Learn Temporal: a quick intro to temporal.io (Workflow Engine) for busy engineers.
You need the declarative log-based transactional workflow engine with built-in task queue, state management and retry mechanism to handle communicating/coordinating with several slow or unreliable 3rd party systems.
If that sounds like a bit of a buzzword bingo ...
don't worry, we will break it down as we go.
You can still play buzzword bingo if you like. Or just have a sip of water each time the CEO/CTO of Temporal says the word "scalable". 😉
A workflow engine that can simplify writing orchestration between various APIs/services.
If you are building a complex app that has many moving parts e.g: microservices, datastores & 3rd party / unreliable APIs, Temporal can greatly simplify this process.
If you're not building something
that has many moving parts,
you probably
don't need
Temporal, yet.
You can still learn how Temporal Workflows work
if you're curious;
that's great!
But don't feel the need to over-engineer
a simple App just because you have a shiny new tool.
If you're feeling adventurous,
dive straight into the official
TypeScript Hello World Walkthrough:
https://docs.temporal.io/docs/typescript/hello-world/
It's a good way for you to see how good the Temporal docs & onboarding steps are.
If (when) you get stuck, or if you don't want to waste too much time, come back here for the step-by-step guide.
Your wish is my command:
/tutorial
- Temporal architecture: https://docs.temporal.io/blog/workflow-engine-principles/#temporal-architecture-2010
- Choreography vs Orchestration in the land of serverless: https://theburningmonk.com/2020/08/choreography-vs-orchestration-in-the-land-of-serverless/
- What is a Temporal Cluster? https://docs.temporal.io/docs/concepts/what-is-a-temporal-cluster/
- TypeScript Introduction: https://docs.temporal.io/docs/typescript/introduction/
- TypeScript Getting Started: https://docs.temporal.io/docs/typescript/introduction/#getting-started
- Getting Started Google Doc (Presentation): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mAPYXNmRdDKepXylB91F2uqFyHm8rG12K2PMRHxoUfM/edit#slide=id.g104dc941926_0_187
- Workflows in TypeScript: https://docs.temporal.io/docs/typescript/workflows/
- Activities in TypeScript: https://docs.temporal.io/docs/typescript/activities/
- TypeScript SDK: https://github.com/temporalio/sdk-typescript
For a quick analogy, let's take real world building construction:
If someone asks an Architect to design a place to live for them and their family, there are many questions them to clarify their requirements. Do they
If you're building a free-standing single-family home, traditional framing (bricks+mortar, timber & standard job-site tools) is probably adequate to achieve a good result. Many impressive homes and even palaces have been built with this method over the centuries and it's still a perfectly valid means of construction today.
This would be your standard but perfectly functional web framework which can be deployed in 5 minutes and scaled to meet the demand/needs of the intended audience.
However if you are building a sky scraper or a new city, you need to think about the infrastructure and use a very different construction method, e.g. steel reinforced concrete, large quantities of structural glass, excavators, tower cranes & specialised engineering contractors.
Temporal is a framework for a different level of engineering challenge. If you're not building the digital equivalent of a Skyscraper, use something simpler that doesn't require a dedicated DevOps person on your team.
The vast majority of architects, engineers and trades people are not building skyscrapers. But if you are a City Planner or Structural Engineer, then by all means use consider the advanced tools for the job.
Examples of projects that became their own planets with relatively simple tech stacks:
Instagram reached 500 million users
using the Django Web framework
and horizontal scaling:
https://instagram-engineering.com/web-service-efficiency-at-instagram-with-python-4976d078e366
WhatsApp built their messaging infrastructure
in Erlang
reaching 900 million monthly active users
sending 60 Billion daily messages
with 50 engineers
(mostly on the Android/iOS apps!)
and a $19 Billion valuation:
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-users-50-engineers/
These are both examples of
"boring" tech
that are perfect choices for their chosen application.
Remember:
"If it takes an hour to figure out what’s going on, well, that’s an hour that wasn’t spent doing something else more useful and interesting." ~ Rachel Kroll
There are no shortage of Ghostscrapers
and Ghost cities in the world,
e.g:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in_China
and
https://youtu.be/lLzJpCd5X9g
If you build something