如何在Android中处理大量数据

Question

My app has several image and media files, which are around 1MB each or so. So if i follow the normal way, the app size is crossing over 40MB, which is huge. Is there anyway to avoid this? I have heard of external storage, but i really don't get any clue of how to work on them! Do i need to ask all those who instal this to save the images and media files in the external disk and then the app uses those? This makes my files public..isn't it? I actually don't own a android device. So is it like, whenever people install an app from the market, does it ask if it has to install in the phone memory or the external memory? I really need your help. If there is a way, i'd be thankful if you can provide me the step by step details of how this can be done!

Thanks a lot..

Regards Nithin

Answer 1

You might consider streaming the files or downloading them inside the application to the sdcard. Speaking from experience my users have had problems downloading apps as big as 30MB. Some phones also have a severely limited internal memory, which is where the applications are downloaded to.

Answer 2

There is, from the little I know of this, a slight security risk from putting files onto the SD card. I don't think I personally would worry too much about that since most people that would want access to the files in your apk (Which does not include your source code) could get it regardless without too much trouble.

As of Android 2.2 the user has the option to move an app to their SD card, but only if the developer explicitly tells the app to allow it. I'm fairly sure this only applies to 2.2+ devices though, so being that you are likely going for a larger audience than that it isn't an end-all solution. I am only really pointing this out in case you do end up putting one large file on the market. If so, be sure to allow the transfer to SD card, your app will stay on devices much longer.

Downloading the files online from within the app and saving them out to the SD card would be a good solution, though I am not sure how end users feel about downloading a small app then having to download a very large package before using it. In the end they will have to download it either way, so it is up to you whether you want to ask them to do it up front in the market or afterwards via the app. If you do want to try to download all the content then maybe the code example in this link will help you figure it out :

http://androidsnips.blogspot.com/2010/08/download-from-internet-and-save-to-sd.html