Getting Started

This guide gets up you up and running quickly with TinyBase.

It is not intended to be a detailed introduction to installing JavaScript build- and run-time environments! It assumes that you have (or know how to have) a browser or Node-based development environment.

Note that TinyBase requires a reasonably modern environment, as it makes extensive use of contemporary JavaScript features. A regularly-updated browser and Node 16 (or above) are recommended. If you find you need older compatibility, there are additional transpilations in the lib/es6 folder of the distribution.

Let's go!

TinyBase from a Vite template

Vite is a build tool that makes it easy to get started with modern web projects based on application templates. To use the TinyBase template, firstly make a copy of it:

npx degit tinyplex/vite-tinybase my-tinybase-app

Then go into the directory, install the dependencies, and run the application:

cd my-tinybase-app
npm install
npm run dev

The final step will display a local URL, which should serve up a basic TinyBase application for you:

Thumbnail of Vite app

In fact, there are six templates for TinyBase, depending on whether you want to use TypeScript or React. Instructions are available in the README of each:

Template	Language	React	Plus
vite-tinybase	JavaScript	No
vite-tinybase-ts	TypeScript	No
vite-tinybase-react	JavaScript	Yes
vite-tinybase-ts-react	TypeScript	Yes
vite-tinybase-ts-react-crsqlite	TypeScript	Yes	CR-SQLite
tinybase-ts-react-partykit	TypeScript	Yes	PartyKit

TinyBase in a browser

Another simple way to get started with TinyBase is to include it as a UMD script from a CDN in a web page. Create a file called index.html, for example:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My First TinyBase App</title>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/tinybase/lib/umd/tinybase.js"></script>
    <script>
      addEventListener('load', () => {
        const {createStore} = TinyBase;

        const store = createStore();
        store.setValue('v1', 'Hello');
        store.setCell('t1', 'r1', 'c1', 'World');

        document.body.innerHTML =
          store.getValue('v1') + ' ' + store.getCell('t1', 'r1', 'c1');
      });
    </script>
  </head>
  <body />
</html>

Open this file in your browser and you should see the words 'Hello World' on the screen, each having been written to, and read from, a Store.

Note that the UMD script is pulled from NPM by the unpkg service. The script provides a global object from which you can destructure the top-level functions of the API.

TinyBase in a Node application

TinyBase is packaged on NPM, so you can easily install it as a dependency for your application.

mkdir MyFirstTinyBaseApp
cd MyFirstTinyBaseApp
npm init -y
npm install tinybase

Create a file in this directory called index.mjs:

import {createStore} from 'tinybase';
const store = createStore();
store.setValue('v1', 'Hello');
store.setCell('t1', 'r1', 'c1', 'World');
console.log(store.getValue('v1') + ' ' + store.getCell('t1', 'r1', 'c1'));

Run this module script with:

node index.mjs

Again, you will see the words 'Hello World' on the screen, having each been written to, and read from, a Store.

If that all worked, you are set up and ready to learn more about TinyBase! From here on, we will mostly show Node-based code snippets, but most should be easily translatable to run in a browser too.

Before we move on, you should be aware that the overall package includes a number of different versions of TinyBase, transpiled for different targets and formats. You may want to take a look at the Importing TinyBase guide if the code above isn't working in your environment - React Native in particular.

Let's move onto the Creating A Store guide.