Re: https://twitter.com/ppk/status/587545743625478144

browser-storage.md

@ppk asks: “OK, suggestions for my next bit of research?” — https://twitter.com/ppk/status/587545743625478144

@rem replies: “@ppk storage. What works in browser, what browsers, what phones, how it changes when *added to home screen", limits, etc. How's that?” — https://twitter.com/rem/status/587566978065367040

Here’s what I whipped up, please add more in the comments:

APIs:

• localStorage: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Storage/LocalStorage / http://dev.w3.org/html5/webstorage/#dom-localstorage / http://dev.w3.org/html5/webstorage/#storage-0
  • Chrome Storage (Chrome apps): https://developer.chrome.com/apps/storage
• IndexedDB: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IndexedDB_API
• WebSQL (although discontinued, still widely available and occasionaly faster or less buggy than IndexedDB): http://www.w3.org/TR/webdatabase/
• Cordova SQLite Plugin (to overcome storage limits): https://github.com/litehelpers/Cordova-sqlite-storage

Topics:

• compability across a broad browser matrix (hello Mobile Safari)
• storage limits across browsers and OSs
• eviction policies per browser/OS
• storing objects vs. storing text vs. storing binary data / Blobs

See also:

• all the research that went into PouchDB, including:

• http://pouchdb.com

• http://pouchdb.com/blog/

  • http://pouchdb.com/2014/10/26/10-things-i-learned-from-reading-and-writing-the-pouchdb-source.html
  • http://pouchdb.com/2014/09/22/3.0.6.html
  • http://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memoriam/

• http://offlinefirst.org / https://github.com/offlinefirst/research

@nolanlawson: Fine, but I know nothing about SQL, so WebSQL being SQLite doesn't really help me.

In fact, this may be a serious problem for my research. But I'll start with localStorage, I decided that much, particularly since I have some old tests lying around somewhere.

AppCache, especially in the phone/"save to home screen" contexts, and since other storage is so often used to get around its "quirks". @jaffathecake has already done a lot of the work around it.

http://alistapart.com/article/application-cache-is-a-douchebag
http://flailingmonkey.com/application-cache-not-a-douchebag/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Using_the_application_cache
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/applicationCache
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/hh771715%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
http://appcache.offline.technology/

In save to homescreen mode (Chrome) there will be no difference today. Other browsers though, would be interesting to know

I know that iOS Safari drops indexeddb support when launched from homescreen

Is launched from homescreen a different use case than using the WebView?

@pp-koch: UIWebView, WKWebView, homescreen app, iOS Safari, and even Chrome on Safari (!): none of the above should be considered equivalent. I've seen WebSQL/IndexedDB issues that occur in only one of the above. The Raymond Camden article has them all listed in the comments.