Feature Request: Official Dart/Flutter Support for Drizzle ORM

[iamtoricool]

Hello Drizzle Team and Community,

I'm a big admirer of Drizzle ORM and its focus on type safety, performance, and SQL-like query building. I've been following its progress closely and see immense potential, especially within the Dart and Flutter ecosystem.

The Problem/Opportunity:

Currently, there's a significant gap in the Dart/Flutter ecosystem for a modern, performant, and truly type-safe ORM that aligns with the principles of Drizzle. While some ORMs exist (like drift or floor), they often come with their own paradigms or might not offer the same level of raw SQL expressiveness and compile-time type safety that Drizzle provides.

Dart is a rapidly growing language, especially with Flutter becoming increasingly popular for cross-platform mobile, web, and desktop development. As Dart expands its reach to server-side development (e.g., with frameworks like Dart Frog, Shelf), the need for a robust database solution becomes even more critical.

The Feature Request: Official Dart/Flutter Support for Drizzle ORM

My request is to explore the possibility of officially supporting Dart/Flutter as a first-class language for Drizzle ORM. This would involve:

1. Dart Client/Driver Implementations: Creating Dart-native implementations for connecting to various databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, etc.) that Drizzle currently supports. This would ideally leverage existing Dart database drivers where possible or involve developing new ones if necessary to ensure optimal performance and compatibility with Drizzle's query execution model.
2. Schema Definition in Dart: Allowing developers to define their database schemas directly in Dart code, similar to how it's done in TypeScript. This would enable:
   • Compile-time Type Safety: Leveraging Dart's strong type system to ensure correctness at development time, catching errors before runtime.
   • Code Generation: Tools (akin to drizzle-kit) to generate migrations and potentially Dart models directly from the schema definitions.
3. Query Builder and Relational Queries in Dart: Porting the core Drizzle query builder API to Dart, enabling developers to write type-safe queries and relational joins in a familiar Dart syntax.
4. Migration Tooling: Adapting or creating a Dart-native migration tool to manage database schema changes seamlessly.

Why this matters for Dart/Flutter:

• Bridging the Gap: It would fill a significant void for a high-quality, type-safe ORM in the Dart/Flutter ecosystem, providing a powerful tool for developers building data-driven applications.
• Full-Stack Dart: For projects utilizing Dart on both the frontend (Flutter) and backend, Drizzle would offer a unified language and paradigm for database interactions, leading to better developer experience and potentially code sharing.
• Performance & Type Safety: Drizzle's philosophy of lightweight, performant, and type-safe database interactions aligns perfectly with the goals of Dart and Flutter.
• Community Growth: Attracting Dart/Flutter developers to the Drizzle community would expand its reach and contribute to its growth.

Potential Challenges/Considerations:

I understand that this is a significant undertaking. Some areas to consider might include:

• Differences in Type Systems: Bridging the nuances between TypeScript's and Dart's type systems for seamless schema inference and query typing.
• Asynchronous Nature: Dart's pervasive async/await model and how it integrates with Drizzle's query execution.
• Database Driver Availability: The current landscape of stable and performant Dart database drivers.
• Maintenance Overhead: The resources required for the Drizzle team to maintain another language's support.

Call to Action:

I'm eager to hear the team's thoughts on the feasibility and potential interest in this feature. Is this something that aligns with the future vision of Drizzle ORM? Are there any existing community efforts or experimental implementations for Dart that I might not be aware of? I and likely many other Dart/Flutter developers would be thrilled to see Drizzle ORM officially support our ecosystem.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Best regards,

Torikul Islam