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Monday, April 28, 2014

Improving WebSql interaction using jQuery Deferred

I recently inherited a project that made heavy use of WebSql. Though it has been deprecated as a client side technology, this project was using it to create an offline web application that could be run on mobile devices. The immediate problem that I noticed with the project was that there was no consolidation of logic into a central JavaScript file. Each page included inline functions that essentially did the same thing, just using different queries. After profiling the site I realized that this "distribution" of logic also led to multiple instances of the web sql database being instantiated.... which, as you guessed, is a problem.

To address this issue I started by creating a wrapper for the Web SQL functions that would make it easier to work with the technology. The wrapper removes the work of instantiating the database object and managing the transaction, and it uses jQuery Deferred objects to make it easier to work with the results returned by the Web SQL calls.