I am bit a newbie in this area ... so it may sound like a basic question to you ... but for me however this poses a huge challenge. Here is what I'd like to do:

1. Write an image file (png) into an SQLite DB (I guess I have to go with BLOB to do this but not sure exactly how)

2. Then pull this PNG image from the DB to show it in a regular listview (regular list adapter) and combine it with corresponding text

So for example, one DB entry would have an image of an apple, the word "apple" as a text to describe the image and a couple of parameter to describe the nutritional value of the apple, like calories, vitamins, and so on.
Another entry would have an orange or a banana ...

Then show all those DB entries in a listview (image + corresponding text elements) to make it look like this:

---------------------------------------------------------
<Apple PNG> Apple, 30 kcal, 3mg vitamin C
---------------------------------------------------------
<Orange PNG> Orange, 45 kcal, 10mg vitamin C
---------------------------------------------------------
and so ......
---------------------------------------------------------

I am aware that I could use a custom list adapter and pull the image from @drawables but the SQLite approach seems more elegant and appropriate to me.

As I am novice I would appreciate a tutorial & sample code that shows how to do this.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards Christian

Are you talking about a local DB on the device or
do you mean a remote DB online?
I am asking because i would like to give some sample code.

It is a local SQLite DB on the device itself. (At least for the moment). Once I am over this hurdle I would like to connect my application to a webservice then your second option may be relevant for me ...

So here is an example how to store some data (bitmap included) to a local DB
and how to get the data back again.

First the Class that defines a Fruit
Fruit.java

Nothing special here..


Now a Class that helps us handle the database
DBhelper.java

The "magic" happens here in the createFruitEntry and getFirstFruitFromDB methods.
I used a small code version to convert a bitmap to a byte array for storage as blob.. but i doubt that
this is the best or fastest way to do this.

The last Class is the Activity that shows usage of the DBhelper on the basis of an example.
DBtest

Here again nothing special..


Later.. with a remote DB and a webservice i would suggest usage of Servlets and Tomcat or Jetty as
Servlet-Container.

Wow - great. Let me try this out and see if I can get it up and running ... will let you know in case of success or non-success

I found a great tutorial on another site.. it covers some problems that may appear when your app is in the next stage (remote DB + webservice).

http://developerlife.com/tutorials/?p=289

That tutorial does look interesting. Very good input for the next stage!

Padde you are the man! Thx!

Padde, thanks again for this perfectly working code to extract a PNG image from an SQL database.

Maybe I am asking too much of you ... but I cannot move on at the moment and I am stuck here. I would like to expand your code to make it work with a cursor adapter.

Here is the code I currently have to bind only strings from SQL DB to a simple cursor adapter. How can I expand this to make it work with your bit more complex structure using a bitmap, integer and string all coming from SQL DB. My goal is just to populate a listview (image left, then string and then integer values).

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.tabelle_listview);

entries = new DBHelper(this);
Cursor cursor = getEntries();
showEntries(cursor);
}

private static String[] FROM = {FRUIT, CALORIES, VITC, VITA, VITB, VITD, VITE, _ID};
private static String ORDER_BY = _ID + " ASC";

private Cursor getEntries() {
//Perform a managed query. The Activity will handle closing
//and re-querying the cursor when needed.
SQLiteDatabase db = entries.getReadableDatabase();
Cursor cursor = db.query(TABLE_NAME_FRUITS, FROM, null, null, null, null, null);

startManagingCursor(cursor);
return cursor;
}

private static int[] TO = { R.id.fruit, R.id.calories, R.id.vitc, R.id.vita, R.id.vitb, R.id.vitd, R.id.vite};

private void showEntries(Cursor cursor) {

ListView v = getListView(); // set up item selection listener
v.setOnItemSelectedListener( this ); // see OnItemSelectedListener methods below

// Set up data binding
SimpleCursorAdapter adapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(this,
R.layout.fruit_item, cursor, FROM, TO);
setListAdapter(adapter);

}

The answer to your last question would be very interesting for me.

I am looking for such a method, and i'm fed up to create custom adapters.

I hope an universal solution for icon + string would exist!

(sorry for my english)

Hey Padde...Gr8 example...Thnx a lot!

Thank you for this example .

I am new to android . how to store list of fruits and names and how to retrive that data and how to show that data in listview . please send me a sample code .

Thank you

To cover an association between a name and multiple fruits you should use another table.
For example FavoriteFruit with a column for the name and a column for an ID that is cross referencing to one fruit
in the fruit table. That way you can get all favorite fruits from a particular person.
Presenting the data in a listview is a whole nother story.

I'm willing to extend the fruit example to cover all this but i won't find the time till weekend to do this.

Thanks for ur reply .

I am saying only store the no of images and its names into database and retrive the data from database and show that data into listview (image and name).


Thank you .

I found some minutes thanks to a canceled meeting
I changed the sample to a ListActivity and show a sample of presenting
the data from the database in a list.
If i understand it right thats what you want.

First the class representing a fruit:
Fruit.java

Nothing changed here...

Next is the class helping us handling the DB:
DBhelper.java

Nothing essential changed here...

Following class is new and defines how to bind the data to the Views.
Out of the box SimpleCursorAdapter supports TextView and ImageView but
images have to be in form of a image ressource or a URI. Therefore we need
this class to override default binding and/or define how to bind to other view types.
FruitViewBinder.java


Last class is the ListActivity that implements the example
FruitDBSample


And last but not least the xml that defines the layout of a row in the final list
fruitlist.xml


This is all pretty straight forward so no further explanation at this point.. but should something
remain unclear feel free to ask.

Greets Padde

--- Edit ---
And this is how it looks like.