zachdaniel
Your standard application generally only tracks what is true right now. Updates overwrite previous data, and asking questions about the past requires either introducing a mechanism to track the previous state of your application (versions), or reshaping your entire mental model of application development (event-driven/event-sourcing). Temporal resources are the answer.
Temporal resources are a new, experimental feature in Ash that make dealing with changes over time boring. You can read it as of any moment, write to it as of any moment (yes, including the future), without changing how you use or write your application (almost) at all. Filters, relationships, aggregates, calculations. All of it from one option, as_of.
I announced the new feature at Goatmire Elixir in a talk called Time Travel for Normies, and I’ve rebuilt it here for the web. These pixel examples are based on a live multi-player game that had the audience split into two teams, competing for territory while traveling and using powerups that travelled through time. You had to be there for that one.
See the full explainer here:
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