XOWA uses SQLite database files to store its data.
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Files have an extension of either ".xowa" or ".sqlite3". Note that ".xowa" files are just plain old sqlite3 databases with a renamed extension.
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Files are limited to 2 GB. Note that SQLite can easily handle files greater than 100 GB. The 2 GB limit is imposed for the following two constraints:
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<b>2 GB limit for SQLite files on Android</b>. I've not found any documentation that states this, but opening a file larger than 2 GB file always fails.
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<b>4 GB limit for FAT32 on flash cards</b>. FAT32 is an old file-system format. However, it is the only format that is supported natively by all major operating systems. I install a set of wikis on a 200 GB FAT32-formatted microSD card and carry it around from machine to machine
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Various programs can be used to read SQLite3.
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<b>sqlite3 command shell</b>: This is the official shell for SQLite. Instructions are available here: the <ahref="https://www.sqlite.org/cli.html"rel="nofollow"class="external free">https://www.sqlite.org/cli.html</a> . Download is available here: <ahref="https://www.sqlite.org/download.html"rel="nofollow"class="external free">https://www.sqlite.org/download.html</a>
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<b>SQLite browser</b>. This is a free, open-source GUI that can be useful for those who don't want just a command-line shell. See: <ahref="http://sqlitebrowser.org/"rel="nofollow"class="external free">http://sqlitebrowser.org/</a>
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<h2>
<spanclass="mw-headline"id="XOWA_Database_sets:_Wikitext_vs_HTML">XOWA Database sets: Wikitext vs HTML</span>
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There are two types of database sets for XOWA: Wikitext and HTML
Users can generates this Wikitext set by using either <ahref="http://xowa.org/home/wiki/Dashboard/Import/Online.html"id="xolnki_2"title="Dashboard/Import/Online">Dashboard/Import/Online</a> or <ahref="http://xowa.org/home/wiki/Dashboard/Import/Offline.html"id="xolnki_3"title="Dashboard/Import/Offline">Dashboard/Import/Offline</a>
Wikitext databases have been supported since the very start of XOWA. As such, they have a full set of functionality
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However, Wikitext databases are slower. They need to take the Wikitext and convert it to HTML. As such, Wikitext databases don't work for Android, nor for other low-spec machines like Raspberry Pi
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<h3>
<spanclass="mw-headline"id="HTML">HTML</span>
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HTML is the raw text as used by a web browser. For example, the following is used for italics: <code><i>italics</i></code>
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HTML databases will have <code>-html-</code> in the file name. For example, <code>en.wikipedia.org-html.xowa</code>
Users can generate this HTML database using <ahref="http://xowa.org/home/wiki/Dev/Command-line/Thumbs.html"id="xolnki_4"title="Dev/Command-line/Thumbs">Dev/Command-line/Thumbs</a>. However, for most users, they will just download the already-generated HTML databases from <ahref="http://archive.org"rel="nofollow"class="external free">http://archive.org</a> through <ahref="http://xowa.org/home/wiki/Special:XowaDownloadCentral.html"id="xolnki_5"title="Special:XowaDownloadCentral">Special:XowaDownloadCentral</a>
HTML databases have only been supported recently (as of 2016-06). As such, they are missing a small percentage of functionality. The most significant piece of that functionality is Popups, but there may be other features.
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HTML databases are fast, as they don't need to convert Wikitext to HTML. As such, HTML databases are used for Android and recommended for Raspberry Pi
<li><ahref="http://dumps.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html"title="Get wiki datababase dumps directly from Wikimedia">Wikimedia dumps</a></li>
<li><ahref="https://archive.org/search.php?query=xowa"title="Search archive.org for XOWA files">XOWA @ archive.org</a></li>
<li><ahref="http://en.wikipedia.org"title="Visit Wikipedia (and compare to XOWA!)">English Wikipedia</a></li>
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</div>
</div>
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