Temporal for Mobile Backend

Howdy All,

I am a developer wondering if Temporal is overkill for the backend to a mobile application?

I am not anticipating the need to scale (although that would be nice) but being able to easily write and handle workflows / long running processes seems very attractive.

I anticipate I would be running temporal on my own server(s) as simply as possible etc.

If you think it is not appropriate any suggestions for other platforms that would keep business logic / processes clear and simple would be appreciated.

Thanks for any thoughts or opinions you may have.

Cheers,
Ashley Aitken

Running Code Productions
ashley.aitken@runningcode.com

It depends on the application. We know many companies that use Temporal as a backend to their applications including mobile ones.

If you give more details about the specific use case we can give you a more targeted answer.

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Thanks @maxim

Without trying to explain the domain exactly, think of it as scheduling classes, with customers being able to sign up to classes, teachers being notified if numbers are large enough, sending mobile notifications (and/or emails) when status of classes change, managing the memberships, subscriptions, etc.

As mentioned, I am attracted to Temporal for this application, not because of the ability to scale using microservices, event-based distributed applications etc, but hopefully the ability to easily and clearly write and track many (relatively) long running business processes, and manage everything else around them.

I want to be able to write business logic and rules (in code) as clearly as possible (in a coherent way, not spread throughout different command handlers, event processors, sagas etc. There will not be large amounts of data processed or even large number of users or events, it’s about speed and ease of development.

Does that help you make a recommendation?

This is why I am also interested in Typescript SDK as the sample code (on the homepage) looked a bit simpler than Go, Java, or PHP. Although, we will probably be using Typescript and React Native for the mobile application, I would be happy to use Go (or Java?) if you think that would make development easier and faster?

Cheers,
Ashley.

PS I know Typescript SDK is still in alpha…

This sounds like a perfect use case for Temporal. Temporal does scale very well, but it can be used in low-traffic scenarios without any problem.

Typescript SDK is indeed is not production ready. But it is expected to hit betta soon. So I would recommend going with Typescript SDK if it is your preferred language. By the time you are ready for production, it should be released as well.

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