android 4.0 pattern for download/sync data

Question

I have an application for android 4.0(android:minSdkVersion="14") with lots of SQLite tables that needs to download(not delete or send) new data from my server. At the moment the user has a sync button, however i would like to implement something that would synchronize automatically when 3G/Wifi is on and every 1-2 hour.

What pattern or best practice should i use? an Alarm thing, or a local service, or a remote service, or something else?

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

You need two things:

An alarm (Have a look at tutorials about the AlarmManager) to run your code every 1-2 hours
A broadcast receiver to intercept network events. (see for instance BroadcastReceiver when wifi or 3g network state changed)

Make sure your code runs in his own thread, you don't want to execute anything heavy in the broadcast receivers. A good place to run such a code would be a service with his own separate Thread.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

0

Use a service and a broadcast receiver (for the wifi state, as mentioned above). Remember that polling a web-server every X times is a really bad experience in terms of battery usage. Try building a GCM web service.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:08

Community

1
1

answered Nov 22 '12 at 15:16

Diego Stamigni

33
6

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 26 '12 at 14:18

I would recommend you read Chapter 19 of Android Pro 4( http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/programming/android/9781430239307/chapter-19-broadcast-receivers-and-long-running-services/navpoint-164 ) and then use the already ready source code from here http://www.androidbook.com/akc/filestorage/satya/documentfiles/3810/ProAndroid4_Ch19_TestReceivers.zip

I did this by using Alarm + ALongRunningReceiver(=Broadcast Receiver) + ALongRunningNonStickyBroadcastService(Local Service) + LightedGreenRoom(Handles CPU partial_wake so it doesn't fall asleep).

android 4.0 pattern for download/sync data

3 Answers3