Create Your Own Content Provider in Android

Android Provides multiple ways for different apps to communicate amongst themselves on the platform. An Android app can share data with other apps that can be used by other apps to build their own logic around. To give an example, you might need to query contact details on the phone. In Android the recommended way to share data is through content providers. A content provider is an owner of particular content, it provides well defined APIs to read, insert, update and delete that data. The content provider can internally use any place to store its data like a local file, local database or some remote service. In this article we are going to learn how we can create our own content provider and access the data from an another app.

Find the final project on GitHub.

Creating the Content Provider class

We will start by creating a Content provider class in our application which can hold image metadata items. We will use a local SQLite database to store the data, but you can use any where you like to store the data.

First create an ImagesProvider class extending ContentProvider class and overriding the following methods.

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
public class ImagesProvider extends ContentProvider {

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        return "";
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
       return null;
    }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }
}

In the above code we created an ImagesProvider class which overrides the necessary methods to create a Content provider.

We will start by implementing the getType method. The getType method returns the Mime type of the data as a string.

The returned mime type should be in the format vnd.<uri pattern>./vnd.<name>.<type>. Where the <uri pattern> for a single row should be android.cursor.item, for multiple rows android.cursor.dir and the <name> should be globally unique (use the package name). <type> should be unique to the corresponding URI. So now let’s update our code to implement getType as follows:

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.UriMatcher;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;


public class ImagesProvider extends ContentProvider {

    private static final String PROVIDER_NAME = "androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.images";
    private static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + PROVIDER_NAME + "/images");
    private static final int IMAGES = 1;
    private static final int IMAGE_ID = 2;
    private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher = getUriMatcher();
    private static UriMatcher getUriMatcher() {
        UriMatcher uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images", IMAGES);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images/#", IMAGE_ID);
        return uriMatcher;
    }

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case IMAGES:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";
            case IMAGE_ID:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";

        }
        return "";
    }
    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
       return null;
    }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }
}

Implementing the onCreate and query functions

To store the content we will need a database helper class for our content provider. Create an ImageDataBase class as follows

import android.content.Context;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder;

public class ImageDataBase extends SQLiteOpenHelper {

    private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "ImagesDatabase.db";
    private static final String TABLE_NAME = "imagestore";
    private static final String SQL_CREATE = "CREATE TABLE " + TABLE_NAME +
            " (_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, IMAGETITLE TEXT , IMAGEURL TEXT , IMAGEDESC TEXT )";

    private static final String SQL_DROP = "DROP TABLE IS EXISTS " + TABLE_NAME ;

    ImageDataBase(Context context) {
        super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, 1);
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
        db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
        db.execSQL(SQL_DROP);
        onCreate(db);
    }

    public Cursor getImages(String id, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        SQLiteQueryBuilder sqliteQueryBuilder = new SQLiteQueryBuilder();
        sqliteQueryBuilder.setTables(TABLE_NAME);

        if(id != null) {
            sqliteQueryBuilder.appendWhere("_id" + " = " + id);
        }

        if(sortOrder == null || sortOrder == "") {
            sortOrder = "IMAGETITLE";
        }
        Cursor cursor = sqliteQueryBuilder.query(getReadableDatabase(),
                projection,
                selection,
                selectionArgs,
                null,
                null,
                sortOrder);
        return cursor;
    }
}

The above class extends the SQLiteOpenHelper and creates a table called ‘imagestore’ in the ‘ImagesDatabase.db’ database with the columns ‘id’, IMAGETITLE, ‘IMAGEURL’ and ‘IMAGEDESC’. The getImages function queries on this database using the SQLiteQueryBuilder class and returns the result cursor. Now let’s implement the onCreate and query functions in our content provider.

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.UriMatcher;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;


public class ImagesProvider extends ContentProvider {

    private static final String PROVIDER_NAME = "androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.images";
    private static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + PROVIDER_NAME + "/images");
    private static final int IMAGES = 1;
    private static final int IMAGE_ID = 2;
    private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher = getUriMatcher();
    private static UriMatcher getUriMatcher() {
        UriMatcher uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images", IMAGES);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images/#", IMAGE_ID);
        return uriMatcher;
    }

    private ImageDatabase imageDataBase = null;

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case IMAGES:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";
            case IMAGE_ID:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";

        }
        return "";
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        Context context = getContext();
        imageDataBase = new ImageDataBase(context);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        String id = null;
        if(uriMatcher.match(uri) == IMAGE_ID) {
            //Query is for one single image. Get the ID from the URI.
            id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
        }
        return imageDataBase.getImages(id, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);
    }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }
}

In onCreate function, we create an object of the ImageDatabase class and pass it the context. We store this variable so that we can use it for various operations of our content provider. In the query function, we check if the query is for one id. In this case we fetch the id and if not, we keep it as null and pass those values to ImageDatabase:getImages to fetch images data and return the result cursor.

Inserting, Deleting, Updating data in your content provider

Once the ‘query’ function is complete, we will implement the other functions in the content provider. For the insert, delete and update we will need to add a supporting function in the ImageDatabase class as below

import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.Context;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder;

import java.sql.SQLException;

public class ImageDataBase extends SQLiteOpenHelper {

    private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "ImagesDatabase.db";
    private static final String TABLE_NAME = "imagestore";
    private static final String SQL_CREATE = "CREATE TABLE " + TABLE_NAME +
            " (_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, IMAGETITLE TEXT , IMAGEURL TEXT , IMAGEDESC TEXT )";

    private static final String SQL_DROP = "DROP TABLE IS EXISTS " + TABLE_NAME ;

    ImageDataBase(Context context) {
        super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, 1);
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
        db.execSQL(SQL_CREATE);
    }

    @Override
    public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
        db.execSQL(SQL_DROP);
        onCreate(db);
    }

    public Cursor getImages(String id, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        SQLiteQueryBuilder sqliteQueryBuilder = new SQLiteQueryBuilder();
        sqliteQueryBuilder.setTables(TABLE_NAME);

        if(id != null) {
            sqliteQueryBuilder.appendWhere("_id" + " = " + id);
        }

        if(sortOrder == null || sortOrder == "") {
            sortOrder = "IMAGETITLE";
        }
        Cursor cursor = sqliteQueryBuilder.query(getReadableDatabase(),
                projection,
                selection,
                selectionArgs,
                null,
                null,
                sortOrder);
        return cursor;
    }

    public long addNewImage(ContentValues values) throws SQLException {
        long id = getWritableDatabase().insert(TABLE_NAME, "", values);
        if(id <=0 ) {
            throw new SQLException("Failed to add an image");
        }

        return id;
    }

    public int deleteImages(String id) {
        if(id == null) {
            return getWritableDatabase().delete(TABLE_NAME, null , null);
        } else {
            return getWritableDatabase().delete(TABLE_NAME, "_id=?", new String[]{id});
        }
    }

    public int updateImages(String id, ContentValues values) {
        if(id == null) {
            return getWritableDatabase().update(TABLE_NAME, values, null, null);
        } else {
            return getWritableDatabase().update(TABLE_NAME, values, "_id=?", new String[]{id});
        }
    }
}

All the new functions access the database and call the insert, delete and update functions respectively by passing the id, and content values. Now we update the ImagesProvider class as below

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentUris;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.UriMatcher;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.util.Log;


public class ImagesProvider extends ContentProvider {

    private static final String PROVIDER_NAME = "androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.images";
    private static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + PROVIDER_NAME + "/images");
    private static final int IMAGES = 1;
    private static final int IMAGE_ID = 2;
    private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher = getUriMatcher();
    private static UriMatcher getUriMatcher() {
        UriMatcher uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images", IMAGES);
        uriMatcher.addURI(PROVIDER_NAME, "images/#", IMAGE_ID);
        return uriMatcher;
    }

    private ImageDatabase imageDataBase = null;

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) {
            case IMAGES:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";
            case IMAGE_ID:
                return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.provider.images";

        }
        return "";
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        Context context = getContext();
        imageDataBase = new ImageDatabase(context);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) {
        String id = null;
        if(uriMatcher.match(uri) == IMAGE_ID) {
            //Query is for one single image. Get the ID from the URI.
            id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
        }
        return imageDataBase.getImages(id, projection, selection, selectionArgs, sortOrder);
    }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
        try {
            long id = imageDataBase.addNewImage(values);
            Uri returnUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(CONTENT_URI, id);
            return returnUri;
        } catch(Exception e) {
            return null;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        String id = null;
        if(uriMatcher.match(uri) == IMAGE_ID) {
            //Delete is for one single image. Get the ID from the URI.
            id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
        }

        return imageDataBase.deleteImages(id);
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        String id = null;
        if(uriMatcher.match(uri) == IMAGE_ID) {
            //Update is for one single image. Get the ID from the URI.
            id = uri.getPathSegments().get(1);
        }

        return imageDataBase.updateImages(id, values);
    }
}

In the above code, if the URI is for a simple image we get the id value, otherwise we keep the id as null. Then pass that value to the appropriate corresponding function in ImageDataBase class.

Declaring your content provider in the AndroidManifest

We need to declare our content provider in the AndroidManifest.xml file using the provide tag.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider">
    <application android:allowBackup="true" android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher" android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <provider android:name="com.androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.ImagesProvider" android:authorities="androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.images">
        </provider>
    </application>
</manifest>

In the above <provider> tag the android:name property should be the Content Provider class and android:authorities should be the URI to identify the content.

Using the content provider

Once the above is complete, we are ready to test our content provider. To do this, we will create a test app in the current Main Activity, again changing to appropriate values for your application name.

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.content.CursorLoader;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.SimpleCursorAdapter;
import android.widget.Toast;


public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private static final String PROVIDER_NAME = "androidcontentproviderdemo.androidcontentprovider.images";
    private static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://" + PROVIDER_NAME + "/images");

    private ListView listView;
    private SimpleCursorAdapter adapter;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.lstViewImages);

        adapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(getBaseContext(),
                R.layout.list_layout,
                null,
                new String[] { "IMAGETITLE", "IMAGEURL", "IMAGEDESC"},
                new int[] { R.id.imgTitle , R.id.imgUrl, R.id.imgDesc }, 0);

        listView.setAdapter(adapter);
        refreshValuesFromContentProvider();
    }

    private void refreshValuesFromContentProvider() {
        CursorLoader cursorLoader = new CursorLoader(getBaseContext(), CONTENT_URI,
                null, null, null, null);
        Cursor c = cursorLoader.loadInBackground();
        adapter.swapCursor(c);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    public void onClickAddImage(View view) {
        ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
        contentValues.put("IMAGETITLE", ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.edtTxtImageTitle)).getText().toString());
        contentValues.put("IMAGEURL" , ((EditText)findViewById(R.id.edtImageUrl)).getText().toString());
        contentValues.put("IMAGEDESC", ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.edtImageDesc)).getText().toString());
        Uri uri = getContentResolver().insert(CONTENT_URI, contentValues);
        Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), uri.toString(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        refreshValuesFromContentProvider();
    }
}

This activity refers to two layouts, one for the main content view and one for the list view, which are as follows:

activitymain.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context=".ContentProviderUsageActivity">

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true">

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:text="Image Title"
            android:id="@+id/txtViewImageTitle"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <EditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/edtTxtImageTitle"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:text="Image URL"
            android:id="@+id/txtViewImageUrl"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <EditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/edtImageUrl"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:text="Image description"
            android:id="@+id/txtViewImageDesc"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <EditText
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/edtImageDesc"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />

        <Button
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Add Image"
            android:id="@+id/btnAddImage"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"
            android:onClick="onClickAddImage" />

        <ListView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:id="@+id/lstViewImages"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" />
    </LinearLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

listlayout.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/imgTitle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/imgUrl"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/imgDesc"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        />

</LinearLayout>

In the above code, the onCreate function fetches all the contents from the content provider using the CursorLoader function and passes the CONTENT_URI to it.

To insert values, getContentResolver().insert is called, passing the content URI and the ContentValues to insert. If we run this activity, it will look as follows

Conclusion

The Content provider in Android provides a clean and systematic way for apps to share and use data from other apps. It standardizes how content is shared and consumed by multiple apps. Many inbuilt content providers exist in Android and the API makes it easy to write your own custom content provider or use custom content providers.

Have fun creating your next content provider and let me know if you have any feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Creating Your Own Content Provider in Android