Question

I’m using Sqlite with android to develop and app which can be customizable (for the dev) in the future. I have created a database with the data which is then to be used to create the database for the application. So if any changes need to be made in the future or I write an app for somebody else in the future then all I have to do is change this original database. The idea behind this is the dev’s database will set up all the UI and everything to do with the app.

I am stuck on what to do next I have the database I need in the app as the dev fully populated. My idea was to create another DBHelper class and within that reference the original DBHelper class and query within the new DB Class. So this is the second DBHelper class that i’m trying to create a database from a previous database:

public class appDbHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
    private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "library.db"; //database name   
    Cursor all, tables, options, ui_type;
    SQLiteDatabase database;

    public appDbHelper(Context context) {
        super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, 1);
        DBHandler databaseHelper = new DBHandler(context);
        database = databaseHelper.getReadableDatabase();
        all = database.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM config", null);
        tables = database.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM table_names", null);
        options = database.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM options", null);
        ui_type = database.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM ui_type", null);
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
        for(int i=0; i<tables.getCount(); i++){
            tables.moveToPosition(i+1);
            String sql = "";
            for(int j = 0; i < all.getCount(); j++){
                if (all.moveToFirst()) {
                    do{
                        sql = ", " + all.getString(2) + " " + all.getString(5).toUpperCase();
                    }
                    while (all.moveToNext());
                }
            } 
            Log.v("DatabaseSQL", sql);
            database.execSQL( "CREATE TABLE " + tables.getString(1) + "(_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT"+sql+");");
        }
    }

But I have a feeling this is not the way to go about what I need to do. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you do it wrong and to complicated. You provide a database to read data from where you could easily just create some inserts and your configuration will be implemented.

Two solutions:

1. From my own project: DatabaseAdapter.onCreate()

   There you should see the database setup and the filling of the database with data. The data itself are added with simple inserts which contains data based on constants. So a programmer can easily change the data by changing the constants.

   With that you don’t have to handle 2 databases, you don’t need to provide another database and read them.

2. As android supports database locations you could also skip this all and just open an sqlite database file you provide in your res/raw or asset folder or anywhere on the sdcard.

I recommend to do one of the two ways mentioned above.