Android Question Upgradeable application content with remote database.

[Sub7]

Hi guys, new here,
i'm the author of a info-product, i want to transport my interactive book in android application.
My product contain much text (html), images, videos and some flash animations.
I'm wondering which is the best way to build such kind of application having the possibility of update the content whithout release a new version on play store.

As php programmer i was thinking to put the content on a remote database, then when the application run for the first time will download all (or part) the content from my server and save it to device, this because the app must be able to work in offline mode.

If i change some content, add or modify an image, modify a page etc every time the app is luanched will check for updates on my server and if an update is available then download it (if network available).
In this way the application must connect to a mysql server and ftp and i smell some security problems by doing this, no?

Maybe one solution could be to let dowload just the precompiled files without connecting to db,
a simple php script will be interrogated by the app for checking new file version?

The interactive book has about 70mb of content (swf, mp3 etc) i don't think is a good idea to put everything in the app also because if i remember well the maximum app size is 50mb and i don't want to complicate my life with extensions.

I can run this interactive book in a website and wrap it in the app but the problem is that it must works offline.
I dont know if this is the best way to proceed, it looks a bit complicated and not really safe.
Please i need some advices or examples.

Thank you very very much.

Sub7

 

[Erel]

Have you seen this tutorial: Connect Android to MySQL Database Tutorial

As a PHP developer you should be able to implement something similar that will let the app download the required resources.

 

[Sub7]

Have you seen this tutorial: Connect Android to MySQL Database Tutorial

As a PHP developer you should be able to implement something similar that will let the app download the required resources.

Hi, yes i've seen that.
Still not sure if this the best way to manage the app updates.
Sorry if this post is not really programming related but more "which is the best way"
Thank you

 

[DouglasNYoung]

Sub7,
What you propose is very simple and effective. Basically what I do is hold the last update time in the application. At start up, but only once a day, I call a php script which checks for any more recent files on the server and passes a list of updates required. The app then downloads them using httputils.... For security the app passes an email address and 'AndroidID', which must match those held on the server, before it aloes the download - Not hi-tec or hugely secure, but good enough for my purposes!

hope this helps,
Douglad

 

[Sub7]

Sub7,
What you propose is very simple and effective. Basically what I do is hold the last update time in the application. At start up, but only once a day, I call a php script which checks for any more recent files on the server and passes a list of updates required. The app then downloads them using httputils.... For security the app passes an email address and 'AndroidID', which must match those held on the server, before it aloes the download - Not hi-tec or hugely secure, but good enough for my purposes!

hope this helps,
Douglad

Thank you Douglas, i will look into this.