Empowering the SQLBits website with Azure SQL and Data API Builder

SQLBits is the biggest and most well-known data conference in UK and Europe. With several thousand people attending every year, and with more than 10 years of session recordings, it provides an amazing amount of knowledge to everyone who wants to learn anything around the Microsoft Data Platform. Be it on-premises, or on Azure, or the shiny new Fabric, SQLBits has something for you. In late 2023 the new SQLBits 2024 was unveiled, along with the updated website, during a very funny and engaging live event with the SQLBI folks. If you have missed the event, make sure to watch the recording here:

Along with the 2024 conference, the new website was also announced, completely redesigned and refreshed, taking advantage of one of the preview version of Data API builder. In fact, SQLBits has integrated the Data API builder with Static Web Apps and constructed the site using the Nuxt web framework (https://nuxt.com/). The database is accessed via GraphQL, optimizing its ability to create relationships between entities and reduce the volume of data sent to the client.

Darren Green, one of the founders of SQLBits and the back-end developer, has expressed his satisfaction with the decision. He shared:

Overall, it’s a tremendous product, & we garnered significant value swiftly with relatively minimal effort. I do the back end, and expose our data via DAB, so our front-end developer can then use it. He does pretty good looking stuff, I do back-end: we talk different languages, but REST and GraphQL has been our common language.

This work stands as a brilliant demonstration of the Data API builder’s capabilities. It underscores its potential in enabling developers to focus on user experience and value creation, while confidently knowing that the database will support their needs, offering a seamless and efficient experience.

Data API builder key value is allowing developer to focus on delivering value without having to think about the plumbing code. One of the latest comments from Darren, in fact, is about the screens that all around the conference center will be showing the ongoing and the forthcoming sessions:

This addition was done very recently, and Data API builder enabled the SQLBits crew to move at the speed of thought (to partially cite a quite famous book from Bill Gates):

Another quick win was exposing some more data last week, which logic quickly written in stored proc, keyword was quickly, which will be driving the agenda screens around the event

If you haven’t tried Data API builder yet, make sure to give it a try right now! And, of course, make sure to check out the SQLBits website! 🌐👍