ActiveAndroid 3.0 How-To: Adding a Column to Your Table with a Migration

Once you’ve got your initial model and table set up in your app, you will probably want to modify it somehow later on. Maybe you’ll want to add a column to your table or change a column’s data type. Even though ActiveAndroid gives you a freebie by not making you initially write a script to create your table, you will have to write a migration script for every change to that table. Here’s an example of how to add a column to an existing table:

To start out, I have an Item model that looks like this:

@Table(name = "Items")
public class Item extends Model {

    @Column(name = "Name")
    private String name;

    public Item(){
        super();
    }

    public Item(String name){
        super();
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getName(){
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name){
        this.name = name;
    }
}

And the application node of my AndroidManifest.xml file contains the following metadata for my database:

<meta-data
        android:name="AA_DB_NAME"
        android:value="Application.db" />
<meta-data
        android:name="AA_DB_VERSION"
        android:value="1" />

I would like to add a priority column to my items table. It will only take 3 short steps:

1. Let’s start by modifying my Item model. Add the new field to the model:

   @Table(name = "Items")
   public class Item extends Model {
   
       @Column(name = "Name")
       private String name;
   
       @Column(name = "Priority")
       private String priority;
   
       public Item(){
           super();
       }
   
       public Item(String name, String priority){
           super();
           this.name = name;
           this.priority = priority;
       }
   
       public String getName(){
           return name;
       }
   
       public void setName(String name){
           this.name = name;
       }
   
      public String getPriority(){
           return priority;
       }
   
       public void setPriority(String priority){
           this.priority = priority;
       }
   }
   

2. Change the database version in your AndroidManifest.xml. Increment the version by one:

   <meta-data
           android:name="AA_DB_NAME"
           android:value="Application.db" />
   <meta-data
           android:name="AA_DB_VERSION"
           android:value="2" />
   

3. The final step is to write your migration script. Name your script [newDatabaseVersion].sql, and place it in the directory [YourApp’sName]/app/src/main/assets/migrations. In my specific example, I’ll create the file [MyAppName]/app/src/main/assets/migrations/2.sql. (You might have to create the migrations directory yourself). You should write the SQLite script to add a column here.

   ALTER TABLE Items ADD COLUMN Priority TEXT;
   

And that’s it! Just note that in order trigger the migration script, you’ll have to save an instance of your model somewhere in your code. For example, I have something like this in my app:

Item item = new Item();
item.setName("do laundry");
item.setPriority("high");
item.save();