One of the most useful features of today’s modern browsers is the ability to store data right on the user’s computer or mobile device. Even as more people move toward the cloud, client-side storage can still save web developers a lot of time and money, if you do it right. This hands-on guide demonstrates several storage APIs in action. You’ll learn how and when to use them, their plusses and minuses, and steps for implementing one or more of them in your application.
Ideal for experienced web developers familiar with JavaScript, this book also introduces several open source libraries that make storage APIs easier to work with.
Learn how different browsers support each client-side storage API
Work with web (aka local) storage for simple things like lists or preferences
Use IndexedDB to store nearly anything you want on the user’s browser
Learn how support web apps that still use the discontinued Web SQL Database API
Explore Lockr, Dexie, and localForage, three libraries that simplify the use of storage APIs
Build a simple working application that makes use of several storage techniques
Chapter 1A Gentle Introduction to Client-Side Data Storage
Raymond Camden is a developer advocate for IBM. His work focuses on the MobileFirst platform, hybrid mobile development, Node.js, HTML5, and ColdFusion. He's a published author and presents at conferences and user groups on a variety of topics. Raymond can be reached at his blog (http://www.raymondcamden.com/), or via email at raymondcamden@gmail.com.
The animal on the cover of Client-Side Data Storage is the unstriped ground squirrel (Xerus rutilus). The unstriped ground squirrel is native to the arid savanna and shrubland found in the Horn of Africa. As ground squirrels, they make their homes in subterranean burrows.
Unstriped ground squirrels have brown fur, with darker backs and lighter fronts. As their name would suggest, they lack the white-striped backs common in other African ground squirrel species. Unstriped ground squirrels can grow up to one pound in weight and 25 centimeters in length, with their tails growing an additional 25 centimeters.
Unstriped ground squirrels have an omnivorous diet, consisting of leaves, fruit, seeds, and insects. They spend most of their time foraging for food, and only return to their burrows to sleep. The main predators for unstriped ground squirrels are birds of prey, leopards, jackals, and snakes.
Many of the animals on O'Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.
The cover image is from Lydekker's RoyalNatural History. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag's Ubuntu Mono.
This is a concise and to the point book. It is very well written, in a clear style. We walk different pathways to data storage, with pros and cons for each one, in an ordered review. It is so clear and ordered that I almost read it in one session, doing the examples.
