Documentation Source Text

<p>There are many benefits to this approach, including improved
performance, reduced cost and complexity, and
improved reliability.  See technical notes
[file-format benefits|"aff_short.html"] and 
[application file-format|"appfileformat.html"] and
[faster than the filesystem|"fasterthanfs.html"] for more information.
This use case is closely related to the
<a href="#wireproto">data transfer format</a> and
<a href="#container">data container</a> use cases below.
</li>

<tcl>hd_fragment website {using SQLite for websites}</tcl>
<li><p><b>Websites</b></p>

<p>SQLite works great as the database engine for most low to
medium traffic websites (which is to say, most websites).
The amount of web traffic that SQLite can handle depends

SQL database engine in this scenario.
Database requests are serialized by the server, so concurrency is not
an issue.  Concurrency is also improved by "database sharding":
using separate database files for different subdomains.  For
example, the server might have a separate SQLite database for each
user, so that the server can handle hundreds or thousands of simultaneous
connections, but each SQLite database is only used by one connection.</p>
</li>

<tcl>hd_fragment wireproto {data transfer format}</tcl>
<li><p><b>Data transfer format</b><p>

<p>Because an SQLite database is a single compact file in a
[file format|well-defined cross-platform format], it is often used
as a container for transfering content from one system to another.
The sender gathers content into an SQLite database file, transfers
that one file to the receiver, then the receiver uses SQL to extract
the content as needed.

<p>An SQLite database facilitates data transfer between systems even
when the endpoints have different word sizes and/or byte orders.
The data can be a complex mix of large binary blobs, text, and small
numeric or boolean values.  The data format can be easily extended
by adding new tables and/or columns, without breaking legacy receivers.
The SQL query language means that receivers are not required to parse
the entire transfer all at once, but can instead query the
received content as needed.  The data format is "transparent" in the
sense that it is easily decoded for human viewing using 
a variety of universally available, open-source tools, from multiple
vendors.
</li>

<tcl>hd_fragment container {data container}</tcl>
<li><p><b>File archive and/or data container</b></p>

<p>
The [SQLite Archive] idea shows how
SQLite can be used as a substitute for ZIP archives or Tarballs.
An archive of files stored in SQLite is only very slightly larger, and
in some cases actually smaller, than the equivalent ZIP archive.