Blackberry not creating a valid sqlite database - sqlite

Question

I have a very unusual problem.
I'm trying to create a simple database (6 tables, 4 of which only have 2 columns).
I'm using an in-house database library which I've used in a previous project, and it does work.
However with my current project there are occasional bugs. Basically the database isn't created correctly. It is added to the sdcard but when I access it I get a DatabaseException.
When I access the device from the desktop manager and try to open the database (with SQLite Database Browser v2.0b1) I get "File is not a SQLite 3 database".
UPDATE
I found that this happens when I delete the database manually off the sdcard.
Since there's no way to stop a user doing that, is there anything I can do to handle it?
CODE
public static boolean initialize()
{
boolean memory_card_available = ApplicationInterface.isSDCardIn();
String application_name = ApplicationInterface.getApplicationName();
if (memory_card_available == true)
{
file_path = "file:///SDCard/" + application_name + ".db";
}
else
{
file_path = "file:///store/" + application_name + ".db";
}
try
{
uri = URI.create(file_path);
FileClass.hideFile(file_path);
} catch (MalformedURIException mue)
{
}
return create(uri);
}
private static boolean create(URI db_file)
{
boolean response = false;
try
{
db = DatabaseFactory.create(db_file);
db.close();
response = true;
} catch (Exception e)
{
}
return response;
}

Answer 1

My only suggestion is keep a default database in your assets - if there is a problem with the one on the SD Card, attempt to recreate it by copying the default one.
Not a very good answer I expect.

Answer 2

Since it looks like your problem is that the user is deleting your database, just make sure to catch exceptions when you open it (or access it ... wherever you're getting the exception):
try {
URI uri = URI.create("file:///SDCard/Databases/database1.db");
sqliteDB = DatabaseFactory.open(myURI);
Statement st = sqliteDB.createStatement( "CREATE TABLE 'Employee' ( " +
"'Name' TEXT, " +
"'Age' INTEGER )" );
st.prepare();
st.execute();
} catch ( DatabaseException e ) {
System.out.println( e.getMessage() );
// TODO: decide if you want to create a new database here, or
// alert the user if the SDCard is not available
}
Note that even though it's probably unusual for a user to delete a private file that your app creates, it's perfectly normal for the SDCard to be unavailable because the device is connected to a PC via USB. So, you really should always be testing for this condition (file open error).
See this answer regarding checking for SDCard availability.
Also, read this about SQLite db storage locations, and make sure to review this answer by Michael Donohue about eMMC storage.
Update: SQLite Corruption
See this link describing the many ways SQLite databases can be corrupted. It definitely sounded to me like maybe the .db file was deleted, but not the journal / wal file. If that was it, you could try deleting database1* programmatically before you create database1.db. But, your comments seem to suggest that it was something else. Perhaps you could look into the file locking failure modes, too.
If you are desperate, you might try changing your code to use a different name (e.g. database2, database3) each time you create a new db, to make sure you're not getting artifacts from the previous db.