documentation · examples · how it works · FAQ
What's a database? It's just a place where you can persist data beyond your app's lifetime. Chest offers exactly that: persistent variables called chests.
var counter = Chest<int>('counter', ifNew: () => 0);
await counter.open();
print('This program ran ${counter.value} times.');
counter.value++;
await counter.close();But isn't treating databases like variables inefficient?
Not at all! To be clear, you don't need to read or save the whole object every time you make a change.
Chest allows you to only change part of a value, even fields marked with final.
var me = Chest('me', ifNew: () => User());
await me.open();
me.value; // Decodes the whole user.
me.pet.value; // Only decodes the pet.
me.pet.favoriteFood.color.value = Color.red; // Only changes the color.The important thing is that me is not a User, but a Reference<User>.
Only when you use the .value getters or setters, you actually decode or change a subtree of the data.
This is especially handy if you're dealing with large maps:
var users = Chest<Map<String, User>>('users', ifNew: () => {});
await users.open();
var marcel = users['marcel'].value; // Only decodes Marcel.
users['jonas'].value = User(...); // Only saves Jonas.Hang on. How does Chest know how to handle my types?
Chest comes with its own encoding called tape. Some types already have built-in tapers (serializers for objects).
You can annotate your types with @tape and let Chest generate tapers automatically:
// Run `dart pub run build_runner build` in the command line.
part 'this_file.g.dart';
@tape
class Fruit {
final String name;
final Color color;
}- ❤️ Amazing developer experience. Just like you can inspect your program with Dart's DevTools, you can inspect, debug, and edit your database with ChestTools live in your browser.
- 🎈 Lightweight. Chest is written in pure Dart and has no native dependencies. That means it works on any platform.