# sqlite3-api.js And Friends
This is the README for the files `sqlite3-*.js` and
`sqlite3-wasm.c`. This collection of files is used to build a
single-file distribution of the sqlite3 WASM API. It is broken into
multiple JS files because:
1. To facilitate including or excluding certain components for
specific use cases. e.g. by removing `sqlite3-api-oo1.js` if the
OO#1 API is not needed.
2. To facilitate modularizing the pieces for use in different WASM
build environments. e.g. the files `post-js-*.js` are for use with
Emscripten's `--post-js` feature, and nowhere else.
3. Certain components must be in their own standalone files in order
to be loaded as JS Workers.
Note that the structure described here is the current state of things,
as of this writing, but is not set in stone forever and may change
at any time.
The overall idea is that the following files get concatenated
together, in the listed order, the resulting file is loaded by a
browser client:
- **`sqlite3-api-prologue.js`**\
Contains the initial bootstrap setup of the sqlite3 API
objects. This is exposed as a function, rather than objects, so that
the next step can pass in a config object which abstracts away parts
of the WASM environment, to facilitate plugging it in to arbitrary
WASM toolchains.
- **`../common/whwasmutil.js`**\
A semi-third-party collection of JS/WASM utility code intended to
replace much of the Emscripten glue. The sqlite3 APIs internally use
these APIs instead of their Emscripten counterparts, in order to be
more portable to arbitrary WASM toolchains. This API is
configurable, in principle, for use with arbitrary WASM
toolchains. It is "semi-third-party" in that it was created in order
to support this tree but is standalone and maintained together
with...
- **`../jaccwabyt/jaccwabyt.js`**\
Another semi-third-party API which creates bindings between JS
and C structs, such that changes to the struct state from either JS
or C are visible to the other end of the connection. This is also an
independent spinoff project, conceived for the sqlite3 project but
maintained separately.
- **`sqlite3-api-glue.js`**\
Invokes functionality exposed by the previous two files to flesh out
low-level parts of `sqlite3-api-prologue.js`. Most of these pieces
related to populating the `sqlite3.capi.wasm` object. This file
also deletes most global-scope symbols the above files create,
effectively moving them into the scope being used for initializing
the API.
- **`<build>/sqlite3-api-build-version.js`**\
Gets created by the build process and populates the
`sqlite3.version` object. This part is not critical, but records the
version of the library against which this module was built.
- **`sqlite3-api-oo1.js`**\
Provides a high-level object-oriented wrapper to the lower-level C
API, colloquially known as OO API #1. Its API is similar to other
high-level sqlite3 JS wrappers and should feel relatively familiar
to anyone familiar with such APIs. That said, it is not a "required
component" and can be elided from builds which do not want it.
- **`sqlite3-api-worker1.js`**\
A Worker-thread-based API which uses OO API #1 to provide an
interface to a database which can be driven from the main Window
thread via the Worker message-passing interface. Like OO API #1,
this is an optional component, offering one of any number of
potential implementations for such an API.
- **`sqlite3-worker1.js`**\
Is not part of the amalgamated sources and is intended to be
loaded by a client Worker thread. It loads the sqlite3 module
and runs the Worker #1 API which is implemented in
`sqlite3-api-worker1.js`.
- **`sqlite3-worker1-promiser.js`**\
Is likewise not part of the amalgamated sources and provides
a Promise-based interface into the Worker #1 API. This is
a far user-friendlier way to interface with databases running
in a Worker thread.
- **`sqlite3-v-helper.js`**\
Installs `sqlite3.vfs` and `sqlite3.vtab`, namespaces which contain
helpers for use by downstream code which creates `sqlite3_vfs`
and `sqlite3_module` implementations.
- **`sqlite3-vfs-opfs.c-pp.js`**\
is an sqlite3 VFS implementation which supports Google Chrome's
Origin-Private FileSystem (OPFS) as a storage layer to provide
persistent storage for database files in a browser. It requires...
- **`sqlite3-opfs-async-proxy.js`**\
is the asynchronous backend part of the OPFS proxy. It speaks
directly to the (async) OPFS API and channels those results back
to its synchronous counterpart. This file, because it must be
started in its own Worker, is not part of the amalgamation.
- **`api/sqlite3-api-cleanup.js`**\
The previous files do not immediately extend the library. Instead
they add callback functions to be called during its
bootstrapping. Some also temporarily create global objects in order
to communicate their state to the files which follow them. This file
cleans up any dangling globals and runs the API bootstrapping
process, which is what finally executes the initialization code
installed by the previous files. As of this writing, this code
ensures that the previous files leave no more than a single global
symbol installed. When adapting the API for non-Emscripten
toolchains, this "should" be the only file where changes are needed.
**Files with the extension `.c-pp.js`** are intended [to be processed
with `c-pp`](#c-pp), noting that such preprocessing may be applied
after all of the relevant files are concatenated. That extension is
used primarily to keep the code maintainers cognisant of the fact that
those files contain constructs which will not run as-is in JavaScript.
The build process glues those files together, resulting in
`sqlite3-api.js`, which is everything except for the `post-js-*.js`
files, and `sqlite3.js`, which is the Emscripten-generated amalgamated
output and includes the `post-js-*.js` parts, as well as the
Emscripten-provided module loading pieces.
The non-JS outlier file is `sqlite3-wasm.c`: it is a proxy for
`sqlite3.c` which `#include`'s that file and adds a couple more
WASM-specific helper functions, at least one of which requires access
to private/static `sqlite3.c` internals. `sqlite3.wasm` is compiled
from this file rather than `sqlite3.c`.
The following files are part of the build process but are injected
into the build-generated `sqlite3.js` along with `sqlite3-api.js`.
- `extern-pre-js.js`\
Emscripten-specific header for Emscripten's `--extern-pre-js`
flag. As of this writing, that file is only used for experimentation
purposes and holds no code relevant to the production deliverables.
- `pre-js.c-pp.js`\
Emscripten-specific header for Emscripten's `--pre-js` flag. This
file is intended as a place to override certain Emscripten behavior
before it starts up, but corner-case Emscripten bugs keep that from
being a reality.
- `post-js-header.js`\
Emscripten-specific header for the `--post-js` input. It opens up
a lexical scope by starting a post-run handler for Emscripten.
- `post-js-footer.js`\
Emscripten-specific footer for the `--post-js` input. This closes
off the lexical scope opened by `post-js-header.js`.
- `extern-post-js.c-pp.js`\
Emscripten-specific header for Emscripten's `--extern-post-js`
flag. This file overwrites the Emscripten-installed
`sqlite3InitModule()` function with one which, after the module is
loaded, also initializes the asynchronous parts of the sqlite3
module. For example, the OPFS VFS support.
<a id='c-pp'></a>
Preprocessing of Source Files
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certain files in the build require preprocessing to filter in/out
parts which differ between vanilla JS builds and ES6 Module
(a.k.a. esm) builds. The preprocessor application itself is in
[`c-pp.c`](/file/ext/wasm/c-pp.c) and the complete technical details
of such preprocessing are maintained in
[`GNUMakefile`](/file/ext/wasm/GNUmakefile).