wp-sqlite-db VS wp2static

Before they added SQLite as WP plugin, I would use https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db/ and I would use `define('DB_DIR', '/absolute/custom/path/to/directory/for/sqlite/database/file/');` to define the database location of my choice; I believe they would let users do the same with core support.

They basically took this implementation and just adapted it to coding standards:

https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db

This has been around since some time and is itself a fork of a previous work.

The interesting part is that this drop-in replacement (mostly) already works well, there are a few issues that are related to some quirks in the WordPress core itself, for example: https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db/issues/18

And maybe now they will be fixed.

Author here, here's an in-depth writeup on how this works and why it's useful:

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/09/23/client-side-webas...

To answer your questions directly:

WebAssembly is the magic sauce that transforms server-side code into client-side code. MySQL unfortunately is not yet supported by WebAssembly, so I applied a plugin that adds SQLite supports to WordPress [0]. The WebAssembly application has its own in-memory filesystem that lives in a specific browser tab and is scraped as soon as you close it.

So – technically it exposes db credentials, and even the entire DB, but that you are the only user of that DB so it's okay.

> What would the backend look like

The only backend is a static file server where the code and the database live. Your browser downloads a copy of the database and allows you to modify it in the current tab, but the updates are never saved back to the server.

[0] https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db

1. Plugins that register their own database tables (however there already exists prior art such as https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db for handling these cases)

2. Plugins that do direct queries against the standard database schema (broadly either for invalid (bad code) or performance (valid but slim use case) reasons)

Also, WordPress would of course keep the old query functions around and they would likely add a tag to the plugin repository so authors can mark plugins as supporting thes new ORM features.

Great idea in my opinion!

There's a WordPress plugin that adds support for SQLite as an alternative to MySQL.

Apparently it works really well. The implementation is (to my) simply astonishing: they run regular expressions against the SQL to convert it from MySQL dialect to SQLite! https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-sqlite-db/blob/9a5604cce13...

This wp-sqlite-db one. Not super active, but maintained, at least.

Download and Install WP2Static Plugin

> It is not actually that hard to run Wordpress securely. Stick to supported plugins and themes, and install security patches quickly when they are released.

Depending on your site's functionality, it may also be possible to run a static WP site:

* https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/

* https://wp2static.com

You do all your regular updates via the CMS, but, instead of putting the dynamic site on the public Internet, you generate static files and point your public web server's HTML rootdir at those.

Also, for a bit more complex although richer in features workflow, you might try Wordpress with the Block Editor (or any page builder like Elementor) and the [WP2Static](https://github.com/WP2Static/wp2static) plugin, which allows you to turn a Wordpress site into a static one!

The closest "free" option I can think of is Oracle Cloud, but /r/oraclecloud shows plenty of horror stories in registration and maintaining an instance. If you don't actually need interactive features, WP2Static on your local instance to be deployed to Cloudflare Pages might work.

> Most WP sites should be static sites.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/simply-static/

https://wp2static.com

Depending on the site, ask yourself "How dynamic does it actually have to be?". Perhaps using the GUI to update the content, and then creating static files and serving those may be an option:

* https://wp2static.com

You could also use WordPress as a SSG with the WP2Static plugin — https://github.com/WP2Static/wp2static/

What is wrong with using Wordpress? I believe now one can get Wordpress to have 'static site' capabilities these days [0]

[0] https://wp2static.com/