Android Application Development Training Tutorial: For More Info Visit
Android Application Development Training Tutorial: For More Info Visit
Getting Started
This tutorial will cover the basics of using the SQLite database tools in Android. I am going to try to organize this tutorial so that it is easy to navigate, for myself and others, to use as a reference. At the same time, I will try to make it long enough so that people needing the extra help will be able to read through the entire tutorial to gain understanding on how to use databases in Android. Finally, I did some pretty heavy commenting in the code. You can jump straight to that if you prefer to read through just the code and comments. Lets get started.
The first thing we are going to do in this tutorial is extend the SQLiteOpenHelper class so that it creates our database with the appropriate structure that our application needs. The SQLiteOpenHelper class is abstract. This means we need to extend the class with a concrete class, overriding the appropriate methods. We also need to make available to this class a database name, table name, and column names. The best way to handle the variables is with constants. Constants ensure that the correct names are always used. I am going to make the SQLiteOpenHelper class internal internal to our database manager class. All of database constants will be inside the database manager class so they are accessible from both our SQLiteOpenHelper class and our main database class. This setup may not be common practice; but, I find it easier to work with. The SQLDatabase object, responsible for communicating with the database, is also going to be in the database manager class. This way all of our resources are available througout the manager class.
How our database is structured
For the purpose of this example I am using a single table with three columns: one column is the row id (id), and the other two columns are Strings (table_row_one and table_row_two). All of these column names as well as a database version number (more on database version later) are going to be constants. Here is the code for what I have explained so far: our base class containing database constants, a SQLDatabase object, and an internal class that extends SQLiteOpenHelper.
A7, Stephanos Tower, Eachamukku, Kakkanadu,Kochi
AABDatabaseManager.java
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper; public class AABDatabaseManager { private SQLiteDatabase db; // a reference to the database manager class. private final String DB_NAME = "database_name"; // the name of our database private final int DB_VERSION = 1; // the version of the database // the names for our private final String private final String private final String private final String database columns TABLE_NAME = "database_table"; TABLE_ROW_ID = "id"; TABLE_ROW_ONE = "table_row_one"; TABLE_ROW_TWO = "table_row_two";
// TODO: write the constructor and methods for this class // the beginnings our SQLiteOpenHelper class private class CustomSQLiteOpenHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { // TODO: override the constructor and other methods for the parent class } }
Now lets customize the helper class to create our database according to specification.
We need to override the constructor as well. We pass the super constructor the context, the database name constant, null, and the database version constant. The null argument has to do with a custom CursorFactory. The CursorFactory is them creates the containers in which our data is passed out of the database. When data is collected from the database, it comes in the form of a Cursor. Cursors are a form of Java collection similar to an ArrayList. We are using the default CursorFactory so we can just pass in null. We will discuss the default Cursor later. Here is our constructor override:
public CustomSQLiteOpenHelper(Context context) { super(context, DB_NAME, null, DB_VERSION); }
There is only one other method that is required to be overridden in this class. The onUpdate() method is where you would include the programming required to revise the structure of the database. I am going to consider database revision to be out of scope for this tutorial so the override method will be left blank as follows:
@Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { // NOTHING TO DO HERE. THIS IS THE ORIGINAL DATABASE VERSION. // OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD SPECIFIY HOW TO UPGRADE THE DATABASE // FROM OLDER VERSIONS. }
That is pretty much it for extending the SQLiteOpenHelper class. Just a couple of overrides and our database is set for creation. Lets move on to creating our database manager class.
The final argument for the databases insert() method requires the type ContentValues. A ContentValues object is a modified java collection that contains key/value pairs. We need to create a ContentValues object and pass it two key/value pairs to satisfy the database requirement (the id column will fill in automatically, that leaves the text_one and text_two columns). Once we have our ContentValues object, we can call the insert() method to add the new data to the database. I will always place database method calls inside of try/catch blocks to pass error messages to the log for debugging. Lets take a look at this code:
public void addRow(String rowStringOne, String rowStringTwo) { // this is a key value pair holder used by android's SQLite functions ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); // this is how you add a value to a ContentValues object // we are passing in a key string and a value string each time values.put(TABLE_ROW_ONE, rowStringOne); values.put(TABLE_ROW_TWO, rowStringTwo); // ask the database object to insert the new data try { db.insert(TABLE_NAME, null, values); } catch(Exception e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); // prints the error message to the log e.printStackTrace(); // prints the stack trace to the log } }
The first argument is the table name to gather data from. The second argument is an array of the names (Strings) of each column we want the query to return. If we want data from two columns, we need two column names. If we want data from five columns, we would need five column names. In our case, we are going to collect data from all three columns in our example table: the id, table_row_one, and table_row_two. We can pass the value null five times for the next five arguments. That gives us all seven arguments for the SQLiteDatabase objects query() method. Our getRowAsArray() method passes a third argument to the query() method. This argument, a String, satisifies the WHERE clause by specifying TABLE_ROW_ID=rowID. This is similar to the deleteRow() methods WHERE clause that I covered earlier in this section. So when we write the getRowAsArray() method. We pass in three arguments and and four null arugments to the SQLiteDatabases query() method. Lets go ahead and take a look at what we have so far in this method. In this code I have expanded the database query() method call into seven lines. I prefer to do this for readability you may or may not want to do the same.
public ArrayList<Object> getRowAsArray(long rowID) { ArrayList<Object> rowArray = new ArrayList<Object>(); Cursor cursor; try { // this method call is spread out over seven lines as a personal preference cursor = db.query ( TABLE_NAME, new String[] { TABLE_ROW_ID, TABLE_ROW_ONE, TABLE_ROW_TWO }, TABLE_ROW_ID + "=" + rowID, null, null, null, null, null ); // TODO Move the data from the cursor to the arraylist. } catch (SQLException e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } return rowArray; }
At this point we have a cursor object that has the data from all of the rows of the database table. The next thing we are going to do is collect this data from the cursor and store it in an ArrayList. Since the cursor object filled itself one item at a time, the cursors pointer is at the end of the cursor. You can think of this like a type writer typing out a row of text. After each letter is typed, the pointer (the little arrow showing you where the next letter is going to go) points at the next available space to type a new letter. Our cursor object inserted data into each space and now its pointer is at the end of the data that it entered. We want to read the data from the beginning so we need to move the pointer there. We do this with the Cursors moveToFirst() function. Once the pointer is at the front of the data, we can iterate through the cursor and collect the data as we go. Lets iterate through the cursor with a do/while block. We are going to do the data collecting while the Cursors moveToNext() method returns false. The moveToNext() method simply tries to move the pointer to the next row
A7, Stephanos Tower, Eachamukku, Kakkanadu,Kochi
of data. If there are any available rows ahead, it goes to the next one and returns true. If there are no more rows, the method does nothing and returns false.
do { // TODO: put data from current cursor row into an array // TODO: put the new array into the array of arrays } // try to move the cursor's pointer forward one position. while (cursor.moveToNext());
With our pointer now on the first row of data, we need to collect the data from that row from within the do block. The first thing I do is create a new ArrayList of Objects. In order to add the first piece of data I use one of the cursors get methods. There is a get method for each of the cursors supported data types. We know the data from the first column of data is the id of type Long. This means we need to use the cursors getLong() method. Each of these get methods takes a single argument that represents the column of data we want the data from. When we created the cursor object, the second arugment we passed to the query() method was an array of three Strings. The position of each of these column name Strings in the array of Strings corresponds to the needed argument in the Cursors get functions. If we want the TABLE_ROW_ID (id) columns data, we look at the array of Strings, see that it is in position zero in that array, and decide that we need to pass 0 to getLong() to get back the id of the first row. All we have to do to get the id into the ArrayList is call the ArrayLists add() method, passing in cursor.getLong(0) as the argument. cursor.getLong(0) will pass the data into add() which will add the data to the ArrayList. After that we do the same for the next two positions of data using getString() twice passing in 1 and 2 consecutively. Here is the do while list that will collect the data from the ArrayList:
do { ArrayList<Object> dataList = new ArrayList<Object>(); dataList.add(cursor.getLong(0)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(1)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(2)); dataArrays.add(dataList); } // move the cursor's pointer up one position. while (cursor.moveToNext());
The only other thing that we need to worry about here is the possibilty that there are no rows of data for the cursor to collect. This would leave us with an empty cursor. I went ahead and placed this do/while block inside of an if block so that it only runs if !cursor.isAfterLast() returns true. That is, once the cursors pointer was moved to the beginning of the cursor, if the pointer is not after the last row (ie., the beginning is not the end), then run the do/while code block. Once our do/while code completes, we can return our newly created ArrayList and we are done with writing this method. Whew! I apologize if this has been long winded. I am trying to make this as short and concise as I canso time to move on. Lets take a look at the two methods we just discussed. I went ahead and left some documentation in the code.
A7, Stephanos Tower, Eachamukku, Kakkanadu,Kochi
/********************************************************************** * RETRIEVING ALL ROWS FROM THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to retrieve all data from a database * table using this class. You should edit this method to suit your * needs. * * the key is automatically assigned by the database */ public ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> getAllRowsAsArrays() { // create an ArrayList that will hold all of the data collected from // the database. ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> dataArrays = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>>(); // this is a database call that creates a "cursor" object. // the cursor object store the information collected from the // database and is used to iterate through the data. Cursor cursor; try { // ask the database object to create the cursor. cursor = db.query( TABLE_NAME, new String[]{TABLE_ROW_ID, TABLE_ROW_ONE, TABLE_ROW_TWO}, null, null, null, null, null ); // move the cursor's pointer to position zero. cursor.moveToFirst(); // if there is data after the current cursor position, add it // to the ArrayList. if (!cursor.isAfterLast()) { do { ArrayList<Object> dataList = new ArrayList<Object>(); dataList.add(cursor.getLong(0)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(1)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(2)); dataArrays.add(dataList); } // move the cursor's pointer up one position. while (cursor.moveToNext()); } } catch (SQLException e) { Log.e("DB Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } // return the ArrayList that holds the data collected from // the database. return dataArrays; }
/********************************************************************** * RETRIEVING A ROW FROM THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to retrieve a row from a database table * using this class. You should edit this method to suit your needs. * * @param rowID the id of the row to retrieve * @return an array containing the data from the row */ public ArrayList<Object> getRowAsArray(long rowID) { // create an array list to store data from the database row. // I would recommend creating a JavaBean compliant object // to store this data instead. That way you can ensure // data types are correct. ArrayList<Object> rowArray = new ArrayList<Object>(); Cursor cursor; try { // this is a database call that creates a "cursor" object. // the cursor object store the information collected from the // database and is used to iterate through the data. cursor = db.query ( TABLE_NAME, new String[] { TABLE_ROW_ID, TABLE_ROW_ONE, TABLE_ROW_TWO }, TABLE_ROW_ID + "=" + rowID, null, null, null, null, null ); // move the pointer to position zero in the cursor. cursor.moveToFirst(); // if there is data available after the cursor's pointer, add // it to the ArrayList that will be returned by the method. if (!cursor.isAfterLast()) { do { rowArray.add(cursor.getLong(0)); rowArray.add(cursor.getString(1)); rowArray.add(cursor.getString(2)); } while (cursor.moveToNext()); } // let java know that you are through with the cursor. cursor.close(); } catch (SQLException e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); }
// return the ArrayList containing the given row from the database. return rowArray; }
Believe it or not, we are now finished with our entire database manager object. It can be easily modified and patched into many small projects. The next page is the entire code. After that, we are going to write a small Activity that uses our new class. If you can handle that part then you are done! Thank you for reading. I hope it was helpful and please leave feedback if you have any. If you would like to see this database manager class in action, read on.
public class AABDatabaseManager { // the Activity or Application that is creating an object from this class. Context context; // a reference to the database used by this application/object private SQLiteDatabase db; // These constants are specific to the database. // changed to suit your needs. private final String DB_NAME = "database_name"; private final int DB_VERSION = 1; They should be
// These constants are specific to the database table. // changed to suit your needs. private final String TABLE_NAME = "database_table"; private final String TABLE_ROW_ID = "id"; private final String TABLE_ROW_ONE = "table_row_one"; private final String TABLE_ROW_TWO = "table_row_two"; public AABDatabaseManager(Context context) { this.context = context;
They should be
// create or open the database CustomSQLiteOpenHelper helper = new CustomSQLiteOpenHelper(context); this.db = helper.getWritableDatabase(); }
* This is an example of how to add a row to a database table * using this class. You should edit this method to suit your * needs. * * the key is automatically assigned by the database * @param rowStringOne the value for the row's first column * @param rowStringTwo the value for the row's second column */ public void addRow(String rowStringOne, String rowStringTwo) { // this is a key value pair holder used by android's SQLite functions ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TABLE_ROW_ONE, rowStringOne); values.put(TABLE_ROW_TWO, rowStringTwo); // ask the database object to insert the new data try{db.insert(TABLE_NAME, null, values);} catch(Exception e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/********************************************************************** * DELETING A ROW FROM THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to delete a row from a database table * using this class. In most cases, this method probably does * not need to be rewritten. * * @param rowID the SQLite database identifier for the row to delete. */ public void deleteRow(long rowID) { // ask the database manager to delete the row of given id try {db.delete(TABLE_NAME, TABLE_ROW_ID + "=" + rowID, null);} catch (Exception e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } } /********************************************************************** * UPDATING A ROW IN THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to update a row in the database table * using this class. You should edit this method to suit your needs. * * @param rowID the SQLite database identifier for the row to update. * @param rowStringOne the new value for the row's first column * @param rowStringTwo the new value for the row's second column */ public void updateRow(long rowID, String rowStringOne, String rowStringTwo) { // this is a key value pair holder used by android's SQLite functions ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TABLE_ROW_ONE, rowStringOne);
values.put(TABLE_ROW_TWO, rowStringTwo); // ask the database object to update the database row of given rowID try {db.update(TABLE_NAME, values, TABLE_ROW_ID + "=" + rowID, null);} catch (Exception e) { Log.e("DB Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } } /********************************************************************** * RETRIEVING A ROW FROM THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to retrieve a row from a database table * using this class. You should edit this method to suit your needs. * * @param rowID the id of the row to retrieve * @return an array containing the data from the row */ public ArrayList<Object> getRowAsArray(long rowID) { // create an array list to store data from the database row. // I would recommend creating a JavaBean compliant object // to store this data instead. That way you can ensure // data types are correct. ArrayList<Object> rowArray = new ArrayList<Object>(); Cursor cursor; try { // this is a database call that creates a "cursor" object. // the cursor object store the information collected from the // database and is used to iterate through the data. cursor = db.query ( TABLE_NAME, new String[] { TABLE_ROW_ID, TABLE_ROW_ONE, TABLE_ROW_TWO }, TABLE_ROW_ID + "=" + rowID, null, null, null, null, null ); // move the pointer to position zero in the cursor. cursor.moveToFirst(); // if there is data available after the cursor's pointer, add // it to the ArrayList that will be returned by the method. if (!cursor.isAfterLast()) { do { rowArray.add(cursor.getLong(0)); rowArray.add(cursor.getString(1)); rowArray.add(cursor.getString(2)); } while (cursor.moveToNext()); } // let java know that you are through with the cursor. cursor.close();
} catch (SQLException e) { Log.e("DB ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } // return the ArrayList containing the given row from the database. return rowArray; }
/********************************************************************** * RETRIEVING ALL ROWS FROM THE DATABASE TABLE * * This is an example of how to retrieve all data from a database * table using this class. You should edit this method to suit your * needs. * * the key is automatically assigned by the database */ public ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> getAllRowsAsArrays() { // create an ArrayList that will hold all of the data collected from // the database. ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> dataArrays = new ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>>(); // this is a database call that creates a "cursor" object. // the cursor object store the information collected from the // database and is used to iterate through the data. Cursor cursor; try { // ask the database object to create the cursor. cursor = db.query( TABLE_NAME, new String[]{TABLE_ROW_ID, TABLE_ROW_ONE, TABLE_ROW_TWO}, null, null, null, null, null ); // move the cursor's pointer to position zero. cursor.moveToFirst(); // if there is data after the current cursor position, add it // to the ArrayList. if (!cursor.isAfterLast()) { do { ArrayList<Object> dataList = new ArrayList<Object>(); dataList.add(cursor.getLong(0)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(1)); dataList.add(cursor.getString(2));
dataArrays.add(dataList); } // move the cursor's pointer up one position. while (cursor.moveToNext()); } } catch (SQLException e) { Log.e("DB Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } // return the ArrayList that holds the data collected from // the database. return dataArrays; }
/********************************************************************** * THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE INTERNAL SQLiteOpenHelper SUBCLASS. * * I MADE THIS CLASS INTERNAL SO I CAN COPY A SINGLE FILE TO NEW APPS * AND MODIFYING IT - ACHIEVING DATABASE FUNCTIONALITY. ALSO, THIS WAY * I DO NOT HAVE TO SHARE CONSTANTS BETWEEN TWO FILES AND CAN * INSTEAD MAKE THEM PRIVATE AND/OR NON-STATIC. HOWEVER, I THINK THE * INDUSTRY STANDARD IS TO KEEP THIS CLASS IN A SEPARATE FILE. *********************************************************************/ /** * This class is designed to check if there is a database that currently * exists for the given program. If the database does not exist, it creates * one. After the class ensures that the database exists, this class * will open the database for use. Most of this functionality will be * handled by the SQLiteOpenHelper parent class. The purpose of extending * this class is to tell the class how to create (or update) the database. * * @author Randall Mitchell * */ private class CustomSQLiteOpenHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { public CustomSQLiteOpenHelper(Context context) { super(context, DB_NAME, null, DB_VERSION); } @Override public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) { // This string is used to create the database. // be changed to suit your needs. String newTableQueryString = "create table " +
+ " integer primary key autoincrement not null," + TABLE_ROW_ONE + " text," +
TABLE_ROW_TWO + " text" + ");"; // execute the query string to the database. db.execSQL(newTableQueryString); } @Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { // NOTHING TO DO HERE. THIS IS THE ORIGINAL DATABASE VERSION. // OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD SPECIFIY HOW TO UPGRADE THE DATABASE. } } }
The first form is for adding data to the database. The form will have two form fields where the user can enter values. The form fields correspond to table_row_one and table_row_two in the database. After the two form fields, there is a submit button for the user to submit entered data. The applications database object will automatically assign an id to the new data.
Form For Deleting Data
The second form is used to delete a row from the database. It will have a single form field where the user will enter a value that corresponds to an id in the database table. Next to the id field is a delete button for the user to submit the form.
Form For Retrieving and Editing Data
The final form will allow the user to change a row of data. This form will have two buttons and three form fields. The first form field is for the user to enter an id. After this form field is a get button that the user can use to retrieve data into the next two form fields. Then the user can change the data in these fields and hit the update button to update the data.
referenced in Java, and referenced any text to a String in the Strings xml resource file. If you have any questions about the XML feel free to leave a comment to the posting with your question(s). Here is the complete layout XML file (main.xml):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" > <!-- ADD A DATA ENTRY FORM --> <TextView android:text="@string/add_directions" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> <LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" > <EditText android:id="@+id/text_field_one" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="100px" /> <EditText android:id="@+id/text_field_two" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="100px" /> <Button android:id="@+id/add_button" android:text="@string/add" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </LinearLayout> <!-- DELETE A DATA ENTRY FORM --> <TextView android:text="@string/delete_directions" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> <LinearLayout android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" > <EditText android:id="@+id/id_field" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="100px" />
<Button android:id="@+id/delete_button" android:text="@string/delete" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </LinearLayout> <!-- UPDATE A DATA ENTRY FORM --> <TextView android:text="@string/update_directions" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> <LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" > <EditText android:id="@+id/update_id_field" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="45px" /> <Button android:id="@+id/retrieve_button" android:text="@string/retrieve" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> <EditText android:id="@+id/update_text_field_one" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="70px" /> <EditText android:id="@+id/update_text_field_two" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:minWidth="70px" /> <Button android:id="@+id/update_button" android:text="@string/update" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> </LinearLayout> <!-- THE DATA TABLE --> <TableLayout android:id="@+id/data_table" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" > <TableRow> <TextView android:text="@string/th_id" android:minWidth="50px"
/> <TextView android:text="@string/th_text_one" android:minWidth="125px" /> <TextView android:text="@string/th_text_two" android:minWidth="125px" /> </TableRow> </TableLayout> </LinearLayout>
<string name="th_id">ID</string> <string name="th_text_one">Text Field One</string> <string name="th_text_two">Text Field Two</string> </resources>
With the XML now in place, lets move on to the Activity class.
public class DatabaseExampleActivity extends Activity { // the text fields that users input new data into EditText textFieldOne, textFieldTwo, idField, updateIDField, updateTextFieldOne, updateTextFieldTwo; // the buttons that listen for the user to select an action Button addButton, deleteButton, retrieveButton, updateButton; // the table that displays the data TableLayout dataTable; // the class that opens or creates the database and makes sql calls to it AABDatabaseManager db; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { // this try catch block returns better error reporting to the log try { // Android OS specific calls super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); // TODO complete the setup operations } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } // TODO create the rest of the methods }
Just as a note, the try/catch block is a method I use for improved error reporting in Android. Check out this post for further explaination.
dataTable=
(TableLayout)findViewById(R.id.data_table);
// THE DATA FORM FIELDS textFieldOne= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.text_field_one); textFieldTwo= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.text_field_two); idField= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.id_field); updateIDField= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_id_field); updateTextFieldOne= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_text_field_one); updateTextFieldTwo= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_text_field_two); // THE BUTTONS addButton = deleteButton = retrieveButton = updateButton = } (Button)findViewById(R.id.add_button); (Button)findViewById(R.id.delete_button); (Button)findViewById(R.id.retrieve_button); (Button)findViewById(R.id.update_button);
This and several other methods will be called from within onCreate() as a means of setting up our Activity.
A few note worthy points. We attach OnClickListener objects to a button by using the buttons setOnClickListener() method. It is common to create the OnClickListener objects inside of the method call as seen here. When we create these generic listeners, we need to override their onClick() method with our desired code. The desired code will simply be a call to the appropraite method.
Our addRow() method collects the input from the first forms fields. The is handled by calling the getText() method of the TextView form fields combined with the toString() method of the getText() return type. It looks like this: textFieldOne.getText().toString(). It uses this data as arguments in a call to the database managers addRow() method. After the data is sent to the database, addRow()
/** * adds a row to the database based on information contained in the * add row form fields. */ private void addRow() { try { // ask the database manager to add a row given the two strings // this is addRow() in the activity calling addRow() in the database object db.addRow ( textFieldOne.getText().toString(), textFieldTwo.getText().toString() ); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) {
The deleteRow() method is responsible for deleting a row from the database. The database manager that we created earlier has a corresponding deleteRow() method. We collect and pass the value that the user enters into the idField with idField.getText().toString(). Once the data row is deleted, we update our table widget and empty our form fields. Here is our method code:
/** * deletes a row from the database with the id number in the corresponding * user entry field */ private void deleteRow() { try { // ask the database manager to delete the row with the give rowID. db.deleteRow(Long.parseLong(idField.getText().toString())); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Delete Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
When the user fills in the id field of the last form with a valid id and presses the get button, retrieveRow() is called. Lets go over the code inside of retrieveRow(). First we declare a local ArrayList object and instantiates it by calling the datatabase manangers getRowAsArray() method. The getRowAsArray() method in the database manager takes a Long as its only argument the row id. We collect the value from the id form field as a String. order to covert the String to a Long, we use the Long class static method parseLong(String). The Long can now be passed to getRowAsArray(). Here is that code:
ArrayList<Object> row; row = db.getRowAsArray( Long.parseLong( updateIDField.getText().toString() ) );
Once we have our ArrayList populated with data, we can pass that data to the two remaining form fields. We do this using the setText() method of the EditText widgets. Because of the way we set up the database manager, Java doesnt know what types of values are in the ArrayList. This means we need to cast the ArrayList items of unkown type to String using a(String) cast. Here is the code for our retrieveRow() method.
A7, Stephanos Tower, Eachamukku, Kakkanadu,Kochi
/** * retrieves a row from the database with the id number in the corresponding * user entry field */ private void retrieveRow() { try { // The ArrayList that holds the row data ArrayList<Object> row; // ask the database manager to retrieve the row with the given rowID row = db.getRowAsArray(Long.parseLong(updateIDField.getText().toString())); // update the form fields to hold the retrieved data updateTextFieldOne.setText((String)row.get(1)); updateTextFieldTwo.setText((String)row.get(2)); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Retrieve Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
Our Activitys updateRow() method calls the database manangers updateRow() method, passing it three arguments. The first value passed is a row id. Here again, we use Long.parseLong(String), passing it the String from the updateIDField() method. The next two arguments we pass updateRow() are String values that we retrieve from updateTextFieldOne() and updateTextFieldTwo(). The database manager updates the given row and we can update our table and empty our form fields. Here is updateRow()
/** * updates a row with the given information in the corresponding user entry * fields */ private void updateRow() { try { // ask the database manager to update the row based on the information // found in the corresponding user entry fields db.updateRow ( Long.parseLong(updateIDField.getText().toString()), updateTextFieldOne.getText().toString(), updateTextFieldTwo.getText().toString() ); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Update Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace();
} }
The table I set up has column headers inside of the first row of our table. When updateTable() is called, it deletes all the table rows except the top row (of headers), and then recreates the rows based upon the current state of the database. Deleting the rows is handled by a while block. We can determine how many rows are in the table using its getChildCount() method. The while block logic reads while the child count is greater than one, delete the row in the second position. This will delete all rows except the first row. Dont forget that the count starts at zero, so the second position is 1. This is our while block.
while (dataTable.getChildCount() > 1) { dataTable.removeViewAt(1); }
Now, we have an empty table ready for use. We need to get that data ready to enter into the table. First, I declare an ArrayList of ArrayLists of Objects and instantiate it making it the return value of the database managers getAllRowsAsArray() method as follows.
ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> data = db.getAllRowsAsArrays();
Then we can iterate through data and create table rows as we go. I set up an iteration block that will create a row, fill it with data, and add it to our table with each iteration of the ArrayList. Inside of our block, I create and instantiate a new TableRow object: TableRow tableRow = new TableRow(this);. I declare an ArrayList of Objects and tie it to the row that the iterator is currently iterating. For each for item, I need to create a separate TextView object and add it to the new TableRow. Finally, I add the TableRow to the data table using the tables addView() method. Here is the updateTable() method:
/** * updates the table from the database. */ private void updateTable() { // delete all but the first row. remember that the count // starts at one and the index starts at zero while (dataTable.getChildCount() > 1) { // while there are at least two rows in the table widget, delete // the second row. dataTable.removeViewAt(1); } // collect all row data from the database and // store it in a two dimensional ArrayList ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> data = db.getAllRowsAsArrays(); // iterate the ArrayList, create new rows each time and add them // to the table widget. for (int position=0; position < data.size(); position++) {
TableRow tableRow= new TableRow(this); ArrayList<Object> row = data.get(position); TextView idText = new TextView(this); idText.setText(row.get(0).toString()); tableRow.addView(idText); TextView textOne = new TextView(this); textOne.setText(row.get(1).toString()); tableRow.addView(textOne); TextView textTwo = new TextView(this); textTwo.setText(row.get(2).toString()); tableRow.addView(textTwo); dataTable.addView(tableRow); } }
Thats it for updating the table widget. The only thing left to cover is the little helper class for clearing the form data. All it does is call each of the applications form fields setText() methods, passing in an empty String (). Here is the code for that:
/** * helper method to empty all the fields in all the forms. */ private void emptyFormFields() { textFieldOne.setText(""); textFieldTwo.setText(""); idField.setText(""); updateIDField.setText(""); updateTextFieldOne.setText(""); updateTextFieldTwo.setText(""); }
public class DatabaseExampleActivity extends Activity { // the text fields that users input new data into EditText textFieldOne, textFieldTwo, idField, updateIDField, updateTextFieldOne, updateTextFieldTwo;
// the buttons that listen for the user to select an action Button addButton, deleteButton, retrieveButton, updateButton; // the table that displays the data TableLayout dataTable; // the class that opens or creates the database and makes sql calls to it AABDatabaseManager db; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { // this try catch block returns better error reporting to the log try { // Android specific calls super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); // create the database manager object db = new AABDatabaseManager(this); // create references and listeners for the GUI interface setupViews(); // make the buttons clicks perform actions addButtonListeners(); // load the data table updateTable(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("ERROR", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/** * creates references and listeners for the GUI interface */ private void setupViews() { // THE DATA TABLE dataTable= (TableLayout)findViewById(R.id.data_table); // THE DATA FORM FIELDS textFieldOne= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.text_field_one); textFieldTwo= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.text_field_two); idField= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.id_field); updateIDField= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_id_field); updateTextFieldOne= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_text_field_one); updateTextFieldTwo= (EditText)findViewById(R.id.update_text_field_two); // THE BUTTONS addButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.add_button);
/** * adds listeners to each of the buttons and sets them to call relevant methods */ private void addButtonListeners() { addButton.setOnClickListener ( new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) {addRow();} } ); deleteButton.setOnClickListener ( new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) {deleteRow();} } ); updateButton.setOnClickListener ( new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) {updateRow();} } ); retrieveButton.setOnClickListener ( new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) {retrieveRow();} } ); }
/** * adds a row to the database based on information contained in the * add row fields. */ private void addRow() { try { // ask the database manager to add a row given the two strings db.addRow (
textFieldOne.getText().toString(), textFieldTwo.getText().toString() ); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Add Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/** * deletes a row from the database with the id number in the corresponding * user entry field */ private void deleteRow() { try { // ask the database manager to delete the row with the give rowID. db.deleteRow(Long.parseLong(idField.getText().toString())); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Delete Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/** * retrieves a row from the database with the id number in the corresponding * user entry field */ private void retrieveRow() { try { // The ArrayList that holds the row data ArrayList<Object> row; // ask the database manager to retrieve the row with the given rowID row = db.getRowAsArray(Long.parseLong(updateIDField.getText().toString()));
// update the form fields to hold the retrieved data updateTextFieldOne.setText((String)row.get(1)); updateTextFieldTwo.setText((String)row.get(2)); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Retrieve Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/** * updates a row with the given information in the corresponding user entry * fields */ private void updateRow() { try { // ask the database manager to update the row based on the information // found in the corresponding user entry fields db.updateRow ( Long.parseLong(updateIDField.getText().toString()), updateTextFieldOne.getText().toString(), updateTextFieldTwo.getText().toString() ); // request the table be updated updateTable(); // remove all user input from the Activity emptyFormFields(); } catch (Exception e) { Log.e("Update Error", e.toString()); e.printStackTrace(); } }
/** * helper method to empty all the fields in all the forms. */ private void emptyFormFields() { textFieldOne.setText(""); textFieldTwo.setText(""); idField.setText(""); updateIDField.setText(""); updateTextFieldOne.setText(""); updateTextFieldTwo.setText(""); }
/** * updates the table from the database. */ private void updateTable() { // delete all but the first row. remember that the count // starts at one and the index starts at zero while (dataTable.getChildCount() > 1) { // while there are at least two rows in the table widget, delete // the second row. dataTable.removeViewAt(1); } // collect the current row information from the database and // store it in a two dimensional ArrayList ArrayList<ArrayList<Object>> data = db.getAllRowsAsArrays(); // iterate the ArrayList, create new rows each time and add them // to the table widget. for (int position=0; position < data.size(); position++) { TableRow tableRow= new TableRow(this); ArrayList<Object> row = data.get(position); TextView idText = new TextView(this); idText.setText(row.get(0).toString()); tableRow.addView(idText); TextView textOne = new TextView(this); textOne.setText(row.get(1).toString()); tableRow.addView(textOne); TextView textTwo = new TextView(this); textTwo.setText(row.get(2).toString()); tableRow.addView(textTwo); dataTable.addView(tableRow); } } }
Wrap Up
Once we completed the database manager class, creating and accessing a database became fairly a mundane task. Ive stored and created this class in such a way that it should be easy to modify and impelement into most applications. Not having to struggle with programming database communications throughout the development cycle will allow us to focus on the finer aspects of our applications. Please post to this blog with any questions, comments, or concerns. I would love to have them. In the mean time, keep plugging away at that keyboard; and remember, we are the future of the electronic world. If you made it this far, a donation would be awesome! If you cant afford it, no worries. Heres a direct link to the code download:AABDatabase.zip
A7, Stephanos Tower, Eachamukku, Kakkanadu,Kochi