Table of Contents

• What it is
• Installation
  • WAL by default on Android
  • Extensions

What it is

The SQLite that @nativescript-community/sqlite uses by default, as a package of its own so you can combine it with only the bindings you need (for example NativeScript 9.1+ without the JNI / Objective-C bridges):

• Android: androidx sqlite-bundled (a recent SQLite with FTS5, JSON, RTREE, math functions, ~0.65 MB per ABI), added to your app by this package's include.gradle. Engine libsqliteJni.so.
• iOS: the SQLite of the process: the system SQLite, or the one your app links (e.g. a CocoaPods SQLCipher).
• WAL on Android: databases open with wal: true (see below).

It contains no native code of its own. Do not install it when you bring your own SQLite (SQLCipher, a custom build): then nothing from androidx is in your app.

Installation

ns plugin add @nativescript-community/sqlite-core @nativescript-community/sqlite-napi @nativescript-community/sqlite-default-engine

(sqlite-napi for NativeScript 9.1+; sqlite-bridge instead of, or next to it, for NativeScript 8.) Import the package once, before the first database is opened, for example in app.ts:

import '@nativescript-community/sqlite-default-engine'; // configures the default engine and options of sqlite-core
import { openOrCreate } from '@nativescript-community/sqlite-core';

const db = openOrCreate('my.db'); // androidx on Android, the process SQLite on iOS
await db.execute('CREATE TABLE names (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, name TEXT)');

Without the import the core has no engine and throws "No SQLite engine chosen". It only sets defaultEngine and defaultOptions: configure({ engine }) or the engine option of a database still pick another SQLite.

WAL by default on Android

With SQLite's default journal every commit creates, syncs and deletes a journal file, which made 500 awaited one-statement writes take 2.6 s on a phone (38 ms in WAL). The package sets defaultOptions: { wal: true } on Android: it adds -wal / -shm files next to the database (deleteDatabase removes them). Opt out per database with { wal: false }, or for all with configure({ defaultOptions: { wal: false } }). In-memory and read-only databases ignore it. iOS keeps SQLite's default.

Extensions

The Android engine can load extensions (db.canLoadExtensions()), the system SQLite of iOS cannot; see the Extensions section of the sqlite-core documentation.