Can i save CameraX recorded video in SQLite database?

Question

My requirement is that I have to built a video recording app in which user will save his 30 seconds of video which will be sent to the another server. User will use the video recording only for once.

How can I store that 30 second recorded video in SQLite database as I cannot store it in gallery as it is confidential.

Any help in this topic is highly appreciated.

Below is my demo app in which I'm just saving it into the gallery for now.

public class VideoKycActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements ImageAnalysis.Analyzer, View.OnClickListener {
    private ListenableFuture<ProcessCameraProvider> cameraProviderFuture;

    PreviewView previewView;
    private VideoCapture videoCapture;
    private Button bRecord;


    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        previewView = findViewById(R.id.previewView);
        bRecord = findViewById(R.id.bRecord);
        bRecord.setText("start recording"); // Set the initial text of the button
        
        bRecord.setOnClickListener(this);

        cameraProviderFuture = ProcessCameraProvider.getInstance(this);
        cameraProviderFuture.addListener(() -> {
            try {
                ProcessCameraProvider cameraProvider = cameraProviderFuture.get();
                startCameraX(cameraProvider);
            } catch (ExecutionException | InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }, getExecutor());

    }

    Executor getExecutor() {
        return ContextCompat.getMainExecutor(this);
    }

    @SuppressLint("RestrictedApi")
    private void startCameraX(ProcessCameraProvider cameraProvider) {
        cameraProvider.unbindAll();
        CameraSelector cameraSelector = new CameraSelector.Builder()
                .requireLensFacing(CameraSelector.LENS_FACING_BACK)
                .build();
        Preview preview = new Preview.Builder()
                .build();
        preview.setSurfaceProvider(previewView.getSurfaceProvider());


        // Video capture use case
        videoCapture = new VideoCapture.Builder()
                .setVideoFrameRate(30)
                .build();

        // Image analysis use case
        ImageAnalysis imageAnalysis = new ImageAnalysis.Builder()
                .setBackpressureStrategy(ImageAnalysis.STRATEGY_KEEP_ONLY_LATEST)
                .build();

        imageAnalysis.setAnalyzer(getExecutor(), this);

        //bind to lifecycle:
        cameraProvider.bindToLifecycle((LifecycleOwner) this, cameraSelector, preview, videoCapture);

    }

    @Override
    public void analyze(@NonNull ImageProxy image) {
        // image processing here for the current frame
        Log.d("TAG", "analyze: got the frame at: " + image.getImageInfo().getTimestamp());
        image.close();
    }

    @SuppressLint("RestrictedApi")
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        switch (view.getId()) {
            case R.id.bRecord:
                if (bRecord.getText() == "start recording"){
                    bRecord.setText("stop recording");
                    recordVideo();
                } else {
                    bRecord.setText("start recording");
                    videoCapture.stopRecording();
                }
                break;

        }
    }


    @SuppressLint("RestrictedApi")
    private void recordVideo() {
        if (videoCapture != null) {

            long timestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();

            ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
            contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME, timestamp);
            contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.MIME_TYPE, "video/mp4");

            try {
                if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.RECORD_AUDIO) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
                    // TODO: Consider calling
                    //    ActivityCompat#requestPermissions
                    // here to request the missing permissions, and then overriding
                    //   public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, String[] permissions,
                    //                                          int[] grantResults)
                    // to handle the case where the user grants the permission. See the documentation
                    // for ActivityCompat#requestPermissions for more details.
                    return;
                }
                videoCapture.startRecording(
                        new VideoCapture.OutputFileOptions.Builder(
                                getContentResolver(),
                                MediaStore.Video.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI,
                                contentValues
                        ).build(),
                        getExecutor(),
                        new VideoCapture.OnVideoSavedCallback() {
                            @Override
                            public void onVideoSaved(@NonNull VideoCapture.OutputFileResults outputFileResults) {
                                Toast.makeText(VideoKycActivity.this, "Video has been saved successfully.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                            }

                            @Override
                            public void onError(int videoCaptureError, @NonNull String message, @Nullable Throwable cause) {
                                Toast.makeText(VideoKycActivity.this, "Error saving video: " + message, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                            }
                        }
                );
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        }
    }


}

Answer 1

First of all SQL(Room in our case) database is not the best approach to storing a single element. I suggest you use PharedPreferences. And about your main question. Room so as SharedPreferences working with primary types (to be honest Room store data in SQL types like TEXT, INTEGER, BLOB, REAL and UNDEFINED and that convert in java types) so for your goal, you have to convert your file to something that feet for our storage. I guess you can use a String.

You could convert the file to a Base64 format and save it as a String however depending on your file size you could face problems with memory because the Base64 format consumes more memory than the initial file. Here is an explanation of Base64 format memory consumption.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/27798343/5422725