Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

serverpod.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 48 posts

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#21

Post by vlidholt »

danpalmer wrote: post #16
vlidholt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not so much a web framework as it is an app backend. So it's not great (yet) at rendering web pages, but it is great for doing remote method calls and streaming data. That being said, Serverpod is not limited to Flutter, you can use it for any Dart app.

Thanks, that makes sense. Does it necessitate a Dart frontend? It looks like the client-side is code-generated, but is the API usable without code-generation, does it present a nice API model, or is it heavily dependent on the assumption that a first-party code-generated client is being used?

Yes, it is using well-formed JSON and/or web sockets. Serialization is following the Dart standard, and you can use it together with popular Dart serialization packages, such as Freezed.

However, we are still working on making the documentation for APIs. That is on the roadmap as well as providing code generation for other languages.

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#22

Post by vlidholt »

creshal wrote: post #18
vlidholt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's revolutionary to Dart in the sense that you can use strict typing when communicating with the database. This is very helpful as you get much more help with autocomplete and other language tooling. Granted there are still lots of gaps to fill, but we are surely getting there. The biggest new feature we are working on is database migrations.

I don't really get the whole "if I have to learn more than one programming language my head will explode" thing that junior frontend devs seem to be insisting on for the past few years, why use an immature framework in Dart when I can use a mature framework in an easily learned language and be much more productive after a few weeks?

Learning a new language takes time, which translates to money for companies hiring developers. Also, even many more senior developers prefer working in a single language due to the context switch otherwise involved.

Mature is a matter of definition. There are several apps in production already that are using Serverpod and are very happy with it. But, of course, it is a new framework and there are many improvements to come. It's always important to do your research before choosing any type of framework so you know it will support the features that you will need.

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#23

Post by loic-sharma »

ushakov wrote: post #17
vlidholt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main plan is to provide hosting for Serverpod. It's still an open-source project, so you can always host it yourself or on the cloud platform of your choice.

I have not seen any niche companies having success with that business model Our own surveys show, that enterprise users want to host on a platform of their choice. They are not too eager to switch providers and are more unlikely to use your software if it doesn’t run on AWS Knowing that, if you want to capture enterprise users, you should offer a managed version of your product on AWS or GCP

The Laravel framework makes money by its hosting business, Forge.

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#24

Post by vlidholt »

ushakov wrote: post #17
vlidholt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main plan is to provide hosting for Serverpod. It's still an open-source project, so you can always host it yourself or on the cloud platform of your choice.

I have not seen any niche companies having success with that business model Our own surveys show, that enterprise users want to host on a platform of their choice. They are not too eager to switch providers and are more unlikely to use your software if it doesn’t run on AWS Knowing that, if you want to capture enterprise users, you should offer a managed version of your product on AWS or GCP

Thank you! We are definitely exploring more avenues than just regular server hosting.

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#26

Post by turbobooster »

vlidholt wrote: post #3

Hi! I'm Viktor, the lead developer of Serverpod. Feel free to ask me any questions, and I'll try to answer. You can also watch the Serverpod 1.0 release keynote on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/QN6juNWW3js

I dont understand why or when I would need this? What is an app server is the first place?

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#27

Post by ushakov »

loic-sharma wrote: post #23
ushakov wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not seen any niche companies having success with that business model Our own surveys show, that enterprise users want to host on a platform of their choice. They are not too eager to switch providers and are more unlikely to use your software if it doesn’t run on AWS Knowing that, if you want to capture enterprise users, you should offer a managed version of your product on AWS or GCP

The Laravel framework makes money by its hosting business, Forge.

Forge only confirms my assumptions. From their website:

> Forge links to your account on one of our supported cloud providers

They help you deploy PHP applications to your AWS/DigitalOcean/Linode account

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#29

Post by elforce002 »

ushakov wrote: post #6

Gives me the same vibe as Vapor for Swift. I'm happy that this technology exists, but doesn't make sense for me to use, unless I'm also a Flutter or Apple developer

Not even that. I'd use Nodejs, Go, C#, etc... which are battle tested, have strong communities, and plenty of support.

Re: Show HN: Serverpod – The Missing Server for Flutter

#30

Post by eddieroger »

elforce002 wrote: post #29
ushakov wrote: post #6

Gives me the same vibe as Vapor for Swift. I'm happy that this technology exists, but doesn't make sense for me to use, unless I'm also a Flutter or Apple developer

Not even that. I'd use Nodejs, Go, C#, etc... which are battle tested, have strong communities, and plenty of support.

Once upon a time, NodeJS, Go and C# weren't battle tested or with support either. "Because we already have one" isn't a great reason not to do something. What this does need is a differentiator over those other languages. Vapor is nice if you already write Swift, which itself is an adopted and heavily used language. Dart isn't, and while Flutter is popular, it's "barely so" relative to the rest of the world. Someone will appreciate this, hopefully enough people to make it viable, but I remain skeptical that will happen, not because of alternatives but because of current entrenchment.
Post reply on HN