Should I store Bitmaps in SQLITE DB

Question

Is it a good idea to store images retrieved from the web server via a web service in SQLITE DB. I am working on this android app that retrieves a lot of images from a web server and places them in a listview. And I would like to store the first 100 images in some storage area within an android device(That is after compressing them.) when a user first opens the app so that the app doesn't reload a fresh the next time the user opens the app . So, I am looking at SQLITE as one of my top storage options and I am not sure whether there could be a better way to doing this for the sake of improving the app performance. I have seen the question asked at Should i store images in SQLite database? and its answer, which a little fuzzy to me. Your opinion is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The question you linked too explains the best practise.

Generally, you should store the actual image files in the filesystem or memory card of the device.

Then your app can find references to them in your database

e.g.

SELECT avatar_image FROM profile WHERE user_id = 1; would return the local device file path of your stored image that can then be loaded into your ImageView.

Answer 2

Depends on the size of images - If the returned result of your query is going to be more than 1 MB (the binder limit) then you would have to store them as files and only store the URIs in the dbs.

For example you can look at the Contacts Provider - the thumbnails are stored in the db but the full images are not - only URI of the full image is part of the contacts database.