A Principled Approach to Querying Data – A Type-Safe Search DSL

The rise of local-first web applications demands a rethinking of traditional client-server architectures. Users expect near-native responsiveness, even when offline. This necessitates efficient, client-side data processing, including search. The techniques presented in this article, while discussed in a local-first context, are equally applicable to server-side systems. We’ll explore a type-driven approach, leveraging a Domain-Specific Language (DSL), to create a powerful and maintainable search system. The complete, dependency-free code for this article is available on GitHub. Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) Our approach centers around a DSL tailored to the specifics of searching “issues” – a common concept in project management and bug tracking. A DSL provides a specialized language for expressing search intent, offering several key advantages. Consider these example queries: is:open label:bug author:alice (type:feature type:enhancement) is:closed milestone:v1.0 assignee:bob ... Read full article.