- syntax:
-
<provider android:authorities="list" android:enabled=["true" | "false"] android:exported=["true" | "false"] android:grantUriPermissions=["true" | "false"] android:icon="drawable resource" android:initOrder="integer" android:label="string resource" android:multiprocess=["true" | "false"] android:name="string" android:permission="string" android:process="string" android:readPermission="string" android:syncable=["true" | "false"] android:writePermission="string" > . . . </provider>
- contained in:
-
<application>
- can contain:
<meta-data>
<grant-uri-permission>
<path-permission>
- description:
-
Declares a content provider component. A content provider is a subclass of
ContentProvider
that supplies structured access to data managed by the application. All content providers in your application must be defined in a<provider>
element in the manifest file; otherwise, the system is unaware of them and doesn't run them.You only declare content providers that are part of your application. Content providers in other applications that you use in your application should not be declared.
The Android system stores references to content providers according to an authority string, part of the provider's content URI. For example, suppose you want to access a content provider that stores information about health care professionals. To do this, you call the method
ContentResolver.query()
, which among other arguments takes a URI that identifies the provider:content://com.example.project.healthcareprovider/nurses/rn
The
content:
scheme identifies the URI as a content URI pointing to an Android content provider. The authoritycom.example.project.healthcareprovider
identifies the provider itself; the Android system looks up the authority in its list of known providers and their authorities. The substringnurses/rn
is a path, which the content provider can use to identify subsets of the provider data.Notice that when you define your provider in the
<provider>
element, you don't include the scheme or the path in theandroid:name
argument, only the authority.For information on using and developing content providers, see the API Guide, Content Providers.
- attributes:
-
android:authorities
-
A list of one or more URI authorities that identify data offered by the content provider.
Multiple authorities are listed by separating their names with a semicolon.
To avoid conflicts, authority names should use a Java-style naming convention
(such as
com.example.provider.cartoonprovider
). Typically, it's the name of theContentProvider
subclass that implements the providerThere is no default. At least one authority must be specified.
android:enabled
- Whether or not the content provider can be instantiated by the system —
"
true
" if it can be, and "false
" if not. The default value is "true
".The
<application>
element has its ownenabled
attribute that applies to all application components, including content providers. The<application>
and<provider>
attributes must both be "true
" (as they both are by default) for the content provider to be enabled. If either is "false
", the provider is disabled; it cannot be instantiated. android:exported
-
Whether the content provider is available for other applications to use:
-
true
: The provider is available to other applications. Any application can use the provider's content URI to access it, subject to the permissions specified for the provider. -
false
: The provider is not available to other applications. Setandroid:exported="false"
to limit access to the provider to your applications. Only applications that have the same user ID (UID) as the provider will have access to it.
The default value is
"true"
for applications that set eitherandroid:minSdkVersion
orandroid:targetSdkVersion
to"16"
or lower. For applications that set either of these attributes to"17"
or higher, the default is"false"
.You can set
android:exported="false"
and still limit access to your provider by setting permissions with thepermission
attribute. -
android:grantUriPermissions
- Whether or not those who ordinarily would not have permission to
access the content provider's data can be granted permission to do so,
temporarily overcoming the restriction imposed by the
readPermission
,writePermission
, andpermission
attributes — "true
" if permission can be granted, and "false
" if not. If "true
", permission can be granted to any of the content provider's data. If "false
", permission can be granted only to the data subsets listed in<grant-uri-permission>
subelements, if any. The default value is "false
".Granting permission is a way of giving an application component one-time access to data protected by a permission. For example, when an e-mail message contains an attachment, the mail application may call upon the appropriate viewer to open it, even though the viewer doesn't have general permission to look at all the content provider's data.
In such cases, permission is granted by
andFLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION
flags in the Intent object that activates the component. For example, the mail application might putFLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION
FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION
in the Intent passed toContext.startActivity()
. The permission is specific to the URI in the Intent.If you enable this feature, either by setting this attribute to "
true
" or by defining<grant-uri-permission>
subelements, you must call
when a covered URI is deleted from the provider.Context.revokeUriPermission()
See also the
<grant-uri-permission>
element. android:icon
- An icon representing the content provider.
This attribute must be set as a reference to a drawable resource containing
the image definition. If it is not set, the icon specified for the application
as a whole is used instead (see the
<application>
element'sicon
attribute). android:initOrder
- The order in which the content provider should be instantiated, relative to other content providers hosted by the same process. When there are dependencies among content providers, setting this attribute for each of them ensures that they are created in the order required by those dependencies. The value is a simple integer, with higher numbers being initialized first.
android:label
- A user-readable label for the content provided.
If this attribute is not set, the label set for the application as a whole is
used instead (see the
<application>
element'slabel
attribute).The label should be set as a reference to a string resource, so that it can be localized like other strings in the user interface. However, as a convenience while you're developing the application, it can also be set as a raw string.
android:multiprocess
- Whether or not an instance of the content provider can be created in
every client process — "
true
" if instances can run in multiple processes, and "false
" if not. The default value is "false
".Normally, a content provider is instantiated in the process of the application that defined it. However, if this flag is set to "
true
", the system can create an instance in every process where there's a client that wants to interact with it, thus avoiding the overhead of interprocess communication. android:name
- The name of the class that implements the content provider, a subclass of
ContentProvider
. This should be a fully qualified class name (such as, "com.example.project.TransportationProvider
"). However, as a shorthand, if the first character of the name is a period, it is appended to the package name specified in the<manifest>
element.There is no default. The name must be specified.
android:permission
- The name of a permission that clients must have to read or write the
content provider's data. This attribute is a convenient way of setting a
single permission for both reading and writing. However, the
readPermission
andwritePermission
attributes take precedence over this one. If thereadPermission
attribute is also set, it controls access for querying the content provider. And if thewritePermission
attribute is set, it controls access for modifying the provider's data.For more information on permissions, see the Permissions section in the introduction and a separate document, Security and Permissions.
android:process
- The name of the process in which the content provider should run. Normally,
all components of an application run in the default process created for the
application. It has the same name as the application package. The
<application>
element'sprocess
attribute can set a different default for all components. But each component can override the default with its ownprocess
attribute, allowing you to spread your application across multiple processes.If the name assigned to this attribute begins with a colon (':'), a new process, private to the application, is created when it's needed and the activity runs in that process. If the process name begins with a lowercase character, the activity will run in a global process of that name, provided that it has permission to do so. This allows components in different applications to share a process, reducing resource usage.
android:readPermission
- A permission that clients must have to query the content provider.
See also the
permission
andwritePermission
attributes. android:syncable
- Whether or not the data under the content provider's control
is to be synchronized with data on a server — "
true
" if it is to be synchronized, and "false
" if not. android:writePermission
- A permission that clients must have to make changes to the data
controlled by the content provider.
See also the
permission
andreadPermission
attributes.
- introduced in:
- API Level 1
- see also:
- Content Providers