Mobile and client side data storage is a major concern while building an app, especially when there is no connection available. While building an app, you will try to store the data on the device itself. This will allow your app to function even when there is no connection available and offer more advanced and faster functionality than the server side storage only.
So, What Are The Storage Methods That Are Available?
The following are all HTML 5 features for storage but it is not necessarily accessible through all the browsers.
- Cookies
Cookies are the most basic form of storing data and are extremely simple.So, Why Not Always Use Cookies?
A single cookie offers the storage of a mere 4KBs – the data stored in cookies is extremely vulnerable as they get deleted very easily and your data will vanish, use it for simple storage only. All the user history and preferences are usually stored in cookies.
- Local Storage
Local storage is the best way for storage for apps that do not require relational database capabilities. It requires very limited commands and is very fast and easy to use. Data restoration is also extremely easy. There is a 5MB limit per domain per app, however you can now store up to 25MBs if you deploy your app using phone gap option.
- SQL for Apps
SQL can give you a few issues if you are not used to it as it runs on an extremely powerful SQLite engine. The issue with SQL is that for some reason Mozilla does not support it, it is all available in the form of Webkit which is specifically for phone app development. However, developing a large app on SQL may not be the brightest idea as this time as they might discontinue in a year or two. It is not as user friendly as local storage and their database storage for a given domain is restricted to 5MBs.
- SQLITE for Compiled Apps
You can only use SQLITE when using AC mobile build up for making your app. It is very popular and used by many app developers SQLITE database is a part of your application and the major boon of SQLITE is that there is no data storage limit.
- Indexed DB
This is a No SQL database implementation that is becoming a part of the W3C HTML5, but is not implemented by mobile browsers as yet but is believed to soon be a big rage.
- Custom Data Storage Options (PhoneGap/Cardova)
Apps such as phoneGap have over 4,00,000 downloaders who use this for app making, not only does it provide unlimited storage but it also helps you write apps for Android, iOS and Windows parallelly. The BBC Olympic app, the World Heritage Calendar app, Twist are just a few examples of popular apps built using phoneGap. PhoneGap Build is the cloud service that they offer which allows you to build apps quickly without using compilers and hardware.
