[WARNING] SAWOL Multi-Write data loss

[randomanon]

@rico.trevisan

My takeaway: every system has limitations and weird sharp corners.

Exactly.

[brenton.strine]

Race conditions are a frustrating reality of programming (and Bubble is programming) but I think @florianherzog is right to point out the lack of documentation around this issue:

@florianherzog

While race conditions are indeed mentioned, I wouldn’t say that there are enough resources from Bubble’s side that guide you on how to avoid everything properly.

@florianherzog

provide better documentation of execution logic etc.

I do know that the Bubble manual has this section:

Bulk operation methods compared | Bubble Docs

This is fantastic, however, unless you’re thoroughly reading through the “database maintenance” section (which is closer to a tutorial format than a reference format) you’re going to miss it.

Many people will be looking for information in the reference section, here:

Custom | Bubble Docs

This section does mention the issue, but it’s not super clear and it’s buried under the ‘Interval’ section:

Workflows still run in parallel: Keep in mind that adding an interval does not guarantee that the workflows will not overlap – if you need to force API workflows to run sequentially, you can consider using recursive workflows.

I think there should be a top-level paragraph saying something like:

If the workflow this schedules makes changes to the same field on the same thing, data is likely to be lost due to race conditions. To learn more, see [Bulk operation methods compared | Bubble Docs]

[code-escapee]

@brenton.strine

This is fantastic, however, unless you’re thoroughly reading through the “database maintenance” section (which is closer to a tutorial format than a reference format) you’re going to miss it.

More important than the location of the information is the substance of the solution or lack thereof. Mentioning the possibility of a race condition or using recursive workflows doesn’t solve the issue. The lack of a solution is evident based on searching queue in the manual

[ihsanzainal84]

If you’re already writing plugins then building a Cloudflare Queue to handle concurrency will be a cake walk. It’ll cost you only pennies too.

Bubble is not and will not be a one size fits all solution. You’re going to rely on other tech for critical features. The good thing is that linking these things together is relatively easy with Bubble.