Create "virtual files" in android. Possible? - android

I want to add a functionality to my app to treat a user's uploaded images online as if they were files on their phone, so all their existing apps can find their images without needing to download them all. Basically tricking the phone into thinking its local instead of online. Any thoughts and how to go about this?

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Ways to swap local files between mobiles

I have the next problem:
To my graduation work my teacher told me to implement a system that allows me to transfer any type of file from a phone (Android, IOS...) to another phone (Android, IOS...) using a server that keeps the files until the target phone downloads it.
Could anyone give me some advice about the best way to do it?
Thanks in advance.
You can use Firebase Storage, it has a free plan (so it's nice), and it gives you a nice API in Android and IOS, it allows you to upload and download files easily.
read more here: https://firebase.google.com/docs/storage/

Sharing Files in Android with some partners using Dropbox

this is the first time I'm taking a look at the Dropbox API so I'm afraid I kinda don't understand much.
My purpose is to develop an App in which I place some files into a directory so as to be automatically uploaded to the server and synced in another device whose owner I'm sharing them with, so different accounts are being used of course.
In the end, it has to be something similar to Dropbox app itself: you are able to create a file, upload it and share it with some friends.
Any idea if this is possible, what to begin with, is it possible to use for this goal any folder i want or it has to be one particularly chosen by Dropbox...?
If you're asking for a way to programmatically share a folder with another user, the API doesn't currently support that. To do what you're doing, you would need to manually (with the Dropbox app or via dropbox.com) share a folder with the other user. From then on, you could use the Dropbox API to read from and write to that shared folder. (And the same would work from the other account, since the folder would be visible to both of you.)

Distribute air apps without recompiling

I'm developing an air image viewing application for Windows and Android that will allow some special users to import bitmaps to it. The user can click on a button, browse to a bitmap stored locally and then the app saves the image to the documentsDirectory.
Later on, other users (let's call then common users) will get this already compiled app and view the images imported by the special users.
My question is how can I make the app save the images within it without recompiling it?
Any ideas are welcome! Thank you all!
The only option I can think of, is to make a web server to store and load the images by those users. That's because the images will be stored in the documents or cache directory of the device which means that there is no automatic way to bring them to other devices.
You need a web server that the images will be uploaded and saved, and later on retrieved by other clients. It's called centralized assets system.

Including Icons/Background Images with APK

I'm wanting to include some wallpapers and custom icons with my next application update. What's the best way to go about that in Android? I've been doing some searching but I haven't seen anything satisfactory.
Thanks.
Just change the icon and the background and update the app. Or do you mean something else?
I know if your app moves/copies the files to the user's SD card then the media scanner should pick it up and include in the Gallery app. Which can then be used as a wallpaper. But as for using them directly from your app, I'm not sure.
Might be good to not include them in the app directly, but allow the user to choose to download them from within your app (if you have a server or external site you can host them on). That would keep the size of your app small, and allow you to download them directly to the user's SD card.

Application that use a lot of MP3 files?

I have a general doubt about how to design Android apps that use a lot of MP3 (or other audio) files. My problem is that I do not know what is the best way/location to store such files.
I know that these options are available:
Store them on a remote server and fetch via gprs/wifi on demand (like, on a button click)
Store them locally inside the app (taking care they do not exceed the max size)
Store them locally on the sdcard (a user could delete them)
Store them both remote and locally
Could you tell me what is the best way to do? Also, if you store these files locally, do you download them after a user installs an app or you use some other method?
For example, my last app had approx 400MB of MP3 files and I was in a deep doubt where to store them. I chose remote web server, but I am not sure that was the right choice.
Thanks in advance
I'm interested in how you convince people to download 400MB of Music-files. You should compress them.
I would store them on the SDcard. If the user deletes them -> His problem (you could give him a message). But streaming them is a bad idea because if the user has no connection, he can't hear anything.
Downloading the files after the user installed the App (like the "Need for Speed Shift"-App) would be an option, too. In this case, you would save them on the SDcard, too.

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