Storing object fields using ormlite android

Question

I am trying to store in DB table a class Object, but it seems ormlite doesn't accept the object type, here is my DB table:

Temp_Contacts DB Table

public class Temp_Contacts {

    @DatabaseField(generatedId = true,canBeNull = false)
    private int id;

    @DatabaseField
     private Contacts contacts;

    @DatabaseField
    private Date data_actualizare;

    Temp_Contacts(){}

    public Temp_Contacts(Contacts contacts, Date data_actualizare){
            this.contacts=contacts;
            this.data_actualizare=data_actualizare;
    }

    public Contacts getContacts() {
        return contacts;
    }

    public void setContactsList(Contacts contacts) {
        this.contact = contacts;
    }

    public Date getData_actualizare() {
        return data_actualizare;
    }

    public void setData_actualizare(Date data_actualizare) {
        this.data_actualizare = data_actualizare;
    }
}

Contacts class

public class Contacts {

    private int ID;
    private String name;
    private List<Telefon> numbers;
    private List<Email> emails;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

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

    public List<Telefon> getNumbers() {
        return numbers;
    }

    public void setNumbers(List<Telefon> numbers) {
        this.numbers = numbers;
    }

    public List<Email> getEmails() {
        return emails;
    }

    public void setEmails(List<Email> emails) {
        this.emails = emails;
    }

    public int getID() {
        return ID;
    }

    public void setID(int ID) {
        this.ID = ID;
    }
}

The main purpose of this is to store objects form Contacts class in ormlite DB. I prefer this logic but,i am opened to other suggestions as well.

Answer 1

Basically you have to split this into different tables, for ORMLite to handle it properly and have a clean db design.
You would end up having 4 tables: Temp_Contacts, Contacts, Email and Phone:

public class Temp_Contacts {

    @DatabaseField(generatedId = true,canBeNull = false)
    private int id;

    // declare Contacts as a foreign key
    // automatically fetched when Temp_Contacts is loaded
    @DatabaseField(foreign=true, foreignAutoRefresh=true)
    private Contacts contacts;

    @DatabaseField
    private Date data_actualizare;

    ...
 }

Contacts:

public class Contacts {

   @DatabaseField(id = true,canBeNull = false)
   private int ID;

   @DatabaseField
   private String name;

   // Use foreign collections for Telefon and Email
   // that are loaded with Contacts
   @ForeignCollectionField(eager = true)
   private ForeignCollection<Telefon> numbers;

   @ForeignCollectionField(eager = true)
   private ForeignCollection<Email> emails;     

   ...
}

Telefon and Email

public class Telefon {

    // Reference to the Contact object has to be there
    @DatabaseField(canBeNull = false, foreign = true)
    private Contacs contacts;

    ...

}

public class Email {

    // Reference to the Contact object has to be there
    @DatabaseField(canBeNull = false, foreign = true)
    private Contacs contacts;

    ...

}

This corresponds to the following db structure:

Temp_Contacts:

| id | contacts_id | data_actualizare |

Contacts:

| id | name |

Telefon and Email

| contacts_id | otherfields |

For more information on ForeignObjects and ForeignCollections see the ORMLite documentation