This lesson teaches you to
- Insert a New Contact Using an Intent
- Edit an Existing Contact Using an Intent
- Let Users Choose to Insert or Edit Using an Intent
You should also read
Try it out
ContactsList.zip
This lesson shows you how to use an Intent
to insert a new contact or
modify a contact's data. Instead of accessing the Contacts Provider directly, an
Intent
starts the contacts app, which runs the appropriate
Activity
. For the modification actions described in this lesson,
if you send extended data in the Intent
it's entered into the UI of the
Activity
that is started.
Using an Intent
to insert or update a single contact is the preferred
way of modifying the Contacts Provider, for the following reasons:
- It saves you the time and and effort of developing your own UI and code.
- It avoids introducing errors caused by modifications that don't follow the Contacts Provider's rules.
- It reduces the number of permissions you need to request. Your app doesn't need permission to write to the Contacts Provider, because it delegates modifications to the contacts app, which already has that permission.
Insert a New Contact Using an Intent
You often want to allow the user to insert a new contact when your app receives new data. For example, a restaurant review app can allow users to add the restaurant as a contact as they're reviewing it. To do this using an intent, create the intent using as much data as you have available, and then send the intent to the contacts app.
Inserting a contact using the contacts app inserts a new raw contact into the Contacts
Provider's ContactsContract.RawContacts
table. If necessary,
the contacts app prompts users for the account type and account to use when creating the raw
contact. The contacts app also notifies users if the raw contact already exists. Users then have
option of canceling the insertion, in which case no contact is created. To learn
more about raw contacts, see the
Contacts Provider
API guide.
Create an Intent
To start, create a new Intent
object with the action
Intents.Insert.ACTION
.
Set the MIME type to RawContacts.CONTENT_TYPE
. For example:
... // Creates a new Intent to insert a contact Intent intent = new Intent(Intents.Insert.ACTION); // Sets the MIME type to match the Contacts Provider intent.setType(ContactsContract.RawContacts.CONTENT_TYPE);
If you already have details for the contact, such as a phone number or email address, you can
insert them into the intent as extended data. For a key value, use the appropriate constant from
Intents.Insert
. The contacts app
displays the data in its insert screen, allowing users to make further edits and additions.
/* Assumes EditText fields in your UI contain an email address * and a phone number. * */ private EditText mEmailAddress = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.email); private EditText mPhoneNumber = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.phone); ... /* * Inserts new data into the Intent. This data is passed to the * contacts app's Insert screen */ // Inserts an email address intent.putExtra(Intents.Insert.EMAIL, mEmailAddress.getText()) /* * In this example, sets the email type to be a work email. * You can set other email types as necessary. */ .putExtra(Intents.Insert.EMAIL_TYPE, CommonDataKinds.Email.TYPE_WORK) // Inserts a phone number .putExtra(Intents.Insert.PHONE, mPhoneNumber.getText()) /* * In this example, sets the phone type to be a work phone. * You can set other phone types as necessary. */ .putExtra(Intents.Insert.PHONE_TYPE, Phone.TYPE_WORK);
Once you've created the Intent
, send it by calling
startActivity()
.
/* Sends the Intent */ startActivity(intent);
This call opens a screen in the contacts app that allows users to enter a new contact. The account type and account name for the contact is listed at the top of the screen. Once users enter the data and click Done, the contacts app's contact list appears. Users return to your app by clicking Back.
Edit an Existing Contact Using an Intent
Editing an existing contact using an Intent
is useful if the user
has already chosen a contact of interest. For example, an app that finds contacts that have
postal addresses but lack a postal code could give users the option of looking up the code and
then adding it to the contact.
To edit an existing contact using an intent, use a procedure similar to
inserting a contact. Create an intent as described in the section
Insert a New Contact Using an Intent, but add the contact's
Contacts.CONTENT_LOOKUP_URI
and the MIME type
Contacts.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE
to the intent. If you want to edit the contact with details you
already have, you can put them in the intent's extended data. Notice that some
name columns can't be edited using an intent; these columns are listed in the summary
section of the API reference for the class ContactsContract.Contacts
under the heading "Update".
Finally, send the intent. In response, the contacts app displays an edit screen. When the user finishes editing and saves the edits, the contacts app displays a contact list. When the user clicks Back, your app is displayed.
Contacts Lookup Key
A contact's LOOKUP_KEY
value is
the identifier that you should use to retrieve a contact. It remains constant,
even if the provider changes the contact's row ID to handle internal operations.
Create the Intent
To edit a contact, call Intent(action)
to
create an intent with the action ACTION_EDIT
. Call
setDataAndType()
to set the data value for the
intent to the contact's Contacts.CONTENT_LOOKUP_URI
and the MIME type to
Contacts.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE
MIME type; because a call to
setType()
overwrites the current data value for the
Intent
, you must set the data and the MIME type at the same time.
To get a contact's Contacts.CONTENT_LOOKUP_URI
, call
Contacts.getLookupUri(id, lookupkey)
with the contact's
Contacts._ID
and
Contacts.LOOKUP_KEY
values as
arguments.
The following snippet shows you how to create an intent:
// The Cursor that contains the Contact row public Cursor mCursor; // The index of the lookup key column in the cursor public int mLookupKeyIndex; // The index of the contact's _ID value public int mIdIndex; // The lookup key from the Cursor public String mCurrentLookupKey; // The _ID value from the Cursor public long mCurrentId; // A content URI pointing to the contact Uri mSelectedContactUri; ... /* * Once the user has selected a contact to edit, * this gets the contact's lookup key and _ID values from the * cursor and creates the necessary URI. */ // Gets the lookup key column index mLookupKeyIndex = mCursor.getColumnIndex(Contacts.LOOKUP_KEY); // Gets the lookup key value mCurrentLookupKey = mCursor.getString(mLookupKeyIndex); // Gets the _ID column index mIdIndex = mCursor.getColumnIndex(Contacts._ID); mCurrentId = mCursor.getLong(mIdIndex); mSelectedContactUri = Contacts.getLookupUri(mCurrentId, mCurrentLookupKey); ... // Creates a new Intent to edit a contact Intent editIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT); /* * Sets the contact URI to edit, and the data type that the * Intent must match */ editIntent.setDataAndType(mSelectedContactUri,Contacts.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE);
Add the navigation flag
In Android 4.0 (API version 14) and later, a problem in the contacts app causes incorrect navigation. When your app sends an edit intent to the contacts app, and users edit and save a contact, when they click Back they see the contacts list screen. To navigate back to your app, they have to click Recents and choose your app.
To work around this problem in Android 4.0.3 (API version 15) and later, add the extended
data key finishActivityOnSaveCompleted
to the intent, with a value of true
.
Android versions prior to Android 4.0 accept this key, but it has no effect. To set the
extended data, do the following:
// Sets the special extended data for navigation editIntent.putExtra("finishActivityOnSaveCompleted", true);
Add other extended data
To add additional extended data to the Intent
, call
putExtra()
as desired.
You can add extended data for common contact fields by using the key values specified in
Intents.Insert
. Remember that some
columns in the ContactsContract.Contacts
table can't be modified.
These columns are listed in the summary section of the API reference for the class
ContactsContract.Contacts
under the heading "Update".
Send the Intent
Finally, send the intent you've constructed. For example:
// Sends the Intent startActivity(editIntent);
Let Users Choose to Insert or Edit Using an Intent
You can allow users to choose whether to insert a contact or edit an existing one by sending
an Intent
with the action
ACTION_INSERT_OR_EDIT
. For example, an email client app could
allow users to add an incoming email address to a new contact, or add it as an additional
address for an existing contact. Set the MIME type for this intent to
Contacts.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE
,
but don't set the data URI.
When you send this intent, the contacts app displays a list of contacts.
Users can either insert a new contact or pick an existing contact and edit it.
Any extended data fields you add to the intent populates the screen that appears. You can use
any of the key values specified in Intents.Insert
. The following code snippet shows how to construct and send the intent:
// Creates a new Intent to insert or edit a contact Intent intentInsertEdit = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_INSERT_OR_EDIT); // Sets the MIME type intentInsertEdit.setType(Contacts.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE); // Add code here to insert extended data, if desired ... // Sends the Intent with an request ID startActivity(intentInsertEdit);