Normally Android-SQLiteOpenHelper does not allow fully qualified path names where the database should be stored. So public database files are not possible.
You can use the SQLiteOpenHelper with a custom path if you provide a custom ContextClass and if you have write access in the target directory.
public class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 3;
.....
DatabaseHelper(final Context context, String databaseName)
{
super(new DatabaseContext(context), databaseName, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
}
And here is the custom DatabaseContext class that does all the magic
class DatabaseContext extends ContextWrapper {
private static final String DEBUG_CONTEXT = "DatabaseContext";
public DatabaseContext(Context base) {
super(base);
}
@Override
public File getDatabasePath(String name)
{
File sdcard = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
String dbfile = sdcard.getAbsolutePath() + File.separator+ "databases" + File.separator + name;
if (!dbfile.endsWith(".db"))
{
dbfile += ".db" ;
}
File result = new File(dbfile);
if (!result.getParentFile().exists())
{
result.getParentFile().mkdirs();
}
if (Log.isLoggable(DEBUG_CONTEXT, Log.WARN))
{
Log.w(DEBUG_CONTEXT,
"getDatabasePath(" + name + ") = " + result.getAbsolutePath());
}
return result;
}
/* this version is called for android devices >= api-11. thank to @damccull for fixing this. */
@Override
public SQLiteDatabase openOrCreateDatabase(String name, int mode, SQLiteDatabase.CursorFactory factory, DatabaseErrorHandler errorHandler) {
return openOrCreateDatabase(name,mode, factory);
}
/* this version is called for android devices < api-11 */
@Override
public SQLiteDatabase openOrCreateDatabase(String name, int mode, SQLiteDatabase.CursorFactory factory)
{
SQLiteDatabase result = SQLiteDatabase.openOrCreateDatabase(getDatabasePath(name), null);
// SQLiteDatabase result = super.openOrCreateDatabase(name, mode, factory);
if (Log.isLoggable(DEBUG_CONTEXT, Log.WARN))
{
Log.w(DEBUG_CONTEXT,
"openOrCreateDatabase(" + name + ",,) = " + result.getPath());
}
return result;
}
}
This is a copy of my answer to SQLiteOpenHelper problem with fully qualified DB path name