SQLite is serverless. What are the drawbacks?

acidjazz · Post by **acidjazz** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:02 pm

Hi RunRev folks,

Very little is said about SQLite in the RR documentation. On www.sqlite.org, is says proudly that SQLite is "serverless" - the database files are read/written directly to disk with no intermediary server process required. And the examples in the "Getting Started" section on that website, it mostly mentions using the shell or DOS prompt on your own machine. But, I want to access my files on a server (I have space on www.DreamHost.com). I can do that by using a put or get URL command, right?. I"m 95% sure that I can, but it's that remaining 5% that makes me worry that somehow "serverless" means "can't be used with the internet".

Whew! I've been avoiding this question for about 3 weeks now.

Mark P. (database newbie)

FourthWorld · Post by **FourthWorld** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:25 pm

You should be able to use SQLite on Dreamhost through RunRev acting as a CGI. Just be sure to also put the SQLite driver and the revDatabase library on the server as well.

Setting up the Lunux runtime engine on DH is a snap, but if you need help there are details in the CGI section of this forum, and of course you can always post a question if you get stuck.

One advantage to using the MySQL db already available with DH is that it handles multiple concurrent users very gracefully. But if you're the only one who'll be accessing your DB SQLite may be good enough, although with MySQL already available you might consider just using that.

If you plan on doing a lot of intensive DB work you might also consider migrating to RunRev's own hosting service, which provides DB access through a new server engine which provides a great many conveniences not available through CGI, such as real-time debugging:
http://on-rev.com

acidjazz · Post by **acidjazz** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:17 am

Okay, good. Thanks. I'm thinking I'll go with mySQL. However, I thought that SQlite didn't need any drivers as that was built into RunRev. Am I mistaken?

Mark P.

mwieder · Post by **mwieder** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:58 am

Well, "built into" rev can mean several things. It *is* bundled with rev, so you don't have to add anything extra when you build an app with rev using SQLite, but the drivers are in a separate directory (Externals/Database Drivers). This isn't a problem when you're working in the IDE, but if you build a standalone you have to include the database drivers to make sure they get bundled properly. And if you're moving your stack to a cgi configuration and it's going to be using a database then you need to make sure the proper database drivers get put into the appropriate place on the server as well. That applies to MySQL as well as SQLite.

acidjazz · Post by **acidjazz** » Tue May 12, 2009 1:33 am

Got it. Thanks. - Mark