MWS uses SQLite for data storage. It supports choosing between two "database engines" that are based on two different npm modules:

• better-sqlite3 is written partially in C/C++ and so requires compilation for the target platform
• node-sqlite3-wasm is written entirely in JavaScript and does not require compilation, but does require a WebAssembly-capable Node.js host. This is not currently possible on some platforms such as iOS/iPadOS

By default npm install will install both database engines. By default it will use better-sqlite3. To switch to using node-sqlite3-wasm, set the system configuration tiddler $:/config/MultiWikiServer/Engine to wasm (the default value is better). Note that this tiddler resides in the Administration Wiki.

Avoiding Installation Errors

If you encounter errors during npm install related to gyp or prebuild, you may be able to avoid them by using node-sqlite3-wasm instead of better-sqlite3. However, it will be necessary to manually install node-sqlite3-wasm and its dependencies. This can be done by running the following commands in your terminal:

npm install node-sqlite3-wasm