Beta testing stage for android app, clean install?

Question

In general, is it a bad idea to require beta testers to do a clean install of the app with every update? The reason I ask is because I prefer not writing the code to upgrade the internal sqlite databases and save time on other tasks. Is there a way to require a clean install with a new version number (version code hasn't incremented yet)?

Answer 1

It's really not a big deal to handle upgrades. I create a string that does describes the change:

private static final String ALTER_TABLE1 = 
        "ALTER TABLE player ADD COLUMN enablesound INTEGER DEFAULT 1";

and when your database version changes for your users, you execute this helper function:

 @Override
 public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
      Log.w(TAG, "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to "
            + newVersion + ". No data will be destroyed");
      if (oldVersion == 1) {
            db.execSQL(ALTER_TABLE1);
      }
  }