How to Build a Static Wikipedia with SQLite, WebAssembly, and JavaScript

Wikipedia is a free, collaborative encyclopedia built on wiki technology. This article introduces an open‑source project that lets you create a static, client‑side Wikipedia using CSS, JavaScript, WebAssembly and SQLite.

1. Download a Wikipedia dump

Visit the official dump site, choose the language and date you need, and extract the XML file from the archive.

2. Convert XML to a SQLite database

Install the Node dependencies and run the conversion script:

npm install

cat "/path/to/enwiki.xml" | node ./scripts/xml_to_sqlite.js /path/to/output/folder/en.db

The command creates a .db file, which may require hundreds of gigabytes and several hours.

You can inspect the database with:

./scripts/sqlite3 /path/to/output/folder/en.db

3. Build the front‑end

Compile and serve the application:

npm run build

npm run serve

On macOS replace the system nginx.conf with the provided one if you prefer Nginx.

Adjust db.js so the dev URL points to your local en.db, then run:

npm run dev

4. Deploy

Upload the generated dist/ folder and the db/ files to a static‑file host, enable CORS, and update the URL in db.js.

5. Repeat for additional language dumps

For each new dump repeat steps 1‑4 and add the new database to db.js.

The final interface lets users select a language and search only within the corresponding SQLite database.