I just started working on an Android app that should display posts from my site and then a three-column list of some products. The three columns on the list contain the product names, a short description, and then some pricing information. The pricing info should always be up to date.
I am not experienced, but I am thinking of two approaches:
- Allowing the app to interact with an online database in order to get the most current data. However, this approach means I will also need another web app to manage the database, which seems complicated to me.
- Hosting an up-to date CSV or XML file in a certain URL. Then, each time the app synchronizes, it gets the file and process it. However, this seems to be a waste of bandwidth.
My questions are:
- Of the two options, which one is viable/appropriate? And why.
- Is there any other efficient way to handle this?