The Basics

Initialization

To get started, you must initialize Couchbase Lite with the relevant application context Open the file DatabaseManager.java. DatabaseManager.java

public DbManager(@Nonnull DbExecutor exec) {
    this.exec = exec;

    CouchbaseLite.init();

    final ConsoleLogger logger = Database.log.getConsole();
    logger.setLevel(LogLevel.DEBUG);
    logger.setDomains(LogDomain.ALL_DOMAINS);
}

Create a Database

There is no limit to how many databases can be created or opened on the device. You can think of a database as a namespace for documents and several databases can be used in the same app (one database per user of the app is a common pattern).

The snippet below creates an empty database for the guest user in a directory named guest.

Open the file DatabaseManager.java. We will review the openGuestDb() method.

DatabaseManager.java

 public void openGuestDb() {
   ...
 }

We create a folder for the guest user database if one does not exist and specify that as the database directory in the DatabaseConfiguration object.

  final DatabaseConfiguration config = new DatabaseConfiguration();
  config.setDirectory(new File(DB_DIR, GUEST_USER).getCanonicalPath());

The Couchbase Lite Database is created with specified name and DatabaseConfiguration object.

  database = new Database(DB_NAME, config);

Try it out

Build and Run the Travel Sample Mobile App
On the Login screen select the “Proceed as Guest” option.
This will log you into the app in Guest Mode. Signing in as Guest will create a new empty database for the “guest” account if one does not exist.
Confirm that you see the "Bookmarks" page. It will be empty the very first time.

Create and Update a Document

Bookmarked hotels are persisted in a separate document with a type of bookmarkedhotels.

The first time a hotel is bookmarked, the bookmarkedhotels document is created with the document ID of that hotel document in the hotels property. The hotel’s information is persisted in a separate hotels type document.

Subsequently, every time a hotel is bookmarked, the process repeats.

{
  "_id": "hotel1",
  "name": "San Francisco Hotel",
  "address": "123, Park Street, San Francisco"
}

{
  "type": "bookmarkedhotels",
  "hotels": ["hotel1", "hotel2"]
}

Open the file BookmarkDao.java. You will review the addBookmarksAsync method.

BookmarkDao.java

@Nullable
    private Void addBookmarksAsync(@Nonnull Set<Hotel> hotels) throws CouchbaseLiteException {
      ...
}

First, you need to get an instance of the database.

  final Database database = db.getDatabase();

The following snippet persists the hotel instance (Set<Hotel>) as a new Document in the database. This will allow us to access bookmarked hotel documents while being offline.

  final Set<String> ids = new HashSet<>();
  for (Hotel hotel : hotels) {
  final String id = hotel.getId();

  final Document hotelDoc = database.getDocument(id);
  if (hotelDoc == null) { database.save(Hotel.toDocument(hotel)); }
     ids.add(id);
  }

  bookmarkIds(database, ids);

Next you will get the document with ID user::guest or create one if it doesn’t exist.

This is implemented in the bookmarkIds private method.

BookmarkDao.java

private void bookmarkIds(@Nonnull Set<String> ids) throws CouchbaseLiteException {

  ...
}

The document is created with the type property set to bookmarkedhotels and a new hotels array to store the document IDs of the bookmarked hotels.

  final MutableDocument guestDoc = db.getGuestDoc();

  final Set<String> currentBookmarks = new HashSet<>();

  final MutableArray bookmarks = guestDoc.getArray(PROP_BOOKMARKS);
  if (bookmarks != null) {
      for (int i = 0; i < bookmarks.count(); i++) { currentBookmarks.add(bookmarks.getString(i)); }
  }

  currentBookmarks.addAll(ids);

Next, the selected hotel’s ID is added to the hotels array.

  final MutableArray newBookmarks = new MutableArray();
  for (String bookmark : currentBookmarks) { newBookmarks.addString(bookmark); }

  guestDoc.setArray(PROP_BOOKMARKS, newBookmarks);

Finally, you will save the document.

  db.getDatabase().save(guestDoc);

Try it out

As a Guest User, tap on the “ADD” button.
In "location" text field , enter "L" as if you were starting to type "London". You will see list of hotels.
The list of hotels is pulled from Couchbase Server via the Travel Sample Web Services API. When searching for hotels in Guest mode, the app sends a GET request to the Python Web App which performs a Full-Text Search query on Couchbase Server. Search results will not be displayed unless there is an open connection to the Python web app and the Full-Text Search index has been created in Couchbase Server.
Tap on the first hotel cell to bookmark it.
Click on "ADD" button
Click on "DONE" button
Verify that you see the bookmarked hotel in the "Bookmarks" screen — see: Figure 1

Figure 1. Save Bookmark

Delete a Document

A document can be deleted using the delete method. This operation actually creates a new tombstoned revision in order to propagate the deletion to other clients.

Open the file BookmarkDao.java. You will review the removeBookmarksAsync method.

BookmarkDao.java

@Override
Void removeBookmarksAsync(@Nonnull Set<Hotel> hotels) throws CouchbaseLiteException {

    ...
}

When a hotel is bookmarked, it gets inserted in the Couchbase Lite database for offline access. So when the user unbookmarks a hotel, the document needs to be removed from the database. That’s what the code below is doing.

  final Database database = db.getDatabase();

  final Set<String> ids = new HashSet<>();
  for (Hotel hotel : hotels) { ids.add(hotel.getId()); }

  unbookmarkIds(ids);

  for (String id : ids) {
      final Document hotelDoc = database.getDocument(id);
      if (hotelDoc == null) {
          LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "Hotel not found in remove bookmark: " + id);
          continue;
      }
      database.delete(hotelDoc);
  }

In addition to deleting the document of type "hotel" as shown above, the unbookmarking process removes the hotel ID from the hotels array in the "bookmarkedhotels" document.

Try it out

On BOOKMARKS page, select the first row to unbookmark
Click on "REMOVE" button
Verify that you do not see the hotel in the list — see: Figure 2.

Figure 2. Remove Hotel Bookmark