hi Dmitri, Thanks for throwing some light on SyncAdapters. Once a new sync account and sync adapter is created ( By inherting AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter) for a sync application,how does any other application wants to call sync for the same sync app will bind?. Was it through SyncManager or through ContentResolver.requestSync(). What is the api should other apps call to bind to my sync application?.
Could you please let us know some more details of SyncManager and Sync Adapter relation. What should I do to add my AbstractAdapter to SyncManager. Thanks. Regards, Sukumar. On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 12:51 AM, Dmitri Plotnikov <[email protected]>wrote: > Privet Vadim, > > A sync adapter is a service whose job is to sync data between a back end > and the phone. It is typically kicked-off automatically on a schedule. Sync > adapters are managed by sync manager, which knows when to start them, avoids > running multiple at the same time and does a bunch of other useful stuff. > You will want to inherit from android.content.AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter. > > Also, see if it makes sense for you to have a separate account. Then > instead of dropping new contacts to the Gmail or Exchange servers you would > just bring them to the phone. Your contacts will get nicely aggregated with > other contacts on the phone. > > I hope this helps. > - Dmitri > > On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:01 AM, Vadim Vohmjanin <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Privet Dmitri, >> >> I have been searching for the second day any info about what Sync >> Adapter is and any info that could help me to understand if i need to >> implement it. >> We are writing an application that syncs contacts. I just try to >> understand if Sync Adapter will be any helpful. >> And Google didn't provide any sources of 2.0 sdk yet, and >> documentation of APIs is also very poor. >> >> On Nov 5, 6:39 am, Dmitri Plotnikov <[email protected]> wrote: >> > Raw contacts can have group memberships. A GroupMembership is a row in >> the >> > Data table. If you want to add a membership find the group you need and >> add >> > a row to the Data table with mimetype GroupMembership.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE >> and >> > the id of the group: >> > >> > values.put(GroupMembership.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId); >> > values.put(GroupMembership.MIMETYPE, GroupMembership.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE); >> > values.put(GroupMembership.GROUP_ROW_ID, groupId); >> > resolver.insert(Data.CONTENT_URI, values);* >> > >> > *If you are writing a sync adapter, you may find it easier to use >> > server-side group ID instead of a row ID: >> > values.put(GroupMembership.GROUP_SOURCE_ID, "blahblah"); >> > >> > Groups do not affect aggregation and are not affected by aggregation. >> > >> > Cheers, >> > - Dmitri >> > >> > On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Yao <[email protected]> wrote: >> > > Hi Dmitri, >> > >> > > Would you please help point out how's new group structure? Something >> > > similar as groupmembership table in previous relese. Thanks a lot in >> > > advance! >> > >> > > On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Dmitri Plotnikov < >> [email protected]>wrote: >> > >> > >> Hi Jake, >> > >> > >> The database structure is actually extremely straightforward: >> > >> > >> "Contacts" represents an aggregated contact >> > >> "RawContacts" represents a contact as it was inserted by the sync >> adapter. >> > >> RawContact has a CONTACT_ID field that binds it to a Contact. >> > >> "Data" represents everything about a RawContact: emails, phone >> numbers, >> > >> notes, birthday, high school graduation year, you name it. Data has >> a >> > >> RAW_CONTACT_ID field that binds it a RawContact. The other >> important field >> > >> is MIMETYPE. That's what determines the kind of data stored in a >> Data row. >> > >> Everything else is just convenience API. >> > >> > >> So here's the most common way of inserting a data row: >> > >> > >> values.put(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId); >> > >> values.put(Data.MIMETYPE, Note.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE); >> > >> values.put(Note.NOTE, "Blah blah blah"); >> > >> resolver.insert(Data.CONTENT_URI, values); >> > >> > >> I hope this helps. >> > >> > >> - Dmitri >> > >> > >> On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 6:11 PM, jak. <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > >>> Thank you Dmitri, >> > >> > >>> Your response was very helpful. Along with that, and the sample you >> > >>> posted on another thread about using both Contact Apis from one app, >> > >>> I've gotten most of the way there. It is much appreciated. >> > >> > >>> I'm still however having some problems that I'm hard pressed to find >> a >> > >>> solution for. >> > >>> I'd be grateful if anyone could help me. >> > >> > >>> The biggest challenge I'm having with this API is that it's hard >> for >> > >>> me to picture how the tables are laid out so I know which URI to >> query >> > >>> to get the parts of the contact that I'm interested in. >> > >>> I found to get the email address for a contact I'm looking at I can >> > >>> query the uri:ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_URI, >> > >>> looking at rows of the contact id i'm interested in. >> > >> > >>> However to get the note from the same contact I can't use a similar >> > >>> pattern, because there is no >> > >>> ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Note.CONTENT_URI >> > >>> The Note type exists in CommonDataKinds but it doesn't have an >> > >>> associated CONTENT_URI. >> > >> > >>> I'm finding it very frustrating to use this API because every time I >> > >>> go to try to pull out another piece of data from the contact, the >> > >>> method to access it seems to change (as I can't find a consistent >> way >> > >>> to get a given field from a contact). And the documentation never >> > >>> describes how these keys, tables, and URIs are related. Basically >> the >> > >>> ContactsContract documentation just gives you a giant list of >> Objects >> > >>> containing constants that describe indexes into some database that >> is >> > >>> basically a black box without some basic documentation. >> > >> > >>> I'm I the only one that finds this frustrating? >> > >> > >>> Thanks again for your help. >> > >> > >>> -Jake >> > >> > >>> On Nov 2, 5:24 pm, Dmitri Plotnikov <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >>> > You can always delegate contact creation to the Contacts app using >> the >> > >>> > ContactsContract.Intents.UI.Insert intent with extras. This will >> show >> > >>> the >> > >>> > edit UI. >> > >> > >>> > If you want to explicitly create the contact by yourself, that's >> now a >> > >>> bit >> > >>> > tricky because Android 2.0 support multiple accounts. >> > >> > >>> > First of all, you will need to figure out which account you want >> to >> > >>> create >> > >>> > the contact in. Get a list of all available accounts from >> > >>> AccountManager: >> > >> > >>> > AccountManager am = AccountManager.get(getContext()); >> > >>> > Account[] accounts = am.getAccounts(); >> > >> > >>> > Also, get a list of all sync adapters and find the ones that >> support >> > >>> > contacts: >> > >> > >>> > SyncAdapterType[] syncs >> > >>> > = ContentResolver.getContentService().getSyncAdapterTypes(); >> > >> > >>> > for (SyncAdapterType sync : syncs) { >> > >>> > if (ContactsContract.AUTHORITY.equals(sync.authority) && >> > >>> > sync.supportsUploading()) { >> > >>> > contactAccountTypes.add(sync.accountType); >> > >>> > } >> > >> > >>> > } >> > >> > >>> > Now you have a list of all accounts and a list of account types >> that >> > >>> support >> > >>> > contacts. So here's your account list: >> > >> > >>> > for (Account acct: accounts) { >> > >>> > if (contactAccountTypes.contains(acct.type)) { >> > >>> > contactAccounts.add(account); >> > >>> > } >> > >> > >>> > } >> > >> > >>> > If the contactAccounts list contains nothing - use accountType = >> null >> > >>> and >> > >>> > accountName = null >> > >>> > If it contains exactly one account, use it. >> > >>> > If it contains multiple accounts, build a dialog and ask the user >> which >> > >>> > account to use. >> > >> > >>> > From here on it gets easier. >> > >> > >>> > Let's start with a more traditional method. Insert a raw contact >> > >>> first: >> > >> > >>> > ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); >> > >>> > values.put(RawContacts.ACCOUNT_TYPE, accountType); >> > >>> > values.put(RawContacts.ACCOUNT_NAME, accountName); >> > >>> > Uri rawContactUri = >> > >>> getContentResolver().insert(RawContacts.CONTENT_URI, >> > >>> > values); >> > >>> > long rawContactId = ContentUris.parseId(rawContactUri); >> > >> > >>> > Then insert the name: >> > >> > >>> > values.clear(); >> > >>> > values.put(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, rawContactId); >> > >>> > values.put(Data.MIMETYPE, StructuredName.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE); >> > >>> > values.put(StructuredName.DISPLAY_NAME, "Some Body"); >> > >>> > getContentResolver().insert(Data.CONTENT_URI, values); >> > >> > >>> > You are done. >> > >> > >>> > Now here's a much better way to do the same. Use the >> > >>> > new ContentProviderOperation API, which will ensure that the raw >> > >>> contact and >> > >>> > its name are inserted at the same time. >> > >> > >>> > ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops = Lists.newArrayList(); >> > >>> > >> ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(RawContacts.CONTENT_URI) >> > >>> > .withValue(RawContacts.ACCOUNT_TYPE, accountType) >> > >>> > .withValue(RawContacts.ACCOUNT_NAME, accountName) >> > >>> > .build()); >> > >> > >>> > ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(Data.CONTENT_URI) >> > >>> > .withValueBackReference(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, 0) >> > >>> > .withValue(Data.MIMETYPE, >> StructuredName.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE) >> > >>> > .withValue(StructuredName.DISPLAY_NAME, "Some Body") >> > >>> > .build()); >> > >> > >>> > getContentResolver().applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops); >> > >> > >>> > I hope this helps. >> > >>> > - Dmitri >> > >> > >>> > On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 4:23 PM, jak. <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >>> > > Hello, >> > >> > >>> > > I'm currently working on porting our Android app to 2.0 but I'm >> > >>> having >> > >>> > > a rather hard time figuring out what is required to interact >> with the >> > >>> > > new Contacts API. >> > >>> > > I'm using reflection to decide whether the new API is available, >> if >> > >>> it >> > >>> > > is I attempt to use the new features, otherwise I fall back to >> our >> > >>> old >> > >>> > > methods. >> > >> > >>> > > However, I'm having a hard time finding analogs to the old >> > >>> > > functionality in the new API. >> > >>> > > For example in the past I was adding contacts to the database >> from an >> > >>> > > external text source by creating a ContentValues object, filling >> it >> > >>> > > with information on the contact and then adding it with a call >> to: >> > >>> > > Contacts.People.createPersonInMyContactsGroup(...); >> > >> > >>> > > i.e.: >> > >>> > > ... >> > >> > >>> > > ContentValues personValues = new ContentValues(); >> > >>> > > personValues.put(Contacts.People.NAME, "Some Body"); >> > >>> > > Uri personUri = Contacts.People.createPersonInMyContactsGroup >> > >>> > > (curContext().getContentResolver(), personValues); >> > >> > >>> > > ... >> > >>> > > How can I achieve the same goal in the new API? >> > >> > >>> > > I appreciate all the hard work going into improving the APIs but >> I >> > >>> > > must admit I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of documentation and >> > >>> > > examples. >> > >>> > > I realize we have plenty of Javadocs on developer.android.comto >> > >>> > > reference, but those only really show us what the new interfaces >> are. >> > >>> > > I'm having a really hard time finding any discussion in terms of >> how >> > >>> > > the new API is intended to be used. >> > >> > >>> > > Any help would be greatly appreciated! >> > >>> > > Thanks! >> > >> > >>> > > -- >> > >>> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the >> Google >> > >>> > > Groups "Android Developers" group. >> > >>> > > To post to this group, send email to >> > >>> [email protected] >> > >>> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > >>> > > [email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> >> <android-developers%[email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> >> ><android-developers%2Bunsubs >> > >>> [email protected]> >> > >>> > > For more options, visit this group at >> > >>> > >http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en >> > >> > >>> -- >> > >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> > >>> Groups "Android Developers" group. >> > >>> To post to this group, send email to >> [email protected] >> > >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > >> > ... >> > >> > read more ยป >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "Android Developers" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. 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