Connecting to an encrypted database

Like creating an encrypted database, the procedure for opening a connection to an encrypted database is like connecting to an unencrypted database. That procedure is described in greater detail in Connecting to a database. You use the open() method to open a connection in synchronous execution mode, or the openAsync() method to open a connection in asynchronous execution mode. The only difference is that to open an encrypted database, you specify the correct value for the encryptionKey parameter (the open() method’s fifth parameter and the openAsync() method’s sixth parameter).

var conn:SQLConnection = new SQLConnection(); 
     
var encryptionKey:ByteArray = new ByteArray(); 
encryptionKey.writeUTFBytes("Some16ByteString"); // This technique is not secure! 
     
// Create an encrypted database in asynchronous mode 
conn.openAsync(dbFile, SQLMode.CREATE, null, false, 1024, encryptionKey); 
     
// Create an encrypted database in synchronous mode 
conn.open(dbFile, SQLMode.CREATE, false, 1024, encryptionKey);

If the encryption key that’s provided is not correct, an error occurs. For the open() method, a SQLError exception is thrown. For the openAsync() method, the SQLConnection object dispatches a SQLErrorEvent, whose error property contains a SQLError object. In either case, the SQLError object generated by the exception has the errorID property value 3138. That error ID corresponds to the error message "File opened is not a database file".

import flash.data.SQLConnection; 
import flash.data.SQLMode; 
import flash.events.SQLErrorEvent; 
import flash.events.SQLEvent; 
import flash.filesystem.File; 
     
var conn:SQLConnection = new SQLConnection(); 
conn.addEventListener(SQLEvent.OPEN, openHandler); 
conn.addEventListener(SQLErrorEvent.ERROR, errorHandler); 
     
// The database file is in the application storage directory 
var folder:File = File.applicationStorageDirectory; 
var dbFile:File = folder.resolvePath("DBSample.db"); 
     
var encryptionKey:ByteArray = new ByteArray(); 
encryptionKey.writeUTFBytes("Some16ByteString"); // This technique is not secure! 
     
conn.openAsync(dbFile, SQLMode.UPDATE, null, false, 1024, encryptionKey); 
     
function openHandler(event:SQLEvent):void 
{ 
    trace("the database opened successfully"); 
} 
     
function errorHandler(event:SQLErrorEvent):void 
{ 
    if (event.error.errorID == 3138) 
    { 
        trace("Incorrect encryption key"); 
    } 
    else 
    { 
        trace("Error message:", event.error.message); 
        trace("Details:", event.error.details); 
    } 
} 

The following example demonstrates opening an encrypted database in synchronous execution mode. For simplicity, in this example the encryption key is hard-coded in the application code. However, this technique is strongly discouraged because it is not secure.

import flash.data.SQLConnection; 
import flash.data.SQLMode; 
import flash.filesystem.File; 
     
var conn:SQLConnection = new SQLConnection(); 
     
// The database file is in the application storage directory 
var folder:File = File.applicationStorageDirectory; 
var dbFile:File = folder.resolvePath("DBSample.db"); 
     
var encryptionKey:ByteArray = new ByteArray(); 
encryptionKey.writeUTFBytes("Some16ByteString"); // This technique is not secure! 
     
try 
{ 
    conn.open(dbFile, SQLMode.UPDATE, false, 1024, encryptionKey); 
    trace("the database was created successfully"); 
} 
catch (error:SQLError) 
{ 
    if (error.errorID == 3138) 
    { 
        trace("Incorrect encryption key"); 
    } 
    else 
    { 
        trace("Error message:", error.message); 
        trace("Details:", error.details); 
    } 
} 

For an example demonstrating a recommended way to generate an encryption key, see Example: Generating and using an encryption key.