Shipping a Prepopulated Database with PhoneGap

I needed to prepopulate a database file for a Phonegap project that I was working on. My database was 10mb, so loading it from a SQL file via AJAX on the first launch was not an option. After many hours, I finally figured out how to do it. Enjoy! I hope this can be useful to some of you.
Materials Required:

PhoneGap
https://github.com/chbrody/Cordova-SQLitePlugin/
1. Android Version, I used version downloaded on 8/7/2012.
2. Versions differed a lot for me in updates. For example, the latest version automatically appends “.db” to your window.sqlitePlugin.openDatabase() function.

Steps to take:

Place your SQLite Database file in /assets directory for your project. DO NOT PUT IT IN /assets/www/.
1. My database in this example is called “vvmf.db”.

In our main Activity file (the one that extends DroidGap), we will need to copy the database from the /assets/ directory to the DB directory if necessary. To do this, use code similar to the following below:

    try
    {
        File dbFile = getDatabasePath("vvmf.db");
        if(!dbFile.exists()){
            this.copy("vvmf.db",dbFile.getAbsolutePath());
        }
     }
     catch (Exception e)
     {
     e.printStackTrace();
     }
//And our copy function:
   void copy(String file, String folder) throws IOException
    {
     File CheckDirectory;
     CheckDirectory = new File(folder);
     String parentPath = CheckDirectory.getParent();
     File filedir = new File(parentPath);
     if (!filedir.exists()) {
         if (!filedir.mkdirs()) {
             return;
         }
     }
        InputStream in = this.getApplicationContext().getAssets().open(file);
        File newfile = new File(folder);
        OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(newfile);
        byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
        int len; while ((len = in.read(buf)) > 0) out.write(buf, 0, len);
        in.close(); out.close();
    }

Make sure chbrody’s SQLitePlugin is installed properly.
- Get it from https://github.com/chbrody/Cordova-SQLitePlugin/
In your main JS file, in your “deviceready” event listener, use the following function call to load your database file:
1. window.sqlitePlugin.openDatabase(“vvmf”, “1.0”, “vvmf”, 20000);

That’s it, Enjoy!

-Scott Buckel – Email me scott at CorporateZen dot com