1/ Roam Milestone: Write API
Today is important day in Roam history. Many users will likely not be aware of it, but those building tools & integrations on Roam have lots reason for joy. Team RR is working on extending their API allowing for some important capabilities. #roamcult

2/ History lesson, the past: Roam already has a wonderful query API. This means we can read data from a graph database with relative ease. For the most part they don't hide anything from us. The database is truly exposed to the developer. It is powerful & is graph based.

3/ Roam is currently working on a large and important project: a new scalable database backend and also a new API (client and server side). However, this is a big task, one that should not be rushed, and one we should not put pressure on Roam to rush.

Do it right! Do it right!

4/ The problem is we are developing a lot of tools around Roam & have to do a lot of HACKS. Have you noticed that SmartBlocks are slow? Have you noticed that other extensions do things you want but miss one or two key features & the dev tells you this is because of the API?

5/ Well this is about to change. Team RR is releasing information about a "stop gap" solution that gives us the ability not to just read, but to write to the database in code. This is a BIG big BIG deal. It will make many extensions we use daily faster, more stable & reliable.

6/ Now, just to be clear, there are other things we still need, but that is on the horizon with the new database backend and the full API. But today's solution fills an immediate and urgent need. 80/20 rule!

7/ So if you are a developer, I know you are rejoicing. If you are not a developer and didn't understand anything I said, just take my word for it be happy, as you know Roam is getting better.

8/ Now if you are not bored and want to know more, keep reading. Basically this is a bigger deal than it appears. It is proof we can feel good about investing our time and energy in Roam, because the people building the product are listening to the community and want to help.

9/ A number of us working to extend Roam have had conversations with the Roam team asking them to consider adding some basic write capabilities now, so that we don't have to wait for the full API. 80/20 rule!

10/ To be honest, its not a fair request. We ask: can you give us some API now and also keep building a full API. No company has unlimited resources.

11/ But they were listening and do listen. So keep that in mind folks. We are investing in the future. Future self and future Roam. These are they kind of people you want to work with long-term. They are not offended when you ask for something & if its a possibility they build it

12/ I spoke to @Conaw & @thepericulum about this personally & frankly I did not expect anything, because I am not sure if I would personally be in their shoes if I would do something. Why make a short-term solution when you have a long-solution? Because they want to help.

13/ Their motivations: they see that this will help the community, they see we were struggling and wanted to genuinely help. Kudos to them! I am sure there are others at team RR who deserve words of gratitude. So in behalf of the dev community, thank you!

14/ More info on these features (currently in testing) available here: https://roamresearch.com/#/app/help/page/0Xd0lmIrF

15/ So what does this mean for Roam42? Roam42 will become more efficient and reliable. Also, I start to ponder SmartBlocks v2, if the community wants us to continue working on it. But v2 would be faster and likely enable more robust solutions. TBD :-)