IndexedDB is a low-level API for client-side storage of significant amounts of structured data, including files/blobs. This API uses indexes to enable high-performance searches of this data. While Web Storage is useful for storing smaller amounts of data, it is less useful for storing larger amounts of structured data. IndexedDB provides a solution. This is the main landing page for MDN's IndexedDB coverage — here we provide links to the full API reference and usage guides, browser support details, and some explanation of key concepts.

Key concepts and usage

IndexedDB is a transactional database system, like an SQL-based Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). However, unlike SQL-based RDBMSes, which use fixed-column tables, IndexedDB is a JavaScript-based object-oriented database. IndexedDB lets you store and retrieve objects that are indexed with a key; any objects supported by the structured clone algorithm can be stored. You need to specify the database schema, open a connection to your database, and then retrieve and update data within a series of transactions.

• Read more about IndexedDB key characteristics and basic terminology.
• Learn to use IndexedDB asynchronously from first principles with our Using IndexedDB guide.
• See a complete step-by-step example in the checking when a deadline is due guide.

Synchronous and asynchronous

Operations performed using IndexedDB are done asynchronously, so as not to block applications.

Storage limits and eviction criteria

There are a number of web technologies that store data of one kind or another on the client side (i.e., on your local disk). IndexedDB is most commonly talked about. The process by which the browser works out how much space to allocate to web data storage and what to delete when that limit is reached is not simple, and differs between browsers. Browser storage quotas and eviction criteria attempts to explain how this works, at least in the case of Firefox.

Interfaces

To get access to a database, call open() on the indexedDB property of a window object. This method returns an IDBRequest object; asynchronous operations communicate to the calling application by firing events on IDBRequest objects.

Connecting to a database

IDBFactory

Provides access to a database. An object of this type is the value of the global Window.indexedDB and WorkerGlobalScope.indexedDB properties. It is therefore the entry point for the API.

IDBOpenDBRequest

Represents a request to open a database.

IDBDatabase

Represents a connection to a database. It's the only way to get a transaction on the database.

Retrieving and modifying data

IDBTransaction

Represents a transaction. You create a transaction on a database, specify the scope (such as which object stores you want to access), and determine the kind of access (read only or readwrite) that you want.

IDBRequest

Generic interface that handles database requests and provides access to results.

IDBObjectStore

Represents an object store that allows access to a set of data in an IndexedDB database, looked up via primary key.

IDBIndex

Also allows access to a subset of data in an IndexedDB database, but uses an index to retrieve the record(s) rather than the primary key. This is sometimes faster than using IDBObjectStore.

IDBCursor

Iterates over object stores and indexes.

IDBCursorWithValue

Iterates over object stores and indexes and returns the cursor's current value.

IDBKeyRange

Defines a key range that can be used to retrieve data from a database in a certain range.

Custom event interfaces

This specification fires events with the following custom interface:

IDBVersionChangeEvent

The IDBVersionChangeEvent interface indicates that the version of the database has changed, as the result of an IDBOpenDBRequest.onupgradeneeded event handler function.

Examples

• To-do Notifications (view example live): The reference application for the examples in the reference docs.

Specifications

See also

• Web Storage API
• Window: localStorage property
• Window: sessionStorage property
• StorageEvent