How to connect Android app to MySQL database?
AndroidMysqlAndroid Problem Overview
I have a website already setup which uses mysql database. I want to know how can i connect my app to that database.
What i wanna achieve is that my app should make a request to find a table of a defined "ID" or name. The table contains links to images or image names. I want the app to retrieve those images and display them on the android app.
What are the ways this can be done? Can I use PHP to develop an android app?
Android Solutions
Solution 1 - Android
Android does not support MySQL out of the box. The "normal" way to access your database would be to put a Restful server in front of it and use the HTTPS protocol to connect to the Restful front end.
Have a look at ContentProvider. It is normally used to access a local database (SQLite) but it can be used to get data from any data store.
I do recommend that you look at having a local copy of all/some of your websites data locally, that way your app will still work when the Android device hasn't got a connection. If you go down this route then a service can be used to keep the two databases in sync.
Solution 2 - Android
The one way is by using webservice, simply write a webservice method in PHP or any other language . And From your android app by using http client request and response , you can hit the web service method which will return whatever you want.
For PHP You can create a webservice like this. Assuming below we have a php file in the server. And the route of the file is yourdomain.com/api.php
if(isset($_GET['api_call'])){
switch($_GET['api_call']){
case 'userlogin':
//perform your userlogin task here
break;
}
}
Now you can use Volley or Retrofit to send a network request to the above PHP Script and then, actually the php script will handle the database operation.
In this case the PHP script is called a RESTful API.
You can learn all the operation at MySQL from this tutorial. Android MySQL Tutorial to Perform CRUD.
Solution 3 - Android
Yes you can connect your android app to your PHP to grab results from your database. Use a webservice to connect to your backend script via ASYNC task and http post requests. Check this link for more information Connecting to MySQL
Solution 4 - Android
Use android vollley, it is very fast and you can betterm manipulate requests. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25948191/send-post-request-using-volley-and-receive-in-php/25948689#25948689
Basically, you will create a map with key-value params for the php request(POST/GET), the php will do the desired processing and you will return the data as JSON(json_encode()). Then you can either parse the JSON as needed or use GSON from Google to let it do the parsing.
Solution 5 - Android
Can i use pHp to develop an android app?
Yes . for web development you can use Phonegap. "PHP , HTML"etc.
What are the ways this can be done:?
you can check couple of examples on the internet here is one of them "an easy way" Connect Android To MySQL