JavaScript Web

Full SDK reference for using PowerSync in JavaScript Web clients

SDK Features

Provides real-time streaming of database changes.
Offers direct access to the SQLite database, enabling the use of SQL on both client and server sides.
Operations are asynchronous by default, ensuring the user interface remains unblocked.
Enables subscription to queries for receiving live updates.
Eliminates the need for client-side database migrations as these are managed automatically.
Allows using PowerSync between multiple tabs

Installation

See the SDK's README for installation instructions.

Some peer dependencies are required.

See the Readme for the necessary peer dependencies that need to be installed.

This SDK connects to a PowerSync instance via HTTP streams (enabled by default) or WebSocket.

When connecting via WebSocket, a polyfill is also required.
See the Developer Notes section below for details about connecting with either method.

Getting Started

Before implementing the PowerSync SDK in your project, make sure you have completed these steps:

Signed up for a PowerSync Cloud account (here) or self-host PowerSync.
Configured your backend database and connected it to your PowerSync instance.
Installed the PowerSync Web SDK.

1. Define the Schema

The first step is defining the schema for the local SQLite database.

This schema represents a "view" of the downloaded data. No migrations are required — the schema is applied directly when the local PowerSync database is constructed (as we'll show in the next step).

Generate schema automatically

In the dashboard, the schema can be generated based off your sync rules by right-clicking on an instance and selecting Generate client-side schema.

Similar functionality exists in the CLI.

The types available are text, integer and real. These should map directly to the values produced by the Sync Rules. If a value doesn't match, it is cast automatically. For details on how Postgres types are mapped to the types below, see the section on Types in the Sync Rules documentation.

Example:

// AppSchema.ts
import { column, Schema, TableV2 } from '@powersync/web';

const lists = new TableV2({
  created_at: column.text,
  name: column.text,
  owner_id: column.text
});

const todos = new TableV2(
  {
    list_id: column.text,
    created_at: column.text,
    completed_at: column.text,
    description: column.text,
    created_by: column.text,
    completed_by: column.text,
    completed: column.integer
  },
  { indexes: { list: ['list_id'] } }
);

export const AppSchema = new Schema({
  todos,
  lists
});

// For types
export type Database = (typeof AppSchema)['types'];
export type TodoRecord = Database['todos'];
// OR:
// export type Todo = RowType<typeof todos>;
export type ListRecord = Database['lists'];

Note: No need to declare a primary key id column, as PowerSync will automatically create this.

2. Instantiate the PowerSync Database

Next, you need to instantiate the PowerSync database — this is the core managed database.

Its primary functions are to record all changes in the local database, whether online or offline. In addition, it automatically uploads changes to your app backend when connected.

Example:

import { PowerSyncDatabase } from '@powersync/web';
import { Connector } from './Connector';
import { AppSchema } from './Schema';

export const db = new PowerSyncDatabase({
  // The schema you defined in the previous step
  schema: AppSchema, 
  database: {
    // Filename for the SQLite database — it's important to only instantiate one instance per file. 
    dbFilename: 'powersync.db' 
    // Optional. Directory where the database file is located.'
    // dbLocation: 'path/to/directory' 
  }
});

SDK versions lower than 1.2.0

In SDK versions lower than 1.2.0, you will need to use the deprecated WASQLitePowerSyncDatabaseOpenFactory syntax to instantiate the database.

Once you've instantiated your PowerSync database, you will need to call the connect() method to activate it.

export const setupPowerSync = async () => {
  // Uses the backend connector that will be created in the next section 
  const connector = new Connector(); 
  await db.connect(connector);
};

3. Integrate with your Backend

The PowerSync backend connector provides the connection between your application backend and the PowerSync client-slide managed SQLite database.

It is used to:

Retrieve an auth token to connect to the PowerSync instance.
Apply local changes on your backend application server (and from there, to Postgres)

Accordingly, the connector must implement two methods:

PowerSyncBackendConnector.fetchCredentials - This is called every couple of minutes and is used to obtain credentials for your app backend API. -> See Authentication Setup for instructions on how the credentials should be generated.
PowerSyncBackendConnector.uploadData - Use this to upload client-side changes to your app backend.
-> See Writing Client Changes for considerations on the app backend implementation.

Example:

import { UpdateType } from '@powersync/web';

export class Connector {

    constructor() {
        // Setup a connection to your server for uploads
        this.serverConnectionClient = TODO; 
    }

    async fetchCredentials() {
        // Implement fetchCredentials to obtain a JWT from your authentication service.
        // See https://docs.powersync.com/usage/installation/authentication-setup
        // If you're using Supabase or Firebase, you can re-use the JWT from those clients, see
        // - https://docs.powersync.com/usage/installation/authentication-setup/supabase-auth
        // - https://docs.powersync.com/usage/installation/authentication-setup/firebase-auth
        return {
            endpoint: '[Your PowerSync instance URL or self-hosted endpoint]', 
            // Use a development token (see Authentication Setup https://docs.powersync.com/usage/installation/authentication-setup/development-tokens) to get up and running quickly
            token: 'An authentication token' 
        };
    }

    async uploadData(database) {
    // Implement uploadData to send local changes to your backend service.
    // You can omit this method if you only want to sync data from the database to the client

    // See example implementation here: https://docs.powersync.com/client-sdk-references/js-web#id-3.-integrate-with-your-backend
}

Using PowerSync: CRUD functions

Once the PowerSync instance is configured you can start using the SQLite DB functions.

The most commonly used CRUD functions to interact with your SQLite data are:

PowerSyncDatabase.get - get (SELECT) a single row from a table.
PowerSyncDatabase.getAll - get (SELECT) a set of rows from a table.
PowerSyncDatabase.watch - execute a read query every time source tables are modified.
PowerSyncDatabase.execute - execute a write (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE) query.

Fetching a Single Item

The get method executes a read-only (SELECT) query and returns a single result. It throws an exception if no result is found. Use getOptional to return a single optional result (returns null if no result is found).

// Find a list item by ID
export const findList = async (id) => {
  const result = await db.get('SELECT * FROM lists WHERE id = ?', [id]);  
  return result;
}

Querying Items (PowerSync.getAll)

The getAll method returns a set of rows from a table.

// Get all list IDs
export const getLists = async () => {
  const results = await db.getAll('SELECT * FROM lists');
  return results;
}

Watching Queries (PowerSync.watch)

The watch method executes a read query whenever a change to a dependent table is made.

// Watch changes to lists
const abortController = new AbortController();

export const function watchLists = (onUpdate) => {
    for await (const update of PowerSync.watch(
        'SELECT * from lists', 
        [], 
        { signal: abortController.signal }
      )
    ) {
      onUpdate(update);
    }
}

Mutations (PowerSync.execute, PowerSync.writeTransaction)

The execute method can be used for executing single SQLite write statements.

// Delete a list item by ID
export const deleteList = async (id) => {
  const result = await db.execute('DELETE FROM lists WHERE id = ?', [id]);  
  return TodoList.fromRow(results);
}

// OR: using a transaction
const deleteList = async (id) => {
  await db.writeTransaction(async (tx) => {
    // Delete associated todos
    await tx.execute(`DELETE FROM ${TODOS_TABLE} WHERE list_id = ?`, [id]);
    // Delete list record
    await tx.execute(`DELETE FROM ${LISTS_TABLE} WHERE id = ?`, [id]);
  });
};

Additional Usage Examples

See Usage Examples for further examples of the SDK.

Developer Notes

Connecting via HTTP Streams or WebSocket

This SDK connects to a PowerSync instance and streams sync commands via HTTP streams (enabled by default) or WebSockets.

The WebSocket implementation uses reactive socket streams from the cross-platform RSocket library. This allows the client to request commands from the server after processing existing events, alleviating any back-pressure build-up of commands. Sync commands are transmitted as BSON (binary) documents.

Benefits of using the WebSocket Method

BLOB column support will be added on top of the WebSocket implementation (the HTTP streaming method will not support this).

Selecting Connection Method

The PowerSyncDatabase client's connect method now supports options which can be used to select the active connection method. These options are not required, as HTTP is used by default.

// For HTTP
powerSync.connect(connector)

// For WebSockets
powerSync.connect(connector, { connectionMethod: SyncStreamConnectionMethod.WEB_SOCKET });

ORM Support

See JavaScript ORM Support for details.

Source Code

To access the source code for this SDK, refer to packages/web in the powersync-js repo on GitHub.

Troubleshooting

See Troubleshooting for pointers to debug common issues.

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