Databases aren't the enemy. Databases you don't control are. I'd much rather have any structured data in a sqlite db than a quasi-bespoke format, even if that format is "plain text"
Scoping a Local-First Image Archive
11–14 of 14 posts
Re: Scoping a Local-First Image Archive
#12Laudable goal!
> No database, no external dependencies—just files.
Your plain text file is a database, and a bad one at that in keeping things in sync/batch-editable since you now have hundreds of little databases. What if you merge two folders?
Also, your file manager can already preview images, why bring the whole browser to the table?
Re: Scoping a Local-First Image Archive
#13Hurray for this approach! I want most software that works with my personal data to work like that. And I'm actually working on a hobby project to make it possible: a local database + platform to run "local" apps on it. I haven't gotten to implementing the data layer yet, but my idea was indeed to go for "simple files in folders". But I'm wondering, what format should I use for files containing structured data used by…
IMO the best file format for this set of requirements is SQLite. It's the world's most widely deployed database engine, the file format is simple and the spec is public domain. The entire database engine has been re-implemented in multiple languages. SQLite is a "recommended storage format"² (along with XML, JSON, and CSV) of the library of congress because of it's long term sustainability, among other factors³.
1. https://sqlite.org/mostdeployed.html 2. https://sqlite.org/locrsf.html 3. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/digital/formats/fdd/fdd0004...
Re: Scoping a Local-First Image Archive
#14interesting why nobody mentioned https://immich.app/ yet?