In this document
- Designing Data Storage
- Designing Content URIs
- Implementing the ContentProvider Class
- Implementing Content Provider MIME Types
- Implementing a Contract Class
- Implementing Content Provider Permissions
- The <provider> Element
- Intents and Data Access
Key classes
Related Samples
See also
A content provider manages access to a central repository of data. You implement a
provider as one or more classes in an Android application, along with elements in
the manifest file. One of your classes implements a subclass
ContentProvider
, which is the interface between your provider and
other applications. Although content providers are meant to make data available to other
applications, you may of course have activities in your application that allow the user
to query and modify the data managed by your provider.
The rest of this topic is a basic list of steps for building a content provider and a list of APIs to use.
Before You Start Building
Before you start building a provider, do the following:
-
Decide if you need a content provider
. You need to build a content
provider if you want to provide one or more of the following features:
- You want to offer complex data or files to other applications.
- You want to allow users to copy complex data from your app into other apps.
- You want to provide custom search suggestions using the search framework.
You don't need a provider to use an SQLite database if the use is entirely within your own application.
- If you haven't done so already, read the topic Content Provider Basics to learn more about providers.
Next, follow these steps to build your provider:
-
Design the raw storage for your data. A content provider offers data in two ways:
- File data
- Data that normally goes into files, such as photos, audio, or videos. Store the files in your application's private space. In response to a request for a file from another application, your provider can offer a handle to the file.
- "Structured" data
- Data that normally goes into a database, array, or similar structure. Store the data in a form that's compatible with tables of rows and columns. A row represents an entity, such as a person or an item in inventory. A column represents some data for the entity, such a person's name or an item's price. A common way to store this type of data is in an SQLite database, but you can use any type of persistent storage. To learn more about the storage types available in the Android system, see the section Designing Data Storage .
-
Define a concrete implementation of the
ContentProvider
class and its required methods. This class is the interface between your data and the rest of the Android system. For more information about this class, see the section Implementing the ContentProvider Class . - Define the provider's authority string, its content URIs, and column names. If you want the provider's application to handle intents, also define intent actions, extras data, and flags. Also define the permissions that you will require for applications that want to access your data. You should consider defining all of these values as constants in a separate contract class; later, you can expose this class to other developers. For more information about content URIs, see the section Designing Content URIs . For more information about intents, see the section Intents and Data Access .
-
Add other optional pieces, such as sample data or an implementation
of
AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter
that can synchronize data between the provider and cloud-based data.
Designing Data Storage
A content provider is the interface to data saved in a structured format. Before you create the interface, you must decide how to store the data. You can store the data in any form you like, and then design the interface to read and write the data as necessary.
These are some of the data storage technologies that are available in Android:
-
The Android system includes an SQLite database API that Android's own providers use
to store table-oriented data. The
SQLiteOpenHelper
class helps you create databases, and theSQLiteDatabase
class is the base class for accessing databases.Remember that you don't have to use a database to implement your repository. A provider appears externally as a set of tables, similar to a relational database, but this is not a requirement for the provider's internal implementation.
- For storing file data, Android has a variety of file-oriented APIs. To learn more about file storage, read the topic Data Storage . If you're designing a provider that offers media-related data such as music or videos, you can have a provider that combines table data and files.
-
For working with network-based data, use classes in
java.net
andandroid.net
. You can also synchronize network-based data to a local data store such as a database, and then offer the data as tables or files. The Sample Sync Adapter sample application demonstrates this type of synchronization.
Data design considerations
Here are some tips for designing your provider's data structure:
-
Table data should always have a "primary key" column that the provider maintains
as a unique numeric value for each row. You can use this value to link the row to related
rows in other tables (using it as a "foreign key"). Although you can use any name
for this column, using
BaseColumns._ID
is the best choice, because linking the results of a provider query to aListView
requires one of the retrieved columns to have the name_ID
. -
If you want to provide bitmap images or other very large pieces of file-oriented data, store
the data in a file and then provide it indirectly rather than storing it directly in a
table. If you do this, you need to tell users of your provider that they need to use a
ContentResolver
file method to access the data. -
Use the Binary Large OBject (BLOB) data type to store data that varies in size or has a
varying structure. For example, you can use a BLOB column to store a
protocol buffer
or
JSON structure
.
You can also use a BLOB to implement a schema-independent table. In this type of table, you define a primary key column, a MIME type column, and one or more generic columns as BLOB. The meaning of the data in the BLOB columns is indicated by the value in the MIME type column. This allows you to store different row types in the same table. The Contacts Provider's "data" table
ContactsContract.Data
is an example of a schema-independent table.
Designing Content URIs
A
content URI
is a URI that identifies data in a provider. Content URIs include
the symbolic name of the entire provider (its
authority
) and a
name that points to a table or file (a
path
). The optional id part points to
an individual row in a table. Every data access method of
ContentProvider
has a content URI as an argument; this allows you to
determine the table, row, or file to access.
The basics of content URIs are described in the topic Content Provider Basics .
Designing an authority
A provider usually has a single authority, which serves as its Android-internal name. To
avoid conflicts with other providers, you should use Internet domain ownership (in reverse)
as the basis of your provider authority. Because this recommendation is also true for Android
package names, you can define your provider authority as an extension of the name
of the package containing the provider. For example, if your Android package name is
com.example.<appname>
, you should give your provider the
authority
com.example.<appname>.provider
.
Designing a path structure
Developers usually create content URIs from the authority by appending paths that point to
individual tables. For example, if you have two tables
table1
and
table2
, you combine the authority from the previous example to yield the
content URIs
com.example.<appname>.provider/table1
and
com.example.<appname>.provider/table2
. Paths aren't
limited to a single segment, and there doesn't have to be a table for each level of the path.
Handling content URI IDs
By convention, providers offer access to a single row in a table by accepting a content URI
with an ID value for the row at the end of the URI. Also by convention, providers match the
ID value to the table's
_ID
column, and perform the requested access against the
row that matches.
This convention facilitates a common design pattern for apps accessing a provider. The app
does a query against the provider and displays the resulting
Cursor
in a
ListView
using a
CursorAdapter
.
The definition of
CursorAdapter
requires one of the columns in the
Cursor
to be
_ID
The user then picks one of the displayed rows from the UI in order to look at or modify the
data. The app gets the corresponding row from the
Cursor
backing the
ListView
, gets the
_ID
value for this row, appends it to
the content URI, and sends the access request to the provider. The provider can then do the
query or modification against the exact row the user picked.
Content URI patterns
To help you choose which action to take for an incoming content URI, the provider API includes
the convenience class
UriMatcher
, which maps content URI "patterns" to
integer values. You can use the integer values in a
switch
statement that
chooses the desired action for the content URI or URIs that match a particular pattern.
A content URI pattern matches content URIs using wildcard characters:
-
*
: Matches a string of any valid characters of any length. -
#
: Matches a string of numeric characters of any length.
As an example of designing and coding content URI handling, consider a provider with the
authority
com.example.app.provider
that recognizes the following content URIs
pointing to tables:
-
content://com.example.app.provider/table1
: A table calledtable1
. -
content://com.example.app.provider/table2/dataset1
: A table calleddataset1
. -
content://com.example.app.provider/table2/dataset2
: A table calleddataset2
. -
content://com.example.app.provider/table3
: A table calledtable3
.
The provider also recognizes these content URIs if they have a row ID appended to them, as
for example
content://com.example.app.provider/table3/1
for the row identified by
1
in
table3
.
The following content URI patterns would be possible:
-
content://com.example.app.provider/*
- Matches any content URI in the provider.
-
content://com.example.app.provider/table2/*
: -
Matches a content URI for the tables
dataset1
anddataset2
, but doesn't match content URIs fortable1
ortable3
. -
content://com.example.app.provider/table3/#
: Matches a content URI for single rows intable3
, such ascontent://com.example.app.provider/table3/6
for the row identified by6
.
The following code snippet shows how the methods in
UriMatcher
work.
This code handles URIs for an entire table differently from URIs for a
single row, by using the content URI pattern
content://<authority>/<path>
for tables, and
content://<authority>/<path>/<id>
for single rows.
The method
addURI()
maps an
authority and path to an integer value. The method
match()
returns the integer value for a URI. A
switch
statement
chooses between querying the entire table, and querying for a single record:
public class ExampleProvider extends ContentProvider { ... // Creates a UriMatcher object. private static final UriMatcher sUriMatcher; ... /* * The calls to addURI() go here, for all of the content URI patterns that the provider * should recognize. For this snippet, only the calls for table 3 are shown. */ ... /* * Sets the integer value for multiple rows in table 3 to 1. Notice that no wildcard is used * in the path */ sUriMatcher.addURI("com.example.app.provider", "table3", 1); /* * Sets the code for a single row to 2. In this case, the "#" wildcard is * used. "content://com.example.app.provider/table3/3" matches, but * "content://com.example.app.provider/table3 doesn't. */ sUriMatcher.addURI("com.example.app.provider", "table3/#", 2); ... // Implements ContentProvider.query() public Cursor query( Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) { ... /* * Choose the table to query and a sort order based on the code returned for the incoming * URI. Here, too, only the statements for table 3 are shown. */ switch (sUriMatcher.match(uri)) { // If the incoming URI was for all of table3 case 1: if (TextUtils.isEmpty(sortOrder)) sortOrder = "_ID ASC"; break; // If the incoming URI was for a single row case 2: /* * Because this URI was for a single row, the _ID value part is * present. Get the last path segment from the URI; this is the _ID value. * Then, append the value to the WHERE clause for the query */ selection = selection + "_ID = " uri.getLastPathSegment(); break; default: ... // If the URI is not recognized, you should do some error handling here. } // call the code to actually do the query }
Another class,
ContentUris
, provides convenience methods for working
with the
id
part of content URIs. The classes
Uri
and
Uri.Builder
include convenience methods for parsing existing
Uri
objects and building new ones.
Implementing the ContentProvider Class
The
ContentProvider
instance manages access
to a structured set of data by handling requests from other applications. All forms
of access eventually call
ContentResolver
, which then calls a concrete
method of
ContentProvider
to get access.
Required methods
The abstract class
ContentProvider
defines six abstract methods that
you must implement as part of your own concrete subclass. All of these methods except
onCreate()
are called by a client application
that is attempting to access your content provider:
-
query()
-
Retrieve data from your provider. Use the arguments to select the table to
query, the rows and columns to return, and the sort order of the result.
Return the data as a
Cursor
object. -
insert()
- Insert a new row into your provider. Use the arguments to select the destination table and to get the column values to use. Return a content URI for the newly-inserted row.
-
update()
- Update existing rows in your provider. Use the arguments to select the table and rows to update and to get the updated column values. Return the number of rows updated.
-
delete()
- Delete rows from your provider. Use the arguments to select the table and the rows to delete. Return the number of rows deleted.
-
getType()
- Return the MIME type corresponding to a content URI. This method is described in more detail in the section Implementing Content Provider MIME Types .
-
onCreate()
-
Initialize your provider. The Android system calls this method immediately after it
creates your provider. Notice that your provider is not created until a
ContentResolver
object tries to access it.
Notice that these methods have the same signature as the identically-named
ContentResolver
methods.
Your implementation of these methods should account for the following:
-
All of these methods except
onCreate()
can be called by multiple threads at once, so they must be thread-safe. To learn more about multiple threads, see the topic Processes and Threads . -
Avoid doing lengthy operations in
onCreate()
. Defer initialization tasks until they are actually needed. The section Implementing the onCreate() method discusses this in more detail. -
Although you must implement these methods, your code does not have to do anything except
return the expected data type. For example, you may want to prevent other applications
from inserting data into some tables. To do this, you can ignore the call to
insert()
and return 0.
Implementing the query() method
The
ContentProvider.query()
method must return a
Cursor
object, or if it
fails, throw an
Exception
. If you are using an SQLite database as your data
storage, you can simply return the
Cursor
returned by one of the
query()
methods of the
SQLiteDatabase
class.
If the query does not match any rows, you should return a
Cursor
instance whose
getCount()
method returns 0.
You should return
null
only if an internal error occurred during the query process.
If you aren't using an SQLite database as your data storage, use one of the concrete subclasses
of
Cursor
. For example, the
MatrixCursor
class
implements a cursor in which each row is an array of
Object
. With this class,
use
addRow()
to add a new row.
Remember that the Android system must be able to communicate the
Exception
across process boundaries. Android can do this for the following exceptions that may be useful
in handling query errors:
-
IllegalArgumentException
(You may choose to throw this if your provider receives an invalid content URI) -
NullPointerException
Implementing the insert() method
The
insert()
method adds a
new row to the appropriate table, using the values in the
ContentValues
argument. If a column name is not in the
ContentValues
argument, you
may want to provide a default value for it either in your provider code or in your database
schema.
This method should return the content URI for the new row. To construct this, append the new
row's
_ID
(or other primary key) value to the table's content URI, using
withAppendedId()
.
Implementing the delete() method
The
delete()
method
does not have to physically delete rows from your data storage. If you are using a sync adapter
with your provider, you should consider marking a deleted row
with a "delete" flag rather than removing the row entirely. The sync adapter can
check for deleted rows and remove them from the server before deleting them from the provider.
Implementing the update() method
The
update()
method takes the same
ContentValues
argument used by
insert()
, and the
same
selection
and
selectionArgs
arguments used by
delete()
and
ContentProvider.query()
. This may allow you to re-use code between these methods.
Implementing the onCreate() method
The Android system calls
onCreate()
when it starts up the provider. You should perform only fast-running initialization
tasks in this method, and defer database creation and data loading until the provider actually
receives a request for the data. If you do lengthy tasks in
onCreate()
, you will slow down your
provider's startup. In turn, this will slow down the response from the provider to other
applications.
For example, if you are using an SQLite database you can create
a new
SQLiteOpenHelper
object in
ContentProvider.onCreate()
,
and then create the SQL tables the first time you open the database. To facilitate this, the
first time you call
getWritableDatabase()
, it automatically calls the
SQLiteOpenHelper.onCreate()
method.
The following two snippets demonstrate the interaction between
ContentProvider.onCreate()
and
SQLiteOpenHelper.onCreate()
. The first snippet is the implementation of
ContentProvider.onCreate()
:
public class ExampleProvider extends ContentProvider /* * Defines a handle to the database helper object. The MainDatabaseHelper class is defined * in a following snippet. */ private MainDatabaseHelper mOpenHelper; // Defines the database name private static final String DBNAME = "mydb"; // Holds the database object private SQLiteDatabase db; public boolean onCreate() { /* * Creates a new helper object. This method always returns quickly. * Notice that the database itself isn't created or opened * until SQLiteOpenHelper.getWritableDatabase is called */ mOpenHelper = new MainDatabaseHelper( getContext(), // the application context DBNAME, // the name of the database) null, // uses the default SQLite cursor 1 // the version number ); return true; } ... // Implements the provider's insert method public Cursor insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) { // Insert code here to determine which table to open, handle error-checking, and so forth ... /* * Gets a writeable database. This will trigger its creation if it doesn't already exist. * */ db = mOpenHelper.getWritableDatabase(); } }
The next snippet is the implementation of
SQLiteOpenHelper.onCreate()
, including a helper class:
... // A string that defines the SQL statement for creating a table private static final String SQL_CREATE_MAIN = "CREATE TABLE " + "main " + // Table's name "(" + // The columns in the table " _ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, " + " WORD TEXT" " FREQUENCY INTEGER " + " LOCALE TEXT )"; ... /** * Helper class that actually creates and manages the provider's underlying data repository. */ protected static final class MainDatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { /* * Instantiates an open helper for the provider's SQLite data repository * Do not do database creation and upgrade here. */ MainDatabaseHelper(Context context) { super(context, DBNAME, null, 1); } /* * Creates the data repository. This is called when the provider attempts to open the * repository and SQLite reports that it doesn't exist. */ public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) { // Creates the main table db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE_MAIN); } }
Implementing ContentProvider MIME Types
The
ContentProvider
class has two methods for returning MIME types:
-
getType()
- One of the required methods that you must implement for any provider.
-
getStreamTypes()
- A method that you're expected to implement if your provider offers files.
MIME types for tables
The
getType()
method returns a
String
in MIME format that describes the type of data returned by the content
URI argument. The
Uri
argument can be a pattern rather than a specific URI;
in this case, you should return the type of data associated with content URIs that match the
pattern.
For common types of data such as as text, HTML, or JPEG,
getType()
should return the standard
MIME type for that data. A full list of these standard types is available on the
IANA MIME Media Types
website.
For content URIs that point to a row or rows of table data,
getType()
should return
a MIME type in Android's vendor-specific MIME format:
-
Type part:
vnd
-
Subtype part:
-
If the URI pattern is for a single row:
android.cursor. item /
-
If the URI pattern is for more than one row:
android.cursor. dir /
-
If the URI pattern is for a single row:
-
Provider-specific part:
vnd.<name>
.<type>
You supply the
<name>
and<type>
. The<name>
value should be globally unique, and the<type>
value should be unique to the corresponding URI pattern. A good choice for<name>
is your company's name or some part of your application's Android package name. A good choice for the<type>
is a string that identifies the table associated with the URI.
For example, if a provider's authority is
com.example.app.provider
, and it exposes a table named
table1
, the MIME type for multiple rows in
table1
is:
vnd.android.cursor. dir /vnd.com.example.provider.table1
For a single row of
table1
, the MIME type is:
vnd.android.cursor. item /vnd.com.example.provider.table1
MIME types for files
If your provider offers files, implement
getStreamTypes()
.
The method returns a
String
array of MIME types for the files your provider
can return for a given content URI. You should filter the MIME types you offer by the MIME type
filter argument, so that you return only those MIME types that the client wants to handle.
For example, consider a provider that offers photo images as files in
.jpg
,
.png
, and
.gif
format.
If an application calls
ContentResolver.getStreamTypes()
with the filter string
image/*
(something that
is an "image"),
then the
ContentProvider.getStreamTypes()
method should return the array:
{ "image/jpeg", "image/png", "image/gif"}
If the app is only interested in
.jpg
files, then it can call
ContentResolver.getStreamTypes()
with the filter string
*\/jpeg
, and
ContentProvider.getStreamTypes()
should return:
{"image/jpeg"}
If your provider doesn't offer any of the MIME types requested in the filter string,
getStreamTypes()
should return
null
.
Implementing a Contract Class
A contract class is a
public final
class that contains constant definitions for the
URIs, column names, MIME types, and other meta-data that pertain to the provider. The class
establishes a contract between the provider and other applications by ensuring that the provider
can be correctly accessed even if there are changes to the actual values of URIs, column names,
and so forth.
A contract class also helps developers because it usually has mnemonic names for its constants, so developers are less likely to use incorrect values for column names or URIs. Since it's a class, it can contain Javadoc documentation. Integrated development environments such as Eclipse can auto-complete constant names from the contract class and display Javadoc for the constants.
Developers can't access the contract class's class file from your application, but they can
statically compile it into their application from a
.jar
file you provide.
The
ContactsContract
class and its nested classes are examples of
contract classes.
Implementing Content Provider Permissions
Permissions and access for all aspects of the Android system are described in detail in the topic Security and Permissions . The topic Data Storage also described the security and permissions in effect for various types of storage. In brief, the important points are:
- By default, data files stored on the device's internal storage are private to your application and provider.
-
SQLiteDatabase
databases you create are private to your application and provider. - By default, data files that you save to external storage are public and world-readable . You can't use a content provider to restrict access to files in external storage, because other applications can use other API calls to read and write them.
- The method calls for opening or creating files or SQLite databases on your device's internal storage can potentially give both read and write access to all other applications. If you use an internal file or database as your provider's repository, and you give it "world-readable" or "world-writeable" access, the permissions you set for your provider in its manifest won't protect your data. The default access for files and databases in internal storage is "private", and for your provider's repository you shouldn't change this.
If you want to use content provider permissions to control access to your data, then you should store your data in internal files, SQLite databases, or the "cloud" (for example, on a remote server), and you should keep files and databases private to your application.
Implementing permissions
All applications can read from or write to your provider, even if the underlying data is
private, because by default your provider does not have permissions set. To change this,
set permissions for your provider in your manifest file, using attributes or child
elements of the
<provider>
element. You can set permissions that apply to the entire provider,
or to certain tables, or even to certain records, or all three.
You define permissions for your provider with one or more
<permission>
elements in your manifest file. To make the
permission unique to your provider, use Java-style scoping for the
android:name
attribute. For example, name the read permission
com.example.app.provider.permission.READ_PROVIDER
.
The following list describes the scope of provider permissions, starting with the permissions that apply to the entire provider and then becoming more fine-grained. More fine-grained permissions take precedence over ones with larger scope:
- Single read-write provider-level permission
-
One permission that controls both read and write access to the entire provider, specified
with the
android:permission
attribute of the<provider>
element. - Separate read and write provider-level permission
-
A read permission and a write permission for the entire provider. You specify them
with the
android:readPermission
andandroid:writePermission
attributes of the<provider>
element. They take precedence over the permission required byandroid:permission
. - Path-level permission
-
Read, write, or read/write permission for a content URI in your provider. You specify
each URI you want to control with a
<path-permission>
child element of the<provider>
element. For each content URI you specify, you can specify a read/write permission, a read permission, or a write permission, or all three. The read and write permissions take precedence over the read/write permission. Also, path-level permission takes precedence over provider-level permissions. - Temporary permission
-
A permission level that grants temporary access to an application, even if the application
doesn't have the permissions that are normally required. The temporary
access feature reduces the number of permissions an application has to request in
its manifest. When you turn on temporary permissions, the only applications that need
"permanent" permissions for your provider are ones that continually access all
your data.
Consider the permissions you need to implement an email provider and app, when you want to allow an outside image viewer application to display photo attachments from your provider. To give the image viewer the necessary access without requiring permissions, set up temporary permissions for content URIs for photos. Design your email app so that when the user wants to display a photo, the app sends an intent containing the photo's content URI and permission flags to the image viewer. The image viewer can then query your email provider to retrieve the photo, even though the viewer doesn't have the normal read permission for your provider.
To turn on temporary permissions, either set the
android:grantUriPermissions
attribute of the<provider>
element, or add one or more<grant-uri-permission>
child elements to your<provider>
element. If you use temporary permissions, you have to callContext.revokeUriPermission()
whenever you remove support for a content URI from your provider, and the content URI is associated with a temporary permission.The attribute's value determines how much of your provider is made accessible. If the attribute is set to
true
, then the system will grant temporary permission to your entire provider, overriding any other permissions that are required by your provider-level or path-level permissions.If this flag is set to
false
, then you must add<grant-uri-permission>
child elements to your<provider>
element. Each child element specifies the content URI or URIs for which temporary access is granted.To delegate temporary access to an application, an intent must contain the
FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION
or theFLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION
flags, or both. These are set with thesetFlags()
method.If the
android:grantUriPermissions
attribute is not present, it's assumed to befalse
.
The <provider> Element
Like
Activity
and
Service
components,
a subclass of
ContentProvider
must be defined in the manifest file for its application, using the
<provider>
element. The Android system gets the following information from
the element:
-
Authority
(
android:authorities
) - Symbolic names that identify the entire provider within the system. This attribute is described in more detail in the section Designing Content URIs .
-
Provider class name
(
android:name
) -
The class that implements
ContentProvider
. This class is described in more detail in the section Implementing the ContentProvider Class . - Permissions
-
Attributes that specify the permissions that other applications must have in order to access
the provider's data:
-
android:grantUriPermssions
: Temporary permission flag. -
android:permission
: Single provider-wide read/write permission. -
android:readPermission
: Provider-wide read permission. -
android:writePermission
: Provider-wide write permission.
Permissions and their corresponding attributes are described in more detail in the section Implementing Content Provider Permissions .
-
- Startup and control attributes
-
These attributes determine how and when the Android system starts the provider, the
process characteristics of the provider, and other run-time settings:
-
android:enabled
: Flag allowing the system to start the provider. -
android:exported
: Flag allowing other applications to use this provider. -
android:initOrder
: The order in which this provider should be started, relative to other providers in the same process. -
android:multiProcess
: Flag allowing the system to start the provider in the same process as the calling client. -
android:process
: The name of the process in which the provider should run. -
android:syncable
: Flag indicating that the provider's data is to be sync'ed with data on a server.
The attributes are fully documented in the dev guide topic for the
<provider>
element. -
- Informational attributes
-
An optional icon and label for the provider:
-
android:icon
: A drawable resource containing an icon for the provider. The icon appears next to the provider's label in the list of apps in Settings > Apps > All . -
android:label
: An informational label describing the provider or its data, or both. The label appears in the list of apps in Settings > Apps > All .
The attributes are fully documented in the dev guide topic for the
<provider>
element. -
Intents and Data Access
Applications can access a content provider indirectly with an
Intent
.
The application does not call any of the methods of
ContentResolver
or
ContentProvider
. Instead, it sends an intent that starts an activity,
which is often part of the provider's own application. The destination activity is in charge of
retrieving and displaying the data in its UI. Depending on the action in the intent, the
destination activity may also prompt the user to make modifications to the provider's data.
An intent may also contain "extras" data that the destination activity displays
in the UI; the user then has the option of changing this data before using it to modify the
data in the provider.
You may want to use intent access to help ensure data integrity. Your provider may depend on having data inserted, updated, and deleted according to strictly defined business logic. If this is the case, allowing other applications to directly modify your data may lead to invalid data. If you want developers to use intent access, be sure to document it thoroughly. Explain to them why intent access using your own application's UI is better than trying to modify the data with their code.
Handling an incoming intent that wishes to modify your provider's data is no different from handling other intents. You can learn more about using intents by reading the topic Intents and Intent Filters .