Moving to SQLite

As much as we love mySQL (and we do love mySQL), we have decided not to use it by default for SiteRoller, and it will not even show on the auto installer.  (It will be available in the advanced install dialogue, and can be turned on from the admin page.)

Our decision was based on our own experiences with shared hosting.  Most hosts have ridiculous or inconsistent database implementations, and even once the database is setup, the user can’t access the data through managers without the painful phpMyAdmin or variations (the buggy FlashMyAdmin?).  Hosts with a robust MySQL that allow connections from the likes of Heidi are just to few and far between.  [Even our current host, NearlyFreeSpeech.net requires the DB to be setup and paid for separately - not good for most of our clientelle.]  We try hard not to alienate the non techies from our framework.

So, we had plans to use flat files, accessing the data through classes such as the one at http://lukeplant.me.uk/resources/flatfile.  These have the advantages of definitely being available everywhere php is, and the data can be stored and edited easily.   Huge advantages!

However, it would mean that any third party class that relies on mySQL would not work.  Since the bulk of 3rd party classes rely on mySQL, and one of our ideologies is to use third party classes, we had a problem.  Contacting each class vendor to ask them to modify their class, or writing a sql wrapper, sounds awful.

The final decision is to use SQLite.  SQLite is a php5 module that allows the creation and querying of flat files with SQL.  It is available on every host we’ve checked out, and doesn’t require any special permissions or passwords.  True, Heidi may not be able to speak to it (though perhaps such a client could and should be created), and we won’t have the ubiquity of pure php.  And we may yet have to write a wrapper for it.  But it still seems safer than any other solution.

For the end user.  This means nothing.  For the big thousand page site, you should switch to mysql in the admin page anyways.  For developers, know what to expect.

And now, back to coding.