SQLite and SQLiteCursorLoader Library

Question

I have used Android's SQLite before but I have always managed rows of data manually, so I never used classes like SimpleCursorAdapter. I want to start using them now, but I need a little help in the code implementation, since it says I HAVE to use a CursorLoader. I decided I'm using SQLiteCursorLoader library.

Here are the details:

I have a table called students in the SQLite database. Also, Student model class and StudentManager controller class. Calling StudentManager#getAll() returns a Cursor containing all the students.

Let's move to the Fragment. I am not using ListFragment for versatility. Anyway, until now I have the following inside onCreate:

studentCursor = studentManager.getAll();
String[] from = new String[] { EventManager.COLUMN_TITLE };
String[] to = new String[] { R.id.title };
cursorAdapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(this, R.layout.row_events, eventCursor, from, to, 0);

Then, I'd have an AsyncTask subclass which will retrieve data from a RESTful API.

@Override
public void doInBackground() {
    // code to get an array of students

    for(Student student in students) {
        studentManager.save(student);
    }
}

The question would be, in which part would I use the SQLiteCursorLoader and what for

EDIT: The question is more likely to be something like this: I am already implementing my own AsyncTask operation cause I'm retrieving and managing all the data from a server. So, if I am already managing the data in a secondary thread thanks to doInBackground, do I need still SQLiteCursorLoader for any operation?

Answer 1

So, if I am already managing the data in a secondary thread thanks to doInBackground, do I need still SQLiteCursorLoader for any operation?

Probably not. The point of a Loader is to load data asynchronously. If you are doing that yourself, a Loader will not somehow make it more asynchronous. :-)

Just remember that if you change your data, you will need to run a new AsyncTask to update your UI to reflect the changed data, such as by retrieving a fresh Cursor. A CursorLoader does that automatically; a SQLiteCursorLoader only does that "automatically" if you run the database operation through the loader itself.