How to use sqlite3 module with electron?

By far the easiest way to use SQLite with electron is with electron-builder.

First, add a postinstall step in your package.json:

"scripts": {
   "postinstall": "install-app-deps"
   ...
}

and then install the necessary dependencies and build:

npm install --save-dev electron-builder
npm install --save sqlite3
npm run postinstall

electron-builder will build the native module for your platform, with the correct name for the Electron binding; and you can then require it in code as normal.

See my github repo and blog post - it took me quite a while to figure this out too.

I would not recommend the native node sqlite3 module. It requires being rebuild to work with electron. This is a massive pain to do - At least I can never get it to work and their a no instructions to for rebuilding modules on windows.

Instead have a look at kripken's 'sql.js' module which is sqlite3 that has been compiled 100% in JavaScript. https://github.com/kripken/sql.js/

Two aspects are to be considered here:

1. Setting NODE_PATH: this lets electron know where to find your modules (see this answer for a thorough explanation)
2. Compiling native modules against electron headers: see official docs

And checkout the following questions, that ask the same thing:

• Electron App with Database
• Using NodeJS plugins in Elelectron

My tip would be to give lovefield (by Google) a try.

I was having same problem. Tried everything and atlast this worked for me :-

npm install --save sqlite3
npm install --save electron-rebuild
npm install --save electron-prebuilt
.\node_modules\.bin\electron-rebuild.cmd

This will create "electron-v1.3-win32-x64" folder in .\node_modules\sqlite3\lib\binding\ location which is used by electron to use sqlite3.

Just start application and you will be able to use sqlite3 now.

npm install --save sqlite3
npm install --save-dev electron-rebuild

Then, in the scripts of your package.json, add this line:

"scripts": {
  "postinstall": "electron-rebuild",
  ...
},

Then just re-install to trigger the post-install:

npm install

Works flawlessly for me in a complex use case also involving electron-builder, electron-webpack and sequelize.

It works in electron-webpack's dev mode and in production mode for both Windows and Linux.