Question regarding proper usage of multiple databases

[Matthew Janes]

I have found it necessary to take an existing application that is using ORMLite, and modify it so that if a user signs out and a different user signs in, they each have their own separate database with the same schema using the same helper class, in order that each user have their own separate data. I did consider doing this all using only one database, but decided against that due to wanting to keep the db schema simple, preserve existing code and avoid db migrations.

After a good bit of work, I have found a process that seems to work, and just wanted to check to see if I doing this properly.

I am using a class DatabaseHelper that extends OrmLiteSqliteOpenHelper. 

It has a constructor:

    public DatabaseHelper(Context context) {

        super(context, SettingsManager.getDatabaseName(), null, SettingsManager.DATABASE_VERSION);

    }

Where SettingsManager.getDatabaseName() returns a db name with the user id prepended to it.

When first trying to get this to work, I would call close() on an instance of the database helper on user signout, and then on user sign in call

    OpenHelperManager.getHelper(context, DatabaseManager.class);

but that would inevitably fail with a "java.lang.IllegalStateException: attempt to re-open an already-closed object" exception, regardless of calls to getConnectionSource().releaseConnection(...) or anything similar. Using OpenHelperManager.getHelper would only call my DatabaseHelper constructor the first time it was called.

I eventually got this to work by simply never closing any OrmLiteSqliteOpenHelper or connection source, and on user sign out nulling out the instance of DatabaseHelper I have, and on user sign in, resetting the instance of DatabaseHelper to "new DatabaseHelper(context)", avoiding all usage of OpenHelperManager.getHelper().

This seems to work in initial testing, but I have the feeling I am not doing this as cleanly as I could, and do not know what the side effects of leaving connections open or not using OpenHelperManager.getHelper might be. Any advice about this or similar experiences would be appreciated. Thank you.

[anne.r...@appsfactory.de]

Hello Matthew Janes,

It has been a while since you were asking this question, and I have the exact same problem now.
The solution you are descibing, did it work properly in the long run? Or did you find another solution in the end?

Greetings,
Anne Rubruck