[Electric Collections] partial columns (on-demand/progressive syncMode like for columns)

[fcannizzaro]

A possible enhancement to the new on-demand/progressive syncMode could be to prioritize only needed columns that are requested by live query builder functions (ex. .select(), .where(), etc..) and then loads the other column in background. (Maybe this could also be a flag in the collection config to preload all columns or only needed by a live query)

sequenceDiagram
    Component->>+DB: needs `id`, `title`
    DB->>Electric: requests rows with only `id`, `title` columns
    Electric->>DB: rows
    DB->>Component: render
    DB->>Electric: requests missing columns (background)
    Electric->>DB: rows
    DB->>DB: merge with existing data

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[volkandkaya]

I use this pattern in my current app (not tanstackdb atm), I fetch the table name and some other metadata. If I click the item I will fetch the missing data. I also may fetch a few of the items fully as well.