Overview
The Ecwid API offers simple key-value storage for apps. You can use it to save private user preferences and public storefront settings, or as a database for your app. This storage allows you to create complex client-side (JavaScript) apps and skip using a database on a server (like MySQL, etc.).
App storage data example:
Each data entry is stored as a pair: a key and its value. You can get a specific value right away by checking a corresponding key. It is available for both embeddable and storefront apps. You can also retrieve public app configuration (user preferences, etc.) saved in the application storage when your app works in storefront. Learn more
Storage security
The storage of each app is isolated from other apps, so user data of your application is not available to other apps and vice versa.
Benefits of application storage
For client-side applications
Many Ecwid applications are client-side, which are created completely in Javascript and don’t require any backend interface or server-side functionality for a developer. These apps don’t require their own database on a dedicated server to manage user specific data and access it when it’s needed. To access that data, apps make calls to Ecwid API, where this data is stored.
Ecwid API has got you covered on two main aspects of developing client-side applications: private data can be stored securely on Ecwid servers and all the hosting for that data is provided by Ecwid as well. This allows for a secure and fast storage for your application’s needs.
Your application can also utilize storage as a primary key-value database using the Ecwid API. Ecwid provides all the tools to operate with that storage – you can manage storage either through REST API or using simple functions provided by the Javascript SDK.
For server-side applications
Sometimes server-side applications need to store user’s data as well as the client-side ones. Usually developers create mySQL or PostgreSQL databases or store data locally on a file system. Application storage offers an alternative - store data on Ecwid servers and access it using REST API. Why it can be helpful: now there is no need for mySQL databases, your code becomes simpler and you don’t have to worry about storing the private merchant data on your servers.