Status of DuckDB extension? Ideas for adding Lance to a DuckDB WASM web app

[alexkreidler]

I have an app Databox that allows users to run SQL queries and view the results in a table on local CSV, arrow and parquet files using DuckDB WASM. I'm hoping to allow users to also select and view .lance folders/databases. But it looks like the DuckDB extension that allowed DuckDB to read Lance natively was removed. See #3243 (comment)

Are there plans to add it back? Or is there a suggested alternate route?

I guess I could run:
connect().openTable(userTable).toArrow() and pass to DuckDB but that would require getting @lancedb/lancedb to work in a web browser which it doesn't currently because it would require compiling Rust and the datafusion dependency to WASM. See lancedb/lancedb#230

Though it looks like there are some bindings and apps that are getting Datafusion to work in WASM.

[LuQQiu]

Hi @alexkreidler, the DuckDB extension was previously broken and caused issues with the build for several components, so we decided to remove it for now. That said, we’d love to see community interest in bringing it back! If you or others are interested in helping revive and maintain the DuckDB integration, we’d be happy to support those efforts.

[changhiskhan]

Also on the WASM topic - beyond DataFusion, Tokio is the other big crate that's preventing Lance on WASM