Loading Data into the SQLiteDatabase in the onCreate() method of the SQLiteOpenHelper

from the CommonsWare Community archives

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At August 19, 2021, 6:42pm, Andr0id asked:

Hi All,

I’m creating a bunch of databases on the fly. I’m using the good’ol SQLite apis that Android has to offer.

I’m populating the databases in the onCreate method of the SQLiteOpenHelper like :-

override fun onCreate(db: SQLiteDatabase?) {
		coroutineScope.launch{
			try {
				insertDataIntoTheDatabase(db)  //fetch & insert data from the n/w
			} catch (e: Exception) {
				_logger.error("Error while creating objects inside the Database: $dbName!", e)
			}
		}
    }

IMO this has a potential of a leak.
Just wanted to confirm if my understanding is correct.

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At August 19, 2021, 9:34pm, mmurphy replied:

Possibly, though that is difficult to answer with just this code snippet. It comes down to where coroutineScope is coming from and when it will get cleared.

I am more concerned about some architectural implications:

• Your comment suggests that a SQLiteOpenHelper is responsible for network I/O
• Your code suggests that a SQLiteOpenHelper is holding a CoroutineScope

Off the cuff, I would do neither of those things. I would keep SQLiteOpenHelper extremely lean. Network I/O and management of scopes is something that, IMHO, is not the responsibility of a database access utility class. A repository that uses the SQLiteOpenHelper might also have a data source that does network I/O (e.g., a Retrofit-generated class) and might create child scopes of some suitable parent scope for coroutines.

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At August 19, 2021, 9:54pm, Andr0id replied:

Thank you for the prompt response @mmurphy.
Yes, I’ve defined the Coroutine Scope within the SQLiteOpenHelper Class and plan to refactor this bit asap.
I too didn’t like the N/W call being made from the SQLiteOpenHelper as well the SQLiteOpenHelper holding a CoroutineScope.