching, and stats aggregation.
The documentation for releases and main are available here:
You can add Sharing to an Xcode project by adding it to your project as a package.
If you want to use Sharing in a SwiftPM project, it's as
simple as adding it to your Package.swift:
dependencies: [
.package(url: "https://github.com/pointfreeco/sharing-grdb", from: "0.1.0")
]And then adding the product to any target that needs access to the library:
.product(name: "SharingGRDB", package: "sharing-grdb"),If you want to discuss this library or have a question about how to use it to solve a particular problem, there are a number of places you can discuss with fellow Point-Free enthusiasts:
-
For long-form discussions, we recommend the discussions tab of this repo.
-
For casual chat, we recommend the Point-Free Community Slack.
This library is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.
