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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-28T19:29:22+00:00

I’m developing an Android app as a proof of concept for our company. If

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I’m developing an Android app as a “proof of concept” for our company. If they like it and think it’s worth investing, then we’ll move on to bigger things. I’m trying to figure out the best/most practical approach for this…..the basics of the app will connect to our DB and display information regarding a specific customer. For now, let’s say we will only pull data from 3-4 tables (but there could be 10+ in the future). If the app doesn’t have an internet connection then it should use the local DB. What is the best approach for this? Here’s what I was thinking and would like some input/suggestions if possible:

1.) app runs checks internet connection. If exists, check db version (how, through a web service?)..if server db is newer, get latest data. If no internet, use local db.
2.) app parses data and displays it.

If this is correct, then there could be no modifications to the web service that would add fields to a result without changing the app as well. Is there a way for an app to parse fields regardless of how many fields there are?

I’ve read and walked through the tutorial on google with databases and such (Notepad tutorial) but it seems like the column names are all hard-coded in the parsing class, which I was hoping to avoid.

Sorry if this is confusing but I know I need my app to use a local db to read data, I also know that the app must get data from the server when it can (via onCreate or a refresh button) and copy it locally….Copying it locally is the part I’m having trouble understanding I guess….is there no way of saying “go out and get this result and display it”, knowing that those results could mean 5 fields the first time or 1 the next.

Any help/guidance is greatly appreciated!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You probably want to use a SQLLite DB to store your data locally, a ContentProvider to provide CRUD access to the db, and a SyncAdapter to sync with your server when possible. The Sync Adapter also writes to the DB via the ContentProvider. See the SampleSyncAdapter sample in the SDK for an example of how this works. You will be implementing your own ContentProvider, but the sample just uses Android’s supplied Contacts ContentProvider.

    http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/SampleSyncAdapter/index.html

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