Android app to sync data to remote server asynchronously

Question

I am developing an Android app that stores data locally in Sqlite database and sync it to a remote server (MSSQL server). The sending of data is handled through REST api.

This is the way I would like it to work and my plan to handle it:

When the app stores data in Sqlite database, the app will check if internet connection is available, if it is then the app will make a HttpPost to send the data (I use AsyncTask to handle this). Once the data sent, I will flag the row in the database as "synched" using postExecute callback.

If the internet connection is not available, then the app will continue on.

I need to make the app to listen to the event when internet connection became available and then the app will go through all rows that have not been synched and use AsyncTask again to send the data to remote server.

My questions are:

1. Is it achievable? and if so, is it best practices?
2. How to listen to the even when internet connection became available?

Thanks,

Answer 1

You could implement this manually, but I suggest you use a SyncAdapter instead.

Although you can design your own system for doing data transfers in your app, you should consider using Android's sync adapter framework. This framework helps manage and automate data transfers, and coordinates synchronization operations across different apps. When you use this framework, you can take advantage of several features that aren't available to data transfer schemes you design yourself.

If you want to implement this without using a SyncAdapter anyway, then for the "detect when connection becomes available", you need to add a BroadcastListener to listen for CONNECTIVITY_ACTION broadcasts, then use a ConnectivityManager to query about the current state.