alt Hacker NewsI feel as though this website does a poor job of telling me what the framework actually does. There's the mostly-fluffy marketing lead text, followed by an overly-complicated configurator to generate a project.
What can I actually do with this? What problems does it solve? Where is it located relative to other solutions in the same space? What is that space?
Replies
We've always had trouble with this. The closest thing to Ash I've seen elsewhere is an ORM. It's not an ORM though.
Ash is a declarative application framework. You define your application logic using Ash.Resource, which model things like state, but most importantly actions.
Another analogy is that it's similar to GraphQL, but lowered down to the backend layer. It's a declarative, typed application description and implementation framework, that you can derive a GraphQL from (amongst many other things).
Another way to think of it is a whole ecosystem of packages that standardize the vast majority of things you want to do when building an Elixir backend, instead of trying to kludge together a bunch of different tools. Pagination, sorting, filtering, authentication, authorization, all builtin and designed to work together.
This repository from the Ash book gives you an example of what it can do.
Model.
https://github.com/sevenseacat/tunez/tree/end-of-chapter-10/...
View.
https://github.com/sevenseacat/tunez/tree/end-of-chapter-10/...
I hear what you say. I personally blame the flurry of BS js "frameworks" that have more effort put in their Apple-wannabe front page than in actual practical engineering. I think they've setup a weird standard for framework front page that this one seems to follow. I don't blame the Ash guys, I blame the people who created the trend and those supported who it. I look at you, JS community.
(Yeah... this is 100% a rant, sorry)
I've talked about this a few times and this is the shortest answer to this question. The first part of this talk may help explain concisely where Ash fits at a higher level.
https://youtu.be/10VBTcN8gAo?feature=shared&t=133
Ash Framework was created to solve a fundamental problem in (web) application development for business apps. When you build a new app, you want to focus on the valuable, innovative parts - what's visible above the waterline of the iceberg. However, modern web applications require an enormous amount of "below the waterline" functionality that's essential but not where you want to spend your time.
Running a consultancy and building various client projects highlights this challenge. Everyone wants to focus on the core, valuable features, but must also deal with relatively boring, commodity problems that have been solved countless times before. This often means reinventing the wheel, which clients understandably see as low-value work.
Authentication is a perfect example - most customers don't even specify login functionality as a feature. Similarly, admin interfaces are considered table stakes for modern applications. The list is extensive: admin UIs, observability, security, and more. All important, but time spent there can feel wasteful when you'd rather be innovating.
Ash's primary goal is to keep you focused on the innovative work above the waterline while minimizing time spent below it. The framework accomplishes this by modelling your domain and deriving everything else.