Data in mobile applications

The term "data" can refer to different types of information and storage locations in mobile app development. It can be used to describe a volatile state that is created and destroyed each time a view in the application is used, or it might refer to persisted settings and configuration information that are required to run the application, or even the data stored in the local filesystem. Each type of data is created and persisted or destroyed throughout the lifecycle of the application or a view in the application. We can talk about four distinct groups for this discussion.

Each data type is stored and accessed from different locations and each location has its own unique restriction and access models.

Data type storage locations

State

Mobile applications are generally stateful. Transient data that is used to visualize items on the UI or the data created by the user of the application falls into this category. The purpose of state is to maintain a consistent...