Supabase architecture (Postgres, Auth, Storage, Realtime, Edge Functions) - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Build a Simple Supabase Backend Architecture

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple backend for a photo sharing app using Supabase. You will set up the main parts of Supabase architecture: a Postgres database table, authentication, storage for photos, realtime updates, and an edge function to process uploads.

🎯 Goal: Build a basic Supabase backend with a photos table in Postgres, enable user authentication, configure storage for photo files, set up realtime updates on new photos, and create an edge function to log uploads.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Postgres table called photos with columns id, user_id, and url

Enable authentication with email and password

Create a storage bucket called photo-uploads

Set up realtime subscription on the photos table

Write an edge function called logUpload that logs photo upload events

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

This project models a common backend architecture for apps that need user login, file storage, live updates, and serverless functions.

💼 Career

Understanding Supabase architecture is useful for junior backend developers and cloud engineers working with modern serverless platforms.

1

Create the Postgres photos table

Write the SQL command to create a table called photos with columns: id as a primary key UUID, user_id as UUID, and url as text.

Supabase

-- Your SQL command here

Need a hint?

Use CREATE TABLE photos and define id as UUID primary key with default UUID generation.

2

Enable email and password authentication

Write the Supabase CLI command to enable authentication with email and password for your project.

Supabase

CREATE TABLE photos (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  user_id UUID NOT NULL,
  url TEXT NOT NULL
);

-- Your Supabase CLI command here

Need a hint?

Use the command supabase auth enable email-password to enable email/password login.

3

Create a storage bucket called photo-uploads

Write the Supabase CLI command to create a storage bucket named photo-uploads.

Supabase

CREATE TABLE photos (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  user_id UUID NOT NULL,
  url TEXT NOT NULL
);

supabase auth enable email-password

-- Your Supabase CLI command here

Need a hint?

Use supabase storage create-bucket photo-uploads to create the bucket.

4

Set up realtime subscription and edge function

Write the Supabase CLI commands to subscribe to realtime changes on the photos table and create an edge function called logUpload.

Supabase

CREATE TABLE photos (
  id UUID PRIMARY KEY DEFAULT gen_random_uuid(),
  user_id UUID NOT NULL,
  url TEXT NOT NULL
);

supabase auth enable email-password

supabase storage create-bucket photo-uploads

-- Your Supabase CLI commands here

Need a hint?

Use supabase realtime enable photos to enable realtime on the table and supabase functions new logUpload to create the edge function.