SQLite Support (Experimental)

Starting from v1.1, the Linkstash backend includes experimental support for SQLite. This feature is still under development, and some functionality may be incomplete or unstable. Please report any issues you encounter.

I am still debating whether to fully support SQLite. For now, I've done some basic work to make it functional but haven't extensively tested it. Issues related to SQLite will also be evaluated based on the effort required to maintain full compatibility with MySQL.

Known issues

• tag filtering doesn't work
  • root cause: using regexp in request related to tag filtering.
  • effort: medium. need to take the tag filter and parse it instead of just using the loopback where clause. might be able to work around it using LIkE instead of regexp
  • impact: medium to big. its annoying, more so if you have large collection

Enabling SQLite Support

Pre-requisite

Install the SQLite related pacakges:

npm install loopback-connector-sqlite3 sqlite3 --save

On windows, you would need to have Visual Studio including the "Desktop development with C++" workload installed to be able to install the loopback sqlite connector

Configuration and starting

To start Linkstash with SQLite, set the following environment variable before starting the backend:

You can do this by adding/editing this line in your .env file:

DB_TYPE=sqlite

Manually setting the environment variable:

export DB_TYPE=sqlite  # Linux/macOS
set DB_TYPE=sqlite      # Windows (Command Prompt)

SQLite File Location

You can specify the location of the database file using the DB_FILE environment variable:

DB_FILE=database.sqlite

Notes

• This feature is in early-stage testing and may have performance or stability issues.
• Some advanced database features may not work as expected.

I decided to add SQLite support because MySQL can be a heavy requirement in some cases. However, I do not want to fully commit to supporting SQLite long-term, as I may introduce future features requiring more advanced database functionality that SQLite may not fully support. As of now, I don't foresee any immediate issues, but this may change depending on project needs.