Sync data between Android App and webserver [close

Question

I want to sync data (such as db record, media) between an Android App and a Server. If you've seen Evernote or similar Applications, you certainly understand what I mean.

I have some question (imagine we want to sync DB records):

1. Every user has a part of server space for himself (such as Evernote or Dropbox). Maybe the user creates new records by cellphone and creates new records in server. How can I match these records together? If there are records with same ID What algorithms do you suggest me?

2. Except JSON, Are there any way for send data between cellphone device and server?

3. If SyncAdapter and ContentProvider can solve my problems, please explain exactly for me. (If you could offer some samples or tutorials to me OR Any advice or keywords to help broaden/guide my search would be appreciated as well).

Answer 1

If we think about today, accepted answer is too old. As we know that we have many new libraries which can help you to make this types of application.

You should learn following topics that will helps you surely:

• SyncAdapter: The sync adapter component in your app encapsulates the code for the tasks that transfer data between the device and a server. Based on the scheduling and triggers you provide in your app, the sync adapter framework runs the code in the sync adapter component.

• Realm: Realm is a mobile database: a replacement for SQLite & Core Data.

• Retrofit Type-safe HTTP client for Android and Java by Square, Inc. Must Learn a-smart-way-to-use-retrofit

And your sync logic for database like: How to sync SQLite database on Android phone with MySQL database on server?

Best Luck to all new learner. :)

Answer 2

one way to accomplish this to have a server side application that waits for the data. The data can be sent using HttpRequest objects in Java or you can write your own TCP/IP data transfer utility. Data can be sent using JSON format or any other format that you think is suitable. Also data can be encrypted before sending to server if it contains sensitive information. All Server application have to do is just wait for HttpRequests to come in and parse the data and store it anywhere you want.

Answer 3

If you write this yourself these are some of the points to keep in mind

Proper authentication between the device and the Sync Server

A sync protocol between the device and the server. It will usually go in 3 phases, authentication, data exchange, status exchange (which operations worked and which failed)

Pick your payload format. I suggest SyncML based XML mixed with JSON based format to represent the actual data. So SyncML for the protocol, and JSON for the actual data being exchanged. Using JSON Array while manipulating the data is always preferred as it is easy to access data using JSON Array.

Keeping track of data changes on both client and server. You can maintain a changelog of ids that change and pick them up during a sync session. Also, clear the changelog as the objects are successfully synchronized. You can also use a boolean variable to confirm the synchronization status, i.e. last time of sync. It will be helpful for end users to identify the time when last sync is done.

Need to have a way to communicate from the server to the device to start a sync session as data changes on the server. You can use C2DM or write your own persistent tcp based communication. The tcp approach is a lot seamless

A way to replicate data changes across multiple devices

And last but not the least, a way to detect and handle conflicts

Hope this helps as a good starting point.