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Create a serverless, globally distributed time-series API with Timescale

Last reviewed: about 1 year ago

In this tutorial, you will learn to build an API on Workers which will ingest and query time-series data stored in Timescale ↗ (they make PostgreSQL faster in the cloud).

You will create and deploy a Worker function that exposes API routes for ingesting data, and use Hyperdrive ↗ to proxy your database connection from the edge and maintain a connection pool to prevent us having to make a new database connection on every request.

You will learn how to:

  • Build and deploy a Cloudflare Worker.
  • Use Worker secrets with the Wrangler CLI.
  • Deploy a Timescale database service.
  • Connect your Worker to your Timescale database service with Hyperdrive.
  • Query your new API.

You can learn more about Timescale by reading their documentation ↗.

1. Create a Worker project

Run the following command to create a Worker project from the command line:

Terminal window
npm create cloudflare@latest -- timescale-api

For setup, select the following options:

  • For What would you like to start with?, choose Hello World example.
  • For Which template would you like to use?, choose Hello World Worker.
  • For Which language do you want to use?, choose TypeScript.
  • For Do you want to use git for version control?, choose Yes.
  • For Do you want to deploy your application?, choose No (we will be making some changes before deploying).

Make note of the URL that your application was deployed to. You will be using it when you configure your GitHub webhook.

Change into the directory you just created for your Worker project:

Terminal window
cd timescale-api

2. Prepare your Timescale Service

If you are creating a new service, go to the Timescale Console ↗ and follow these steps:

  1. Select Create Service by selecting the black plus in the upper right.
  2. Choose Time Series as the service type.
  3. Choose your desired region and instance size. 1 CPU will be enough for this tutorial.
  4. Set a service name to replace the randomly generated one.
  5. Select Create Service.
  6. On the right hand side, expand the Connection Info dialog and copy the Service URL.
  7. Copy the password which is displayed. You will not be able to retrieve this again.
  8. Select I stored my password, go to service overview.

If you are using a service you created previously, you can retrieve your service connection information in the Timescale Console ↗:

  1. Select the service (database) you want Hyperdrive to connect to.
  2. Expand Connection info.
  3. Copy the Service URL. The Service URL is the connection string that Hyperdrive will use to connect. This string includes the database hostname, port number and database name.

Insert your password into the Service URL as follows (leaving the portion after the @ untouched):

postgres://tsdbadmin:YOURPASSWORD@...

This will be referred to as SERVICEURL in the following sections.

3. Create your Hypertable

Timescale allows you to convert regular PostgreSQL tables into hypertables ↗, tables used to deal with time-series, events, or analytics data. Once you have made this change, Timescale will seamlessly manage the hypertable's partitioning, as well as allow you to apply other features like compression or continuous aggregates.

Connect to your Timescale database using the Service URL you copied in the last step (it has the password embedded).

If you are using the default PostgreSQL CLI tool psql ↗ to connect, you would run psql like below (substituting your Service URL from the previous step). You could also connect using a graphical tool like PgAdmin ↗.

Terminal window
psql <SERVICEURL>

Once you are connected, create your table by pasting the following SQL:

CREATE TABLE readings(
  ts timestamptz DEFAULT now() NOT NULL,
  sensor UUID NOT NULL,
  metadata jsonb,
  value numeric NOT NULL
 );


SELECT create_hypertable('readings', 'ts');

Timescale will manage the rest for you as you ingest and query data.

4. Create a database configuration

To create a new Hyperdrive instance you will need:

  • Your SERVICEURL from step 2.
  • A name for your Hyperdrive service. For this tutorial, you will use hyperdrive.

Hyperdrive uses the create command with the --connection-string argument to pass this information. Run it as follows:

Terminal window
npx wrangler hyperdrive create hyperdrive --connection-string="SERVICEURL"

This command outputs your Hyperdrive ID. You can now bind your Hyperdrive configuration to your Worker in your wrangler.toml configuration by replacing the content with the following:

name = "timescale-api"
main = "src/index.ts"
compatibility_date = "2024-09-23"
compatibility_flags = [ "nodejs_compat"]


[[hyperdrive]]
binding = "HYPERDRIVE"
id = "your-id-here"

Install the Postgres driver into your Worker project:

Terminal window
npm install pg

Now copy the below Worker code, and replace the current code in ./src/index.ts. The code below:

  1. Uses Hyperdrive to connect to Timescale using the connection string generated from env.HYPERDRIVE.connectionString directly to the driver.
  2. Creates a POST route which accepts an array of JSON readings to insert into Timescale in one transaction.
  3. Creates a GET route which takes a limit parameter and returns the most recent readings. This could be adapted to filter by ID or by timestamp.
import { Client } from "pg";


export interface Env {
  HYPERDRIVE: Hyperdrive;
}


export default {
  async fetch(request, env, ctx): Promise<Response> {
    const client = new Client({
      connectionString: env.HYPERDRIVE.connectionString,
    });
    await client.connect();


    const url = new URL(request.url);
    // Create a route for inserting JSON as readings
    if (request.method === "POST" && url.pathname === "/readings") {
      // Parse the request's JSON payload
      const productData = await request.json();


      // Write the raw query. You are using jsonb_to_recordset to expand the JSON
      // to PG INSERT format to insert all items at once, and using coalesce to
      // insert with the current timestamp if no ts field exists
      const insertQuery = `
      INSERT INTO readings (ts, sensor, metadata, value)
      SELECT coalesce(ts, now()), sensor, metadata, value FROM jsonb_to_recordset($1::jsonb)
      AS t(ts timestamptz, sensor UUID, metadata jsonb, value numeric)
  `;


      const insertResult = await client.query(insertQuery, [
        JSON.stringify(productData),
      ]);


      // Collect the raw row count inserted to return
      const resp = new Response(JSON.stringify(insertResult.rowCount), {
        headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
      });


      ctx.waitUntil(client.end());
      return resp;


      // Create a route for querying within a time-frame
    } else if (request.method === "GET" && url.pathname === "/readings") {
      const limit = url.searchParams.get("limit");


      // Query the readings table using the limit param passed
      const result = await client.query(
        "SELECT * FROM readings ORDER BY ts DESC LIMIT $1",
        [limit],
      );


      // Return the result as JSON
      const resp = new Response(JSON.stringify(result.rows), {
        headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
      });


      ctx.waitUntil(client.end());
      return resp;
    }
  },
} satisfies ExportedHandler<Env>;

5. Deploy your Worker

Run the following command to redeploy your Worker:

Terminal window
npx wrangler deploy

Your application is now live and accessible at timescale-api.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev. The exact URI will be shown in the output of the wrangler command you just ran.

After deploying, you can interact with your Timescale IoT readings database using your Cloudflare Worker. Connection from the edge will be faster because you are using Cloudflare Hyperdrive to connect from the edge.

You can now use your Cloudflare Worker to insert new rows into the readings table. To test this functionality, send a POST request to your Worker’s URL with the /readings path, along with a JSON payload containing the new product data:

[
  { "sensor": "6f3e43a4-d1c1-4cb6-b928-0ac0efaf84a5", "value": 0.3 },
  { "sensor": "d538f9fa-f6de-46e5-9fa2-d7ee9a0f0a68", "value": 10.8 },
  { "sensor": "5cb674a0-460d-4c80-8113-28927f658f5f", "value": 18.8 },
  { "sensor": "03307bae-d5b8-42ad-8f17-1c810e0fbe63", "value": 20.0 },
  { "sensor": "64494acc-4aa5-413c-bd09-2e5b3ece8ad7", "value": 13.1 },
  { "sensor": "0a361f03-d7ec-4e61-822f-2857b52b74b3", "value": 1.1 },
  { "sensor": "50f91cdc-fd19-40d2-b2b0-c90db3394981", "value": 10.3 }
]

This tutorial omits the ts (the timestamp) and metadata (the JSON blob) so they will be set to now() and NULL respectively.

Once you have sent the POST request you can also issue a GET request to your Worker’s URL with the /readings path. Set the limit parameter to control the amount of returned records.

If you have curl installed you can test with the following commands (replace <YOUR_SUBDOMAIN> with your subdomain from the deploy command above):

Ingest some data
curl --request POST --data @- 'https://timescale-api.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev/readings' <<EOF
[
  { "sensor": "6f3e43a4-d1c1-4cb6-b928-0ac0efaf84a5", "value":0.3},
  { "sensor": "d538f9fa-f6de-46e5-9fa2-d7ee9a0f0a68", "value":10.8},
  { "sensor": "5cb674a0-460d-4c80-8113-28927f658f5f", "value":18.8},
  { "sensor": "03307bae-d5b8-42ad-8f17-1c810e0fbe63", "value":20.0},
  { "sensor": "64494acc-4aa5-413c-bd09-2e5b3ece8ad7", "value":13.1},
  { "sensor": "0a361f03-d7ec-4e61-822f-2857b52b74b3", "value":1.1},
  { "sensor": "50f91cdc-fd19-40d2-b2b0-c90db3394981", "metadata": {"color": "blue" }, "value":10.3}
]
EOF
Query some data
curl "https://timescale-api.<YOUR_SUBDOMAIN>.workers.dev/readings?limit=10"

In this tutorial, you have learned how to create a working example to ingest and query readings from the edge with Timescale, Workers, Hyperdrive, and TypeScript.

Next steps

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