Renaming "batch" to "bulk"

[ldiebold]

Hey there!

I've been working on a library that standardizes how a vue frontend works with an API. The first two drivers that will be supported are "indexedDB" and "Orion".

When working on the API, I discovered that the word "batch" tends to mean "many different kinds of operations in one request". In Orion, batch means "many operations of the same kind in one request". Does that make sense?

It's not a big deal, though may come back to bite this project if true "batch" operations are later added. For example, I can imagine Orion supporting an endpoint like this in the future:

[
  {
    "operation": "batchCreate",
    "entity": "users",
    "resources": [
      {
        "name": "Luke"
      },
      {
        "email": "luke@blah.com"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "operation": "update",
    "entity": "users",
    "primaryKey": 1,
    "data": {
      "name": "johnno"
    }
  },
  {
    "operation": "batchUpdate",
    "entity": "posts",
    "resources": {
      "3": {
        "name": "Brian"
      }
    }
  }
]

Not the best example, but you get the idea!

So all I'm trying to point out, is that the example above is a "batch" request, and what Orion currently has implemented is a "bulk" request. Not a big deal and often devs use this language interchangeably, yet if "true batch" operations were later added, we'd have a naming problem.

By the way, I absolutely adore this package. For me, it's the by far the single most important Laravel package we use on every single project <3

[v-radev]

Hey, I'm interesting in learning more about batch with different kind of operations, can you share examples or docs for something like that? Until now I never thought batch could be different types of requests and I'm wondering how this might be used. Thanks

[ldiebold]

I haven't looked much into it myself, and would usually just send multiple requests. here's some microsoft docs on batch requests using graph

[alexzarbn]

I think it is a matter of preference rather than a standard 🤔

P.S. Claude's description of "batch" seems like a better fit in this case.

[ldiebold]

Oh wow, you're absolutely right.
Different sources have completely opposite opinions on what the two words mean!

I kinda wish it was a standard rather than an opinion. I'm going to do a bit more digging, then just choose whatever seems to be the most prevalent.

Thanks for getting back to me!