Develop Reference

Connect to third-party app's database?

I am creating an app for personal use only, and for a while now I have been trying to figure out how to connect to a third-party's app's database without sharing content user ID. Note: I have root, so all root options are welcome too!
I have been using this:
protected String RefreshMessages() {
try {
String line;
String result = "";
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
OutputStream stdin = process.getOutputStream();
InputStream stdout = process.getInputStream();
stdin.write("su -c 'sqlite3 \"/data/data/<app>/databases/database.db\" \"" + REFRESH_QUERY + "\"'\n".getBytes());
stdin.write("exit\n".getBytes());
stdin.flush();
stdin.close();
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stdout));
while((line = br.readLine()) != null){
result = result + line;
}
Log.d("[Output]", result);
br.close();
process.waitFor();
process.destroy();
return result;
} catch (Exception ex) {
Log.d("ERR-RFRSH-MSG", ex.toString());
return "0";
}
}
And spamming it in a service as fast as I can to get updates, but seriously.. there has to be a better option available... especially as a root user. Something that allows me to connect properly and get live information from the database. I have literally Google'd for months and this is the best I could find.
I also found stuff about copying the database into a TEMP folder within my app's domain and then reading contents, but I need to read information quick. Constantly copying over the whole database is too slow.
Please tell me I have better options, Android wizards!

How to collect LogCat messages in an Android application

I have an application and I'd like to collect the LogCat messages of a specified level and tag.
Can I somehow get the accumulated messages at some point? I don't want to collect the messages one by one, it should be the sum of them like when I use adb to read the actual log. Is this possible?

Try this: Note that in Android 4 you will only see the log messages that were written by your own app unless you have root access.
public static String getLog(Context c) {
try {
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("logcat -d");
BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
StringBuilder log = new StringBuilder();
String line;
while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
log.append(line);
log.append("\n");
}
return log.toString();
} catch (IOException e) {
return null;
}
}

Why not just write them to a file instead? LogCat is really for real-time logs. There are lots of good quality logging packages that can log to a file if that's what you want to do.
Just as an example:
How to write logs in text file when using java.util.logging.Logger

How to get complete system log from android

I want get complete system log. Currently, I'm using below code to get system log
try {
final Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("logcat -d -v threadtime *:I");
final BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
process.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
lineList.add(line);
}
} catch (final IOException e) {
Log.e(e.toString());
}
I'm able to get system log successfully using above code. It gives only last 30 min log. But, I want complete system log from my application launch. Is it possible to write system log to our private file?

To write continuously to a file, try this:
... exec( "logcat -f cachedirectory/logfile.txt -v threadtime" );
See the -f option in http://developer.android.com/tools/help/logcat.html.

Read logcat from app not working correctly

I am trying to read from the logcat output in my app. I am able to read in correctly, but it goes on reading it in endless loop. Somehow there seems no way to detect the end of stream.
Not sure what I am doing wrong.
Here is my code:
String baseCommand = "logcat -v time MyTag:D *:S";
Process process = null;
try {
process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(baseCommand);
InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream());
BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(reader);
String line;
while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null) {
Log.d("SomeOtherTag", line); //This line executes endlessly
}
} catch (IOException e) {
Log.e(DEBUG_TAG, "error in logging");
e.printStackTrace();
}

Logcat doesn't exit so the buffer is blocked.
Use 'logcat -d' in order to dump the log and then exit.
Hope this still helps, Yaron

Not positive but I believe you need to pass the logcat call if it has args in a String[] so it would be something like
String[] baseCommand = {"logcat", "-v", "time", "MyTag:D", "*:S"};
then the rest of your code.
The single string call is just the program name, not the args.

command line from within a program - not all commands are executed issue

I wrote some code that runs an android command line and collect the output.
it is executing "ls" correctly but when I put the command "top -n 1" it shows nothing.
is it a manifest issue? the phone is not rooted and when using "terminal emulator" I can see "top" output.
here is the code:
// ** execute command line and gather the output **//
final StringBuilder log = new StringBuilder();
try{
ArrayList<String> commandLine = new ArrayList<String>();
commandLine.add("top");
commandLine.add("-n1");
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commandLine.toArray(new String[0]));
BufferedReader bufferedReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = bufferedReader.readLine()) != null){
log.append(line);
log.append(", \n");
}
log.append(", \n");
}
catch (IOException e){
}
thanks,
A.

You might want to show some of your code. Generally, commands you run using Runtime are not executed in a shell, so you might want to try something like "sh -c top -n 1" as the prog parameter.