HTML5's IndexedDB: Transactions Tutorial

Last week I wrote a brief introduction to Kristof Degrave's ongoing, multi-stage IndexedDB tutorial.

Judging by the number of reads, it looks like quite a few of you are interested in learning more about HTML5's IndexedDB. I'm following Kristof's tutorial anyway, so I might as well keep posting about it here.

Today Kristof has posted his next IndexedDB tutorial -- Transactions -- and here's where IndexedDB begins to get exciting, where the work of creation and definition begins to pay off.

We're preparing for actual data retrieval and manipulation, so we'll be creating a READ_WRITE transaction.

At this point, if you're trying to understand IndexedDB formally as well as use it pragmatically, you might want to get more comfortable with W3C's conceptual treatment of transactions along with the formal object description, and maybe the IDBTransaction interface too. (For me, it especially helps to understand emerging tech like HTML5 a little more abstractly, just in case the standard takes a different turn than previously expected.)

If you prefer learning by doing, here's how Kristof explains transactions:

Today, I’ll handle the transaction subject. As said in previous posts, every request made to the database needs to be done in a transaction. So for every read or write request we need to create a new transaction. There for we need a database connection and 2 argument that we will pass to the transaction method.

The post is, like his previous tutorials, quite straightforward -- painlessly showing you how to use what is potentially one of the most powerful features of HTML5. Take a look, create an IndexedDB transaction, and get ready to retrieve and manipulate data.