I have an application that uses a pre-polulated database to list events. The app allows people to save these events to their favorites by setting a '1' to the column isFavorite. Then the user can view only a list of 'favorited' events which searches for all rows that have isFavorite = 1.
If any changes happen to the events or I need to add more to the list, I have to make those changes and then push the update to the app which completely writes over the table, clearing out their favorites.
Is there any way that I can, on upgrade, save a list of id's of all the events that they have set to their favorites, then after the new database has been loaded, to set all id's in that list to 1 so the user doesn't lose their favorited data?
If there are any other better solutions to this problem I would really appreciate it, this has been the biggest hurdle for me so far.
I guess, you have a SQLiteOpenHelper-class? This class must be extended and then provides two functions: onCreate (which is called when the Database is queried and it doesn't exist (Normally creates your Database in the first place)) and onUpdate (which is queried when the Database structure should be updated).
The onUpdate-method has an SQLiteDatabase-Object parameter, which is your Database. You can then Query the information you need, save them and then create the new Database-tables. After that, you can insert your saved data back into the Database.
Can't you cope with thus in your DB design? Have a user favourites table that holds id's. So long as these id's don't change upgrade won't affect it surely?
One possible solution is backing up part or all of your database to restore at a later time. I found this guide quite handy http://www.screaming-penguin.com/node/7749
Alternatively, you may save their favorites as a SharedPreferences. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/SharedPreferences.html for more information on that.
Related
I want to make an android app that works offline. For the data part, I want to have some data in a json file, and whenever my app is open firstly that JSON file is fetched, and from the fetched data I want to make tables entries in android room database(offline). So that, let say if user liked some quotes, then i can change the state of that quote as liked in room db, and when user clicked on Liked Quotes navigation, I can show those offline stored quotes which were liked (OfCourse when user delete the app that data will be lost). The problem I'm facing is where to fetch that data file and create entries in room db. If I do this in onCreate() then whenever user will open this app the duplicate entries will be created everytime. How to make those entries only ones?
There's several ways to do it. One way is to include a random UUID in each element, and make that column in the DB have a UNIQUE constraint. Then re-adding it will fail (alternatively you can use an UPSERT and then it will automatically update the data in case the data changed).
Another way is to just not process the file if it already exists in onCreate. Your logic can be
if(network_exists) {
copy_file_from_network()
}
else if(json file exists) {
return
}
else {
copy_file_from_assets()
}
process_json_file()
Actually I can see a good argument for doing both- that way if there are updates to existing rows you process them, but if there's no new data you don't waste your time.
As for a good place to put this- I'd be running this during your splash screen if you have one, so the user has an indication that you may be processing for a while.
I am still fairly new to android and trying to learn day by day. I am trying to create a simple test application that you register for with an email/password to learn how to use save data from users.The app I am making is going to be simple, once they register and login, the user can search through a list of items I created on my MainActivity, and when they click on the listview item it will open a new activity. On the new activity, there will be a favorites button that I want to be able to click on and it will store that listview item information onto a favorites fragment I created and it will show the user a list of movies the user saved as favorites.
I am just trying to find out the best way I can do this. I have looked into SQLite and Firebase, hoping someone can explain to me which way would be the best way to approach this and maybe link me to a tutorial if possible.
Also the adding favorites to a listview item, if any one has a tutorial on that. I have already created my main listview and using Intents take the information and pass it to the new activity. It just clicking on the favorites button and saving the information into a new listview I do not know how to do, especially for when the users closes and re-opens the app the favorites will still be there.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
To save favourite items in a new ListView you have to store the information somewhere. If you're using SQL, then store the Primary Key value in a favourites table that you can then use to find the corresponding information from the initial ListViews table.
If you are using firebase then each item in your list should have a unique key. Save that key and then when loading the favourites ListView, use the saved key to get the key's child data.
To summarise:
Store in a favourites table/branch the items the user selects as favourites and use that table/branch then to populate the favourites ListView.
I hope this helps
Another approach you could consider doing is storing your favorites using SharedPreference. The logic that would then follow is you have each row in your list view be an object that has an ID. Anytime a user favorites that object you save it into a set and store that set into SharedPreference that are corresponding to the current account username. You can then retrieve that set and show only the favorite objects for the user later on.
As for the SQLite vs Firebase question, I have not worked with Firebase yet, most of my interactions have been custom API calls. Having said that, I think SQLite would be a nice way to handle this as it would keep things easy and give you a good understanding of both sides of the equation.
Check out this tutorial. This very next one also covers SQLite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwAvFYMsXE
I have a ContentProvider implementation in my app which works fine. I have a table called elements where the user can store a bunch of information.
What I am doing is when the user opens the app, I pull this data out of the database, process it using the display options set by the user (Like change the string formats, time formats, date formats, number decimals etc), and then put it in ListFragment which using my own implementation of ArrayAdapter. User can of course change the preferences in the middle of the session, where I reload the data and reformat it and present it to the user. The user can click on an item in the list, and see more details of that item. I accomplish this by overriding ListFragment.onListItemClick().
I have been reading about SimpleCursorAdapter. I am confused if the use of this would be more correct than using an ArrayAdapter for what I am doing. I am confused because I am not directly mapping the database data to the view. So should I be using a SimpleCursorAdapter? Also, the _ID column seems to be a requirement. I don't want to rename my table at this point. After a few articles and tutorials, I am not sure what to do. So any suggestions are appreciated.
I currently successfully use a SQLite database which is populated with data from the web. I create an array of values and add these as a row to the database.
Currently to update the database, on starting the activity I clear the database and repopulate it using the data from the web.
Is there an easy method to do one of the following?
A: Only update a row in the table if data has changed (I'm not sure how I could do this unless there was a consistent primary key - what would happen is a new row would be added with the changed data, however there would be no way to know which of the old rows to remove)
B: get all of the rows of data from the web, then empty and fill the database in one go rather than after getting each row
I hope this makes sense. I can provide my code but I don't think it's especially useful for this example.
Context:
On starting the activity, the database is scanned to retrieve values for a different task. However, this takes longer than it needs to because the database is emptied and refilled slowly. Therefore the task can only complete when the database is fully repopulated.
In an ideal world, the database would be scanned and values used for the task, and that database would only be replaced when the complete set of updated data is available.
Your main concern with approach (b) - clearing out all data and slowly repopulating - seems to be that any query between the empty and completion of the refill would need to be refused.
You could simply put the empty/repopulate process in a transaction. Thereby the database will always have data to offer for reading.
Alternatively, if that's not a viable solution, how about appending newer results to the existing ones, but inserted as with an 'active' key set to 0. Then, once the process of adding entries is complete, use a transaction to find and remove currently active entries, and (in the same transaction) update the inactive entries to active.
I have a widget that currently takes a random string from an array and sets it to text view on update. The issue here is that the same item can be re-used multiple times in a row due to the string being 'random'
In order to solve this I was going to create a table that held String text, and int viewednum and increment the viewed number each time 'get text' was called. (on update in the widget).
My Question: If I put the insert statements in the widget, won't the data be inserted every time 'on update' is called?
Would it be better for it to go in the DBadapter class somewhere? I'm just unsure about the best way to make sure I don't enter duplicate data. If there is a better alternative like saving a csv file somewhere and using that I'm open to it, it seemed like a sqlite database was the way to go.
Thank you for your time.
That depends on what your onUpdate method does. If each time onUpdate is called it gets a random String from the database, then that would be the place to put it. However, if you are not getting the String during onUpdate, then you should put it in the method where you are accessing your database. I think your confusion is about the purpose of onUpdate. onUpdate doesn't get called every time the user scrolls by the homepage and sees your widget; it gets called regularly on a timescale you specify, and the whole purpose of it is, in a case like yours, to get a new String from the database.
As for your second question, yes, SQlite databases are the way to do it :) I haven't tried saving a csv file or something like that, but I imagine that would be a lot more complex than just using a database.
Declare your database with a UNIQUE constraint on the columns you want to keep unique, then set the desired behaviour via ON CONFLICT in the INSERT statement. ON CONFLICT REPLACE... means the most recent INSERT overwrites. ON CONFLICT IGNORE... keeps the older version.