Persistence on iOS (and Android)

[J. Landman Gay]

On 1/26/13 1:22 PM, Ben Rubinstein wrote:

> Is there consensus on the best way to do this - text file, database, or
> do everything in a dynamic stack that's saved (back to the old
> splash-screen app approach)?

Depends on your stack and what you need to do, but any of those would 
work. There's no set way. I've always just saved variable values to a 
text file and on startup I look for and read the file, and reset 
everything. The splash method would probably be easier now that I think 
about it.

> Also - is the story the same on Android?

Yes and no, but you should plan on it being the same. Android doesn't 
always release an app from memory when the user leaves, it retains it 
until it needs the RAM. So if the user pops over to their calendar and 
then returns to your app, chances are pretty good your app will still be 
in the same state and on the same card. Startup/shutdown messages aren't 
sent because the app hasn't really quit. But you don't know when Android 
will wipe out your app, the user may open lots of other processes before 
returning to yours (it could be days later) so you have to assume the 
state isn't going to be preserved. The same startup/shutdown messages 
will work so you don't need to do anything different in scripts.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com