There are so many JavaScript caching database around, but if you are looking for something new and dynamic, go for PouchDB. This new minimalist JavaScript database allows you to build applications that work both offline and online. Besides, applications save data locally allowing you to use an app even offline, and synchronize data between clients so you have up to date data wherever you go. Isn’t it great?

PouchDB is Open Source, JavaScript minimal library, inspired by Apache CouchDB. The best part is that it is lightweight and easily embeddable. In fact, it is just a script tag. You can easily install it.

On web page:

Installation is simple, and putting it into the HTML of the website looks like this:

<script src="pouchdb-nightly.min.js"></script>

Once in place, it becomes easy to make use of the library to snychronize with the backend as needed.

On Node.js:

$ npm install pouchdb

Just as simple for Node.js.

For a HTTP API to PouchDB:

Check out PouchDB Server for HTTP support for Node.js; but this is a cross-platform library with availability for multiple platforms.

PouchDB uses various backends, such as IndexedDB in Firefox and Chrome, WebSQL in Safari and Opera and LevelDB in Node.js. It has been tested in different browsers:

• Firefox 12+
• Chrome 19+
• Opera 12+
• Safari 5+
• Node.js 0.10+
• Apache Cordova
• Internet Explorer 10+

If you’re interested in how to get started with PouchDB, there is a getting-started document to pore over as well as the full API documentation.