Looking for a bit of advice on databases integrated into an app, I have looked around and nothing seemed to answer my question. Will try make the problem clear and I hope someone can help me out.
I want to have a master database that is going to have a full list of information. In the app, the user will be able to choose from this list those which apply to them, leaving a smaller list. If the main database would be stored remotely I would think the user list would be stored locally to make any action on it quicker and so the app wont rely on an internet connection.
I am having trouble choosing what direction to go with the database and which will work best with Android. Also, from my research so far, I am on the fence as to whether the master database will be remotely or locally on the device. I would rather it be remotely so to minimize memory usage and have the means to set up a server system or other method to host the file. Seeing as the user list will be stored on their own device there is no need to store anything else apart from the master list and it being on a server will make updating it easier.
If anyone has any thoughts on what I am looking for or knows a best-of situation I would greatly appreciate it.
Hey guys
I'm an entrepreneur from Brisbane, Australia. I'm looking into introducing a new product and am wondering if you guys would be able to help me clarify a few questions. I have to add I have no idea what so ever about programming languages or whats possible or not. I just going to post my vision of the application I will need and hope some of you guys can tell me what of that will be possible, what not and how much effort / money it would take to realise.
Firstly of all and most importantly I need the the Phone application to work with several other systems which would be at the moment : - Iphone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry Android, a Website interface, Windows Vista / 7 and Mac OS. I need this to work in two ways. One for the user to sync their data on different apps and secondly for the admin to receive and send data from the main system (that would be working on Windows or Mac)
On first interface the user would have to log in with a username and password, high security would be welcome, after the log in the general interface should be offering the user a booking request form with the ability to use a saved lists of items which have been previously use / prepared but also a interface for add one or editing
It also should offer a open bookings lists and the ability to edit this lists. This should also be able to be synced to the other systems. A third interface showing a history and updates should be also available.
If possible it should offer different accounts and groups where admins can edit the bookings of other users. If this is possible it also should offer a control for the admins which shows bookings and history of other group users.
I would like this obviously to be a professional looking app which offers a good service and is secure and bug free. If anyone has an idea if this is realisable or what parts of it would be difficult or have to be changed please do me the favour and comment.
Thank you for your help in advance.
JPM
Hello,
If you're looking for developers for your project, please contact [email protected]
Example of similar (ok, a bit different but technical approach is the same) web app and mobile clients for several smartphone platforms is in my signature.
Hello,
Dropbox and other synchronisation services are actually not running in background and don't think folders. You have to manually download/upload files. Anybody knows application which will automatically synchronise local Android folder with cloud?
artisticcheese said:
Hello,
Dropbox and other synchronisation services are actually not running in background and don't think folders. You have to manually download/upload files. Anybody knows application which will automatically synchronise local Android folder with cloud?
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http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=886445
Smestorage is another app.
However none works perfect yet...
But i am sure one day
I wouldn't mind writing such a beast, however I see one problem that users could complain about.
I have a hosted site with probably enough data storage (or I can add more). Thing is, I HAVE TO create the database and the tables within it. That means I have Admin authority which means I can see everything.
Now, I am not the person that would do such a thing and would even sign some type of non-disclosure document. But, are people going to upload their pictures, files, documents etc. knowing that I have access?
Rootstonian said:
I wouldn't mind writing such a beast, however I see one problem that users could complain about.
I have a hosted site with probably enough data storage (or I can add more). Thing is, I HAVE TO create the database and the tables within it. That means I have Admin authority which means I can see everything.
Now, I am not the person that would do such a thing and would even sign some type of non-disclosure document. But, are people going to upload their pictures, files, documents etc. knowing that I have access?
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I think people would prefer an interface to existing clouds rather than to have you host your own.
Yeah, agreed. However, any site of this type you go to, SOMEONE has access to your data...that's just the nature of the beast. And a reason I don't use ANY online service of that type.
Hell, Dropbox could be run by one person for all I know.
I'm trying to add a synchronization function to my app which will work like this :
I want it to be login free, so no new account will be needed.
The data will be assigned to the user's google account on which he's logged in.
On server side, there will be a mySQL database wich will hold the user's data.
I didn't find a useful tutorial. This one uses some weird servlet or whatever, and the official google tut is very briefly explained.
Could anyone help me ?
halp meh plz
I was also trying to find a tutorial for something like this a while ago. Theres not much out there. Seems need to know how to write your own server side code to handle the synchronising and then communicate with the app through https or whatever.
Well, that doesn't help me very much. I know php/mySQL as well. I could imagine synchronization through xml - like implementing a function that would create an xml file from my database, upload it to the server and parse it/put it my online database.
This would be useful, if I only wanted to be able to modify data on one end - the phone - but then it wouldn't be called syncing, rather backup.
Or maybe I could request a similar xml file from the server. I think it should be possible to send some kind of query from the device to the server which would call a function that creates an xml file from database entries and then download the created file, parse it, compare with the device's database and update the database if some file was updated (it's 'last edited' time was changed).
So on each sync cycle I would first get the server-side xml file, update the local DB, then create the xml file from local DB, send it to the server and update the online DB. Only files with newer "last edited" time would be updated.
What do you think ?
Who the hell if not you, guys, can help me ?
bumpity bump
Hi,
I am wondering what possible ways would be for loading a simple website into my app. My first thought is using a WebView, but I would like a dynamic app, while webview takes some time when loading between pages and links.
Is a common solution to load the html resources locally, from let say the assets folder? Than I could use AsyncTask to keep the files up to date and whenever the app starts it would load and work much quickly.
Or should I use HTTP Requests and parse the external Html document?
What would be the most situable solution for this kind of app?
Thanks,
Ved
vedtam said:
Hi,
I am wondering what possible ways would be for loading a simple website into my app. My first thought is using a WebView, but I would like a dynamic app, while webview takes some time when loading between pages and links.
Is a common solution to load the html resources locally, from let say the assets folder? Than I could use AsyncTask to keep the files up to date and whenever the app starts it would load and work much quickly.
Or should I use HTTP Requests and parse the external Html document?
What would be the most situable solution for this kind of app?
Thanks,
Ved
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I think it's probably a decision best made by yourself. You have not said what type of data ? Cause really you should be wanting the minimal amount required. My app uses lots of data from my server for things like themes, but these come direct from SQL Database
deanwray said:
I think it's probably a decision best made by yourself. You have not said what type of data ? Cause really you should be wanting the minimal amount required. My app uses lots of data from my server for things like themes, but these come direct from SQL Database
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Hi deanwray,
Thanks for your reply. I made some more researching and I have realised that my best bet is SQL, as you said.
Do you request data in your app directly from the online mySql database generally? I have read about a technique on downloading the data from the online database and converting it to SQLite (which is the local database on android) inside the application. This would be really cool, would really boost performance.
ved.
vedtam said:
Hi deanwray,
Thanks for your reply. I made some more researching and I have realised that my best bet is SQL, as you said.
Do you request data in your app directly from the online mySql database generally? I have read about a technique on downloading the data from the online database and converting it to SQLite (which is the local database on android) inside the application. This would be really cool, would really boost performance.
ved.
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Click to collapse
well my app uses a hosted database for
Online Theme Data (thumbnails store in just web space)
Settings Overrides (settings that I may have to force on the app)
Announcements ( Messages that trigger dialogs, adverts, html boxes)
Purchase info
other stuff that I forget
Any database that I access online I cache data local in cache sqlite database
So lets say the most complex things is the purchase list... a rough flow is as follows :
Get idents from online purchasable list
get descriptions and titles from idents
store local database
Simultaneous query of google IAP data from play to get locale info and pricing (along with IAP ident)
Store that in same local db
Display to user at, initial data, updated data and price additions
The database online is accessed via php (not a fan of that but hey ho, not really a programmer so there ya go) and given to the app as encoded JSON
I'm currently considering an ORM system like greenDAO or something like that...but not looked too much into it currently.
The themes database is quite good as it hold descriptions of views, shading, dimensions etc, these too are never displayed to the user from the server, but are cached local, cause failure of internet and failure of sync should not prevent any vital parts of what appears to be an offline app from working (e.g. my Smart SMS app)
Hope that helps, I could pass you the php although tis quite simple, there are security issues to look out for though
deanwray said:
well my app uses a hosted database for
Online Theme Data (thumbnails store in just web space)
Settings Overrides (settings that I may have to force on the app)
Announcements ( Messages that trigger dialogs, adverts, html boxes)
Purchase info
other stuff that I forget
Any database that I access online I cache data local in cache sqlite database
So lets say the most complex things is the purchase list... a rough flow is as follows :
Get idents from online purchasable list
get descriptions and titles from idents
store local database
Simultaneous query of google IAP data from play to get locale info and pricing (along with IAP ident)
Store that in same local db
Display to user at, initial data, updated data and price additions
The database online is accessed via php (not a fan of that but hey ho, not really a programmer so there ya go) and given to the app as encoded JSON
I'm currently considering an ORM system like greenDAO or something like that...but not looked too much into it currently.
The themes database is quite good as it hold descriptions of views, shading, dimensions etc, these too are never displayed to the user from the server, but are cached local, cause failure of internet and failure of sync should not prevent any vital parts of what appears to be an offline app from working (e.g. my Smart SMS app)
Hope that helps, I could pass you the php although tis quite simple, there are security issues to look out for though
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Thanks for the details! It was really useful to see your workflow, I was not sure about the direction I should choose for my app development, but now is much clearer.
Thanks!
ved
Hy deanwray,
I could use a litle help, regarding the methods you have adopted for synchronising your online database with your apps local database.
I have reached a point where my database is ready, I am parsing (via JSON) data from a local xml file, and inserting it into my SQLite database. Everything works ok, but I need to get the data from my online mySql server into my app on a regular basis.
I have found threads wich mentiones the Android sync adapter, and others where people use the HTTPClient to pass data to/from the server. To be hones I am a bit confused, I would really glad if you could light me up on what would be the best approach, or what works for you the best
Thanks!!
vedtam said:
Hy deanwray,
I could use a litle help, regarding the methods you have adopted for synchronising your online database with your apps local database.
I have reached a point where my database is ready, I am parsing (via JSON) data from a local xml file, and inserting it into my SQLite database. Everything works ok, but I need to get the data from my online mySql server into my app on a regular basis.
I have found threads wich mentiones the Android sync adapter, and others where people use the HTTPClient to pass data to/from the server. To be hones I am a bit confused, I would really glad if you could light me up on what would be the best approach, or what works for you the best
Thanks!!
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If you want do operate online database server then generally php is used.there is a tutorial on androidhive check it . you will get the answer
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vedtam said:
Hy deanwray,
I could use a litle help, regarding the methods you have adopted for synchronising your online database with your apps local database.
I have reached a point where my database is ready, I am parsing (via JSON) data from a local xml file, and inserting it into my SQLite database. Everything works ok, but I need to get the data from my online mySql server into my app on a regular basis.
I have found threads wich mentiones the Android sync adapter, and others where people use the HTTPClient to pass data to/from the server. To be hones I am a bit confused, I would really glad if you could light me up on what would be the best approach, or what works for you the best
Thanks!!
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if you need a real time chat hit me up on hangouts https://plus.google.com/+DeanWray/