I've seen a lot of ties between the onCreate and onOpen methods and SQLite database management in Android.
I am an iOS developer and I'm trying to "translate" (so to speak) my cocoa library so it could be used on Android. I need to create an SQLite database at runtime. I don't have an activity - since this is a library I'm creating. It seems I can't create a DB without an activity, is this correct ?
To create sqlite db, you don't basically need an activity in the library.it needs a context!!,
You can have a method in library/class which basically take a context in input/parameter and create database.
This context can be passed from application activity or service or receiver.
I don't see why you should not be able to open a database without an activity. You need to extend SQLiteOpenHelper.
public class MyDatabase {
private final DatabaseHelper databaseHelper;
private SQLiteDatabase db;
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "com.my.db";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
public MyDatabase(Context context) {
databaseHelper = new DatabaseHelper(context);
}
private static class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
DatabaseHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
//use db.execSQL to create the database
}
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
// use db.execSQL to update (modify) the database
}
}
public SQLiteDatabase open() throws SQLException {
db = databaseHelper.getWritableDatabase();
return db;
}
}
Related
I have the following DatabaseAccess.java class which contains the following code in order to instance , open , close and some queries :
public class DatabaseAccess {
Context context;
private SQLiteOpenHelper openHelper;
private SQLiteDatabase database;
private static DatabaseAccess instance;
/**
* Private constructor to avoid object creation from outside classes.
*
* #param context
*/
private DatabaseAccess(Context context) {
this.context = context;
this.openHelper = new DatabaseHelper(context);
}
/**
* Return a singleton instance of DatabaseAccess.
*
* #param context the Context
* #return the instance of DabaseAccess
*/
public static DatabaseAccess getInstance(Context context) {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new DatabaseAccess(context);
}
return instance;
}
/**
* Open the database connection.
*/
public void open() {
this.database = openHelper.getWritableDatabase();
}
/**
* Close the database connection.
*/
public void close() {
if (database != null) {
this.database.close();
}
}
However , im getting a serious SONAR warning about this :
Do not place Android context classes in static fields (static
reference to DatabaseAccess which has field context pointing to
Context); this is a memory leak
In my app , every time I need to use databaseAccess instance I do the following on onViewCreated()
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
databaseAccess = DatabaseAccess.getInstance(getContext());
}
I'm really confused about this , how can I fix this memory leak ?
Your getting the error because DatabaseAccess is created with context. And you have it static, so that object is never collected the Garbage. Hence the error.
Instead of passing activity context to the singleton class, you can pass applicationContext(). and #supress the warning
Firstly create an application class for your project like this.
<application android:name="com.xyz.YourApplicataionClassName">
</application>
Then in this application class, create a static getter method for your context.
Call this method wherever you need a context.
public class YourApplicataionClassName extends Application {
private static Context context;
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
YourApplicataionClassName.context = getApplicationContext();
}
public static Context getAppContext() {
return YourApplicataionClassName.context;
}
}
Call YourApplicataionClassName.getAppContext() method and this returns your context.
However using Room Persistence Library is better way then doing all this operations
Have a look at the developer guidelines for implementing databases within Android here. The issue is that you save the context which is a potential memory leak, mentioned by TDIScott. Here is an example how to create it taken from the guidelines:
public class FeedReaderDbHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
// If you change the database schema, you must increment the database version.
public static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
public static final String DATABASE_NAME = "FeedReader.db";
public FeedReaderDbHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE_ENTRIES);
}
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
// This database is only a cache for online data, so its upgrade policy is
// to simply to discard the data and start over
db.execSQL(SQL_DELETE_ENTRIES);
onCreate(db);
}
public void onDowngrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
onUpgrade(db, oldVersion, newVersion);
}
}
If you want a singleton, than do not store the context.
However, I would not recommend to use the SQL Lite implementation directly. ORM libraries or Room specifically are better ways to store data rather than writing the complete boilerplate code around that by yourself. You will find everything you need here.
I have a static, singleton instance of a SQLiteOpenHelper implementation.
public class MyDbHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
public static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 5;
public static final String DATABASE_NAME = "myapp.db";
public static SQL_CREATE_MY_TABLE ="some correct table creation sql";
public static SQL_DELETE_MY_TABLE="some correct table delete sql";
...
public MyDbHelper (Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE_MY_TABLE);
db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE_OTHER_TABLE);
}
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
db.execSQL(SQL_DELETE_MY_TABLE);
db.execSQL(SQL_DELETE_OTHER_TABLE);
onCreate(db);
}
}
I have another wrapper over the helper as:
public class MyAppDb {
private static MyDbHelper mydbHelper;
public static MyDbHelper getDbHelper(){
if(null == mydbHelper){
mydbHelper= new MyDbHelper(ctx);
return mydbHelper;
}else{
return mydbHelper;
}
}
}
I am using the mydbHelper from this getDbHelper() in my main Ui code(at various places), as well as in a BroadcastReceiver of an Alarmmanager that executes every 5 mins, and in another system BroadcastReceiver.
Sample usage:
SQLiteDatabase db = MyAppDb.getDbHelper().getReadableDatabase();
Intermittently, I get SQLiteDatabaseLockedException and SQLiteException on the the db implementations from the above mydbHelper.
It seems as though although static, there are two different instances of the MyDbHelper occuring at the same time.
What is happening? Can a static object have a separate instance created from BroadCastReceiver?
Or I am doing it wrong?
I need only select operation. Therefore the data should be inserted before the application starts. What is the best way to do this?
Use an subclass of SQLiteOpenHelper to access your db. The onCreate will be called once, when the database is created.
To use your db you can then do:
DBHelper db = new DBHelper(context);
db.getReadableDatabase().query(....);
db.close();
To extend SQLiteOpenHelper do something like (the sql for the table creation is not tested!):
public class DBHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "database.db";
private static final Integer DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
DBHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
/*
* Called ONCE on the very first db access (when the db file is created)
*/
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE mytable (_id PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, value TEXT); \n" +
"INSERT INTO mytable (value) VALUES ('data'));");
}
/*
* Called every time you open a database
*/
#Override
public void onOpen(SQLiteDatabase db) {
}
/*
* Called ONCE if DATABASE_VERSION has changed since the last instantiation of DBHelper
*/
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
}
}
This is the fist time I've used SQLiteOpenHelper (or databases on android). When I get a writeable database I was wondering why onCreate isnt being called on each new instance of the class. Am I doing something wrong?
public class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "MyDatabase.db";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
private String PrSQLcmd = "";
public DatabaseHelper(Context context)
{
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db)
{
db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Contact(Firstname TEXT, LastName TEXT");
}
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
}
In SQLiteOpenHelper, the meaning of 'onCreate' is different from what it is in an Activity. Here,'onCreate' is called only once, which is the first time you create the database. The next time you run the app, the database is already there, so it won't call 'onCreate'. Your object level initialization should be done in the constructor and not in 'onCreate'
To see 'onCreate' being called, either manually delete the db file, or simply uninstall the app.
I've implemented access to a database using SQLiteOpenHelper from the android.database package within some classes (with pattern DAO).
I wrote some junit tests for these classes using an AndroidTestCase but this causes the tests to use the same database as the application.
I read that the ProviderTestCase2 or RenamingDelegatingContext can be used to test the database separately. Unluckily I couldn't find any nice tutorial/example that shows how to test a database with ProviderTestCase2/RenamingDelegatingContext.
Can anyone point me somewhere OR give me some tip OR share some code for database testing?!
Cheeerrrrsss!!
Giorgio
Both the ProviderTestCase and RenamingDelegatingContext will destroy the database if one already exists before opening it within it's context, so in that sense they both have the same low-level approach towards opening a SQLite database.
You leverage this by opening the database in your fixture in setUp(), which will then ensure that your working with a fresh database before each test case.
I would suggest that you go for writing content providers rather than creating database adapters. You can use a common interface for accessing data, be it stored in the DB or somewhere over the network, the design of content providers can be accommodated to access such data at the cost of a bit of IPC overhead involved that most of us shouldn't have to care about.
If you did this for accessing a SQLite database, the framework would completely manage the database connection for you in a separate process. As added beef, the ProviderTestCase2<ContentProvider> completely bootstraps a test context for your content provider without you having to a write a single line of code.
But, that's not said it isn't such a huge effort to do the bootstrapping yourself. So supposing you had a database adapter as such; we'll just focus on open() for getting write access to our database, nothing fancy:
public class MyAdapter {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "my.db";
private static final String DATABASE_TABLE = "table";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
/**
* Database queries
*/
private static final String DATABASE_CREATE_STATEMENT = "some awesome create statement";
private final Context mCtx;
private SQLiteDatabase mDb;
private DatabaseHelper mDbHelper;
private static class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
public DatabaseHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATE_STATEMENT);
}
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int a, int b) {
// here to enable this code to compile
}
}
/**
* Constructor - takes the provided context to allow for the database to be
* opened/created.
*
* #param context the Context within which to work.
*/
public MyAdapter(Context context) {
mCtx = context;
}
/**
* Open the last.fm database. If it cannot be opened, try to create a new
* instance of the database. If it cannot be created, throw an exception to
* signal the failure.
*
* #return this (self reference, allowing this to be chained in an
* initialization call)
* #throws SQLException if the database could be neither opened or created
*/
public MyAdapter open() throws SQLException {
mDbHelper = new DatabaseHelper(mCtx);
mDb = mDbHelper.getWritableDatabase();
return this;
}
public void close() {
mDbHelper.close();
}
}
Then you could write your test as such:
public final class MyAdapterTests extends AndroidTestCase {
private static final String TEST_FILE_PREFIX = "test_";
private MyAdapter mMyAdapter;
#Override
protected void setUp() throws Exception {
super.setUp();
RenamingDelegatingContext context
= new RenamingDelegatingContext(getContext(), TEST_FILE_PREFIX);
mMyAdapter = new MyAdapter(context);
mMyAdapter.open();
}
#Override
protected void tearDown() throws Exception {
super.tearDown();
mMyAdapter.close();
mMyAdapter = null;
}
public void testPreConditions() {
assertNotNull(mMyAdapter);
}
}
So what's happening here is that the context implementation of RenamingDelegatingContext, once MyAdapter(context).open() is called, will always recreate the database. Each test you write now will be going against the state of the database after MyAdapter.DATABASE_CREATE_STATEMENT is called.
I actually use database with SQLiteOpenHelper and I have a trick for testing.
The idea is to use standard on-file stored DB during the normal use of the app and an in-memory DB during tests. In this way you can use a clear DB for each test without insert/delete/update data in your standard DB. It works fine for me.
Keep in mind you can use in-memory database, just passing null as name of database file. This is clearly documented in the API documentation.
Advantages of using in-memory DB during tests is explained here:
https://attakornw.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/using-in-memory-sqlite-database-in-android-tests/
In my project I have the DBHelper class wich extends SQLiteHelper. As you can see, there are the standard methods. I simply added a constructor with two parameters. The difference is that when I call the super constructor, I pass null as DB name.
public class DBHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
public static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
public static final String DATABASE_NAME = "mydatabase.db";
public DBHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
public DBHelper(Context context, boolean testMode) {
super(context, null, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
//create statements
}
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
//on upgrade policy
}
public void onDowngrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
//on downgrade policy
}
}
Every "model" in the project extends DBModel that is an abstract class.
public abstract class DBModel {
protected DBHelper dbhelper;
public DBModel(Context context) {
dbhelper = new DBHelper(context);
}
//other declarations and utility function omitted
}
As discussed here: How can I find out if code is running inside a JUnit test or not?
there is a way to establish if you are running JUnit tests, simply searching in stack trace elements.
As a conseguence, I modified DBModel constructor
public abstract class DBModel {
protected DBHelper dbhelper;
public DBModel(Context context) {
if(isJUnitTest()) {
dbhelper = new DBHelper(context, true);
} else {
dbhelper = new DBHelper(context);
}
}
private boolean isJUnitTest() {
StackTraceElement[] stackTrace = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
List<StackTraceElement> list = Arrays.asList(stackTrace);
for (StackTraceElement element : list) {
if (element.getClassName().startsWith("junit.")) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
//other declarations and utility function omitted
}
Note that
startsWith("junit.")
may be
startsWith("org.junit.")
in your case.
I have an application that uses a ContentProvider backed by an sqlite database to provide data to the application.
Let PodcastDataProvider be the actual dataprovider used by the application.
Then you can set up a test provider with something like the following:
public abstract class AbstractPodcastDataProvider extends ProviderTestCase2<PodcastDataProvider>{
public AbstractPodcastDataProvider(){
this(PodcastDataProvider.class, Feed.BASE_AUTH);
}
public AbstractPodcastDataProvider(Class<PodcastDataProvider> providerClass,
String providerAuthority) {
super(providerClass, providerAuthority);
}
public void setUp() throws Exception{
super.setUp();
//clear out all the old data.
PodcastDataProvider dataProvider =
(PodcastDataProvider)getMockContentResolver()
.acquireContentProviderClient(Feed.BASE_AUTH)
.getLocalContentProvider();
dataProvider.deleteAll();
}
}
to setup a test data provider that will be backed by a different database than the actual application.
To test the DAO, create another class which extends AbstractPodcastDataProvider and use the
getMockContentResolver();
method to get an instance of a content resolver that will use the test database instead of the application database.
private static String db_path = "/data/data/android.testdb/mydb";
private SQLiteDatabase sqliteDatabase = null;
private Cursor cursor = null;
private String[] fields;
/*
* (non-Javadoc)
*
* #see dinota.data.sqlite.IDataContext#getSQLiteDatabase()
*/
public SQLiteDatabase getSQLiteDatabase() {
try {
sqliteDatabase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(db_path, null,
SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READWRITE);
sqliteDatabase.setVersion(1);
sqliteDatabase.setLocale(Locale.getDefault());
sqliteDatabase.setLockingEnabled(true);
return sqliteDatabase;
} catch (Exception e) {
return null;
}
}
if you give the exact location of the sqlite db(in my case it's db_path), using the above method you can find-out whether it returns an sqlitedatabase or not.
A possible solution can be to open database using this method
myDataBase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(DATABASE_NAME, null, SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READWRITE);
And change database name in your tests. Here you can find some info about this method.