How to persist data in an Electron app?

Question

I\'ve been scouring the Electron documentation to try and figure out how to persist data in an Electron app. For example, in iOS or OS X, you could use NSUserDefaults to store u

Answer 1

Since NeDB's latest release was 4 years ago and there are many open issues, I would not recommend it. But there are many other alternatives you can use now.

https://github.com/pubkey/rxdb (many features, observable queries)

https://github.com/pouchdb/pouchdb (simple but many open issues)

https://github.com/techfort/LokiJS (only in-memory storage)

https://github.com/typicode/lowdb (good for simple, small datasets)

Answer 2

Electron views are built with Webkit which gives you access to the web based localstorage api. Good for simple and easy settings storage.

If you need something more powerful or need storage access from the main script, you can use one of the numerous node based storage modules. Personally I like lowdb.

With most node storage modules, you will need to provide a file location. Try:

var app = require('app');
app.getPath('userData');

Answer 3

NeDB is the only suggested or featured tool as an embedded persistent database for Electron by Electron, currently. - http://electron.atom.io/community/

It's also could be useful to store user settings if settings are complex.

Why NeDB could be a better solution on this case?

Embedded persistent or in memory database for Node.js, nw.js, Electron and browsers, 100% JavaScript, no binary dependency. API is a subset of MongoDB's and it's plenty fast. - NeDB

Creating or loading a database:

var Datastore = require('nedb')
  , db = new Datastore({ filename: 'path/to/datafile', autoload: true });
// You can issue commands right away

Inserting a document:

var doc = { hello: 'world'
               , n: 5
               , today: new Date()
               , nedbIsAwesome: true
               , notthere: null
               , notToBeSaved: undefined  // Will not be saved
               , fruits: [ 'apple', 'orange', 'pear' ]
               , infos: { name: 'nedb' }
               };

db.insert(doc, function (err, newDoc) {   // Callback is optional
  // newDoc is the newly inserted document, including its _id
  // newDoc has no key called notToBeSaved since its value was undefined
});

Finding documents:

// Finding all inhabited planets in the solar system
db.find({ system: 'solar', inhabited: true }, function (err, docs) {
  // docs is an array containing document Earth only
});

The list goes on...

Update - September 2019

As of 2019, this is no longer the valid answer. See the answers of @jviotti and @Tharanga below.