What is dexie?
Dexie is a wrapper for IndexedDB, a low-level API for client-side storage of significant amounts of structured data, including files/blobs. Dexie simplifies the use of IndexedDB by providing a more developer-friendly API and additional features such as versioning, transactions, and observability.
What are dexie's main functionalities?
Database Initialization
This code initializes a new Dexie database named 'MyDatabase' and defines a schema for a 'friends' table with auto-incrementing primary key 'id' and indexed fields 'name' and 'age'.
const db = new Dexie('MyDatabase');
db.version(1).stores({
friends: '++id,name,age'
});
Adding Data
This code adds a new record to the 'friends' table with the name 'John' and age 25.
db.friends.add({name: 'John', age: 25});
Querying Data
This code queries the 'friends' table for all records where the age is below 30 and logs the results to the console.
db.friends.where('age').below(30).toArray().then(friends => {
console.log(friends);
});
Updating Data
This code updates the record with primary key 1 in the 'friends' table, setting the age to 26.
db.friends.update(1, {age: 26});
Deleting Data
This code deletes the record with primary key 1 from the 'friends' table.
db.friends.delete(1);
Other packages similar to dexie
idb
The 'idb' package is a small library that provides a more modern and promise-based API for IndexedDB. It is simpler and lighter than Dexie but does not offer as many advanced features such as observability and complex querying.
localforage
LocalForage is a library that provides a simple API for storing data in various storage backends, including IndexedDB, WebSQL, and localStorage. It is more versatile in terms of storage options but does not offer the same level of IndexedDB-specific features and optimizations as Dexie.
pouchdb
PouchDB is a JavaScript database that syncs with CouchDB. It provides a more comprehensive solution for offline-first applications with synchronization capabilities. However, it is heavier and more complex compared to Dexie, which is focused solely on IndexedDB.
Dexie.js
Dexie.js is a wrapper library for indexedDB - the standard database in the browser. https://dexie.org.
Why Dexie.js?
IndexedDB is the portable database for all browser engines. Dexie.js makes it fun and easy to work with.
But also:
- Dexie.js is widely used by 100,000 of web sites, apps and other projects and supports all browsers, Electron for Desktop apps, Capacitor for iOS / Android apps and of course pure PWAs.
- Dexie.js works around bugs in the IndexedDB implementations, giving a more stable user experience.
- It's an easy step to make it sync.
Hello World
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/dexie/dist/dexie.js"></script>
<script>
const db = new Dexie('FriendDatabase');
db.version(1).stores({
friends: '++id, age'
});
db.friends.add({ name: 'Alice', age: 21 }).then(() => {
return db.friends
.where('age')
.below(30)
.toArray();
}).then(youngFriends => {
alert (`My young friends: ${JSON.stringify(youngFriends)}`);
}).catch (e => {
alert(`Oops: ${e}`);
});
</script>
</head>
</html>
Yes, it's that simple. Read the docs to get into the details.
Hello World (for modern browsers)
All modern browsers support ES modules and top-level awaits. No transipler needed. Here's the previous example in a modern flavour:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="module">
import { Dexie } from 'https://unpkg.com/dexie/dist/modern/dexie.mjs';
const db = new Dexie('FriendDatabase');
db.version(1).stores({
friends: '++id, age'
});
try {
await db.friends.add({ name: 'Alice', age: 21 });
const youngFriends = await db.friends
.where('age')
.below(30)
.toArray();
alert(`My young friends: ${JSON.stringify(youngFriends)}`);
} catch (e) {
alert(`Oops: ${e}`);
}
</script>
</head>
</html>
Hello World (React + Typescript)
Real-world apps are often built using components in various frameworks. Here's a version of Hello World written for React and Typescript. There are also links below this sample to more tutorials for different frameworks...
import React from 'react';
import { Dexie, type EntityTable } from 'dexie';
import { useLiveQuery } from 'dexie-react-hooks';
export interface Friend {
id: number;
name: string;
age: number;
}
export const db = new Dexie('FriendDatabase') as Dexie & {
friends: EntityTable<Friend, 'id'>;
};
db.version(1).stores({
friends: '++id, age',
});
export function MyDexieReactComponent() {
const youngFriends = useLiveQuery(() =>
db.friends
.where('age')
.below(30)
.toArray()
);
return (
<>
<h3>My young friends</h3>
<ul>
{youngFriends?.map((f) => (
<li key={f.id}>
Name: {f.name}, Age: {f.age}
</li>
))}
</ul>
<button
onClick={() => {
db.friends.add({ name: 'Alice', age: 21 });
}}
>
Add another friend
</button>
</>
);
}
Tutorials for React, Svelte, Vue, Angular and vanilla JS
API Reference
Samples
Performance
Dexie has kick-ass performance. Its bulk methods take advantage of a lesser-known feature in IndexedDB that makes it possible to store stuff without listening to every onsuccess event. This speeds up the performance to a maximum.
Supported operations
above(key): Collection;
aboveOrEqual(key): Collection;
add(item, key?): Promise;
and(filter: (x) => boolean): Collection;
anyOf(keys[]): Collection;
anyOfIgnoreCase(keys: string[]): Collection;
below(key): Collection;
belowOrEqual(key): Collection;
between(lower, upper, includeLower?, includeUpper?): Collection;
bulkAdd(items: Array): Promise;
bulkDelete(keys: Array): Promise;
bulkPut(items: Array): Promise;
clear(): Promise;
count(): Promise;
delete(key): Promise;
distinct(): Collection;
each(callback: (obj) => any): Promise;
eachKey(callback: (key) => any): Promise;
eachPrimaryKey(callback: (key) => any): Promise;
eachUniqueKey(callback: (key) => any): Promise;
equals(key): Collection;
equalsIgnoreCase(key): Collection;
filter(fn: (obj) => boolean): Collection;
first(): Promise;
get(key): Promise;
inAnyRange(ranges): Collection;
keys(): Promise;
last(): Promise;
limit(n: number): Collection;
modify(changeCallback: (obj: T, ctx:{value: T}) => void): Promise;
modify(changes: { [keyPath: string]: any } ): Promise;
noneOf(keys: Array): Collection;
notEqual(key): Collection;
offset(n: number): Collection;
or(indexOrPrimayKey: string): WhereClause;
orderBy(index: string): Collection;
primaryKeys(): Promise;
put(item: T, key?: Key): Promise;
reverse(): Collection;
sortBy(keyPath: string): Promise;
startsWith(key: string): Collection;
startsWithAnyOf(prefixes: string[]): Collection;
startsWithAnyOfIgnoreCase(prefixes: string[]): Collection;
startsWithIgnoreCase(key: string): Collection;
toArray(): Promise;
toCollection(): Collection;
uniqueKeys(): Promise;
until(filter: (value) => boolean, includeStopEntry?: boolean): Collection;
update(key: Key, changes: { [keyPath: string]: any }): Promise;
This is a mix of methods from WhereClause, Table and Collection. Dive into the API reference to see the details.
Dexie Cloud
Dexie Cloud is a commercial offering that can be used as an add-on to Dexie.js. It syncs a Dexie database with a server and enables developers to build apps without having to care about backend or database layer else than the frontend code with Dexie.js as the sole database layer.
Source for a sample Dexie Cloud app: Dexie Cloud To-do app
See the sample Dexie Cloud app in action: https://dexie.github.io/Dexie.js/dexie-cloud-todo-app/
Samples
https://dexie.org/docs/Samples
https://github.com/dexie/Dexie.js/tree/master/samples
Knowledge Base
https://dexie.org/docs/Questions-and-Answers
Website
https://dexie.org
Install via npm
npm install dexie
Download
For those who don't like package managers, here's the download links:
UMD (for legacy script includes as well as commonjs require):
https://unpkg.com/dexie@latest/dist/dexie.min.js
https://unpkg.com/dexie@latest/dist/dexie.min.js.map
Modern (ES module):
https://unpkg.com/dexie@latest/dist/modern/dexie.min.mjs
https://unpkg.com/dexie@latest/dist/modern/dexie.min.mjs.map
Typings:
https://unpkg.com/dexie@latest/dist/dexie.d.ts
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md
Build
pnpm install
pnpm run build
Test
pnpm test
Watch
pnpm run watch