07-16-2014, 10:26 PM
Graeme,
I really want to add support for this, but I have a few technical hurdles I would need to overcome. The biggest issue is that, if I modify the contents of the backup in any way, I actually have to extract the whole backup to memory, and then recreate it. The reason is that, if the number of bytes changes in any way (which it most certainly would), I have to pull everything apart and put it back together. I don't know how much programming experience you have, as my memory is failing me at the moment, but think of it like a book shelf that is packed so full of books that you can't fit another one. If you suddenly wanted to take a book out and put a bigger book in its place, it wouldn't fit unless the shelf was rebuilt to be longer. Considering that some backup files are gigabytes in size, extracting the whole thing and having to rebuild it isn't exactly a quick operation...
I also would like a way to provide offline support without a backup file, where only the database file is required. I actually think this is somewhat easier, as I can just generate a list of user actions, and the next time the tablet is connected, all of those actions will be executed in order. I could also use this same approach with a backup file if I don't modify the backup file, and instead only extract and modify the database.
Mike
I really want to add support for this, but I have a few technical hurdles I would need to overcome. The biggest issue is that, if I modify the contents of the backup in any way, I actually have to extract the whole backup to memory, and then recreate it. The reason is that, if the number of bytes changes in any way (which it most certainly would), I have to pull everything apart and put it back together. I don't know how much programming experience you have, as my memory is failing me at the moment, but think of it like a book shelf that is packed so full of books that you can't fit another one. If you suddenly wanted to take a book out and put a bigger book in its place, it wouldn't fit unless the shelf was rebuilt to be longer. Considering that some backup files are gigabytes in size, extracting the whole thing and having to rebuild it isn't exactly a quick operation...
I also would like a way to provide offline support without a backup file, where only the database file is required. I actually think this is somewhat easier, as I can just generate a list of user actions, and the next time the tablet is connected, all of those actions will be executed in order. I could also use this same approach with a backup file if I don't modify the backup file, and instead only extract and modify the database.
Mike