Getting Started

General concepts to get you started

Bubble SQL Database Connector vs. Our Plugin

Everytime we install a plugin we should give consideration to "why" we are using the plugin and what it allows us to accomplish that can't be accomplished either within the Bubble Framework, or by using one of Bubble's out-of-the-box plugins. You might already use additional plugins for SendGrid or for Stripe for similar reasons, even though these are also provided by Bubble.

When it comes to connecting to an external Microsoft SQL Server using Bubble's connector there are several limitations that you will stumble upon right away that can make working with your external database difficult. We hope that this plugin will help you to overcome some of those limitations and allow you to more easily work with your SQL data.

Limitation 1: Query Record Limit vs. No Query Record Limit

The first thing you will note using Bubble's SQL Connector is that every query must be run with a limit of no more than 200 records. If you would like to retrieve more than 200 records you will need to loop over the query and run it multiple times using workflows or some other mechanism.

With our connector you are not restricted by this limitation. If you need 300 records from your database you can grab all of those record with one query using this plugin. Note: There are still memory and timeout limitations due to the nature of the Bubble Framework and Bubble Plugin architeture. You will need to test these limitations within your own app which will be dependent about network latency, database availability and the amount of data returned by each query (e.g. number of columns and size of dataset within those columns).

Limitation 2: Query Initialization and Data Type Setup Complexity vs. Simple Setup

Once you get start using Bubble's SQL Connector you quickly realize that for every different type of query a new "Bubble Type" is required to initialize the new query even if the data returned is the same.

For example:

SELECT c.* 
FROM dbo.Customers c

and

SELECT c.* 
FROM dbo.Customers c
WHERE c.id NOT IN (1,2,3)

would require two query initializations and two return types using the Bubble connector even though the returned field definitions are exactly the same.

Within our connector you are only need to initialize a new "Bubble Type" when you need different fields acessible from the query.

Limitation 3: Complex Stored Procedure Support vs. Simple "Execute" Statement

Trying to execute a stored procedure through Bubble's connector is challenging and error prone.

With our connector you can easily use the familiar EXECUTE syntax to easily run a stored procedure and retrieve results from the procedure execution.

It is for these reasons and many others we decided to build this plugin as a way to offer Bubble developers an alternative plugin for use with Microsoft SQL Server databases. In the next section we will show you how to start using this plugin for use within your application.