Which type of database should I use?

Question

I have a question about which database I should use for my android and iOS apps. I have not messed with servers before so please excuse my ignorance.

Anyways, I am developing apps for a website that doesn't have a mobile version. The website has a MySQL database and uses phpMyAdmin as a control panel.

I need to figure out how to hook into the server. I know that java provides full support for SQLite databases and I know that they server hosters can install SQLite on the server for me.

What do you all think? MySQL or SQLite?

Answer 1

You should be using SQLite for any local databases to the Android app (CoreData for iOS).

Any interaction with your websites MySQL database should be handled through API calls.

There is a good PHP framework called Slim PHP that will make building your API extremely simple. It's documented very well. Slim PHP doesn't offer any form of ORM so I'd also recommend integrating with Idiorm/Paris , again their documentation is rather good so you shouldn't have a problem piecing this all together.

Of course you can opt for a larger PHP framework that has all of this in one place, such as Symfony .