Content Provider

05 Feb 2023 . android .


Content URI

To access data from a content provider, URI is used as a query string.

[content://authority/optionalPath/optionalID]

  • content:// - Mandatory part which represents a Content URI.
  • authority - Signifies the name of the content provider. Must be unique.
  • optionalPath - Specifies the type of the data.
  • optionalID - A numeric value used for a particular record.
  • Example:
		// defining authority so that other application can access it
    static final String PROVIDER_NAME = "com.demo.user.provider";
  
    // defining content URI
    static final String URL = "content://" + PROVIDER_NAME + "/users";
  
    // parsing the content URI
    static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse(URL);

Working of Content Provider

Create Content Provider Class

Implement query(), insert(), update(), delete(), update(), onCreate() methods and operate the database.

In MainActivity of Same Application

  • put data like this:
				// class to add values in the database
        ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
  
        // fetching text from user
        values.put(MyContentProvider.name, ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.textName)).getText().toString());
  
        // inserting into database through content URI
        getContentResolver().insert(MyContentProvider.CONTENT_URI, values);
  • retrieve data like this:
				// creating a cursor object of the content URI
        Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(Uri.parse("content://com.demo.user.provider/users"), null, null, null, null);
  
        // iteration of the cursor to print whole table
        if(cursor.moveToFirst()) {
            StringBuilder strBuild=new StringBuilder();
            while (!cursor.isAfterLast()) {
                strBuild.append("\n"+cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("id"))+ "-"+ cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("name")));
                cursor.moveToNext();
            }
            resultView.setText(strBuild);

In MainActivity of Different Application

Add certain URI and put && retrieve data same as in same application.

Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://com.demo.user.provider/users");