Question

I have an app v1.0 that uses a local database saved in assets folder… I have updated my app to version 1.1, in the new version the internal db has different entries.

Unfortunately the installed app continue to use the database of version 1.0 and I must unistall the app and install again to use the database of the latest version.

Is really a bad thing force the buyers to unistall the application and reinstall the new version… Why the assets files aren’t updated with the new version?

EDIT

I have understand that this issue happen because the database is created from assets file and only if isn’t already created, this is my DatabaseHelper class

public class DataBaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
    private static String TAG = "DataBaseHelper"; 
    private static String DB_PATH = "";
    private static String DB_NAME = "MyDatabaseFile";
    private SQLiteDatabase mDataBase;
    private final Context mContext;

    public DataBaseHelper(Context context) {
        super(context, DB_NAME, null, 1);
        DB_PATH = "/data/data/" + context.getPackageName() + "/databases/";
        this.mContext = context;
    }

    public void createDataBase() throws IOException {
        // If database not exists copy it from the assets

        boolean mDataBaseExist = checkDataBase();
        if (!mDataBaseExist) {
            this.getReadableDatabase();
            this.close();
            try {
                copyDataBase();
                Log.e(TAG, "createDatabase database created");
            } catch (IOException mIOException) {
                throw new Error("ErrorCopyingDataBase");
            }
        }
    }

    private boolean checkDataBase() {
        File dbFile = new File(DB_PATH + DB_NAME);
        // Log.v("dbFile", dbFile + "   "+ dbFile.exists());
        return dbFile.exists();
    }


    private void copyDataBase() throws IOException {
        InputStream mInput = mContext.getAssets().open(DB_NAME);
        String outFileName = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
        OutputStream mOutput = new FileOutputStream(outFileName);
        byte[] mBuffer = new byte[1024];
        int mLength;
        while ((mLength = mInput.read(mBuffer)) > 0) {
            mOutput.write(mBuffer, 0, mLength);
        }
        mOutput.flush();
        mOutput.close();
        mInput.close();
    }

    public boolean openDataBase() throws SQLException {
        String mPath = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
        // Log.v("mPath", mPath);
        mDataBase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(mPath, null,
                SQLiteDatabase.CREATE_IF_NECESSARY);
        // mDataBase = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(mPath, null,
        // SQLiteDatabase.NO_LOCALIZED_COLLATORS);
        return mDataBase != null;
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void close() {
        if (mDataBase != null)
            mDataBase.close();
        super.close();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase arg0) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

    @Override
    public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

}

How could I avoid this issue when I’ll upgrade the app on PlayStore, without renaming the db file?

Answer 1

I have an app v1.0 that uses a local database saved in assets folder

No, you have an app v1.0 that copies a database “saved in assets folder” and creates a local database from it. Hopefully, you use SQLiteAssetHelper for this.

Why the assets files aren’t updated with the new version?

The asset file is updated. You are not doing anything to fix up the copy that you made. If you use SQLiteAssetHelper, it has a procedure for handling such upgrades.