Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately my application requires the database. 
Without
the database my app is just a empty shell really.

But that is actually a good idea you have about just getting a webhost, it 
is probably
less complicated than using google drive or dropbox and will be more 
flexible etc.
Also I see a lot of hosts that do unlimited bandwidth which is exactly what 
I'll be needing
as I don't want to be busted for exceeding bandwidth limits and then have 
users who are
trying to download the database getting denied.

Also good idea about using a checksum/hash, this will help security and 
also prevent 
corrupt databases from being opened after the download.

It's a shame I just can't put it in the apk, but if I did I'd have 
duplicates of the database (because I don't think you can delete resources
at runtime after they've been packaged) and it seems you can't really 
include assets or raw files that are greater than 1 or 2mb apparently.



On Monday, 20 August 2012 18:34:09 UTC+12, Kristopher Micinski wrote:
>
> I would say it's a good idea to not include 15mb of stuff in your app 
> if you can avoid it.  I assume the stuff is strictly required?  If 
> not, you also shouldn't force the user to download it.  If the user 
> *really absolutely has to have it*, then it might make sense to have 
> as part of the APK, but it also might be that this data is something 
> that changes frequently enough that you need to update it anyway. 
>
> In any case, my advice would be that you use some "reliable" method to 
> *request* a download URL for your data.  I.e., Google App Engine or 
> something like that, and then store the data on your own server. 
> That's right, you should get a webhost and a server to store the data 
> on.  You shouldn't really need that fancy a web plan, file serving is 
> basically what web hosts are for. 
>
> One slight comment if you plan to go this route: you should be aware 
> that it's somewhat possible the data will be faked or otherwise 
> compromised, if you're concerned about this you need to verify 
> (checksum / hash) it in the app itself before using it, otherwise you 
> could have random people serving your app bad data (a frequent source 
> of security bugs in software...) 
>
> kris 
>
> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:08 PM, saernz <sae...@gmail.com <javascript:>> 
> wrote: 
> > Hiya! 
> > 
> > I'm creating an app which requires a large database to work (about 
> 15mb). I 
> > have decided 
> > to not include it in the apk because I think some people might dislike 
> > having such a big file stored 
> > on their phone memory, and have instead decided to have my application 
> > download the database on first 
> > use and to store it on the SD Card. 
> > 
> > I guess I have two questions: 
> > 1) Is it a good idea in this situation to separate the database from the 
> > main apk package and host it else where, or is it completely possible to 
> > include such a large file in the apk package? 
> > 
> > 2) If I end up requiring the user to download the database on first run, 
> > where would the best place be to host the file? I've been considering 
> google 
> > drive and maybe dropbox, but I'm concerned mainly 
> > with the amount of bandwidth that is allowed each day (e.g a free 
> dropbox 
> > account allows 20gb to be downloaded in a day, so I could only have a 
> max of 
> > 1,365 downloads in one day otherwise dropbox will blow up), especially 
> > because google doesn't seem to provide these details. Also another 
> factor 
> > would be if the file would be accessible to all users, or will the host 
> > possibly try to block some downloads because it thinks an external site 
> is 
> > trying to link to it's content? 
> > 
> > Has anyone had to deal with such a situation before and what was your 
> > solution? 
> > 
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