LiveFolders

public final class LiveFolders
extends Object implements BaseColumns

This class was deprecated in API level 14.
Live folders are no longer supported by Android. These have been replaced by the new AppWidget Collection APIs introduced in HONEYCOMB. These provide all of the features of live folders plus many more. The use of live folders is greatly discouraged because of security issues they introduce -- publishing a live folder requires making all data show for the live folder available to all applications with no permissions protecting it.

A LiveFolder is a special folder whose content is provided by a ContentProvider. To create a live folder, two components are required:

• An activity that can respond to the intent action ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER. The activity is responsible for creating the live folder.
• A ContentProvider to provide the live folder items.

Lifecycle

When a user wants to create a live folder, the system looks for all activities with the intent filter action ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER and presents the list to the user. When the user chooses one of the activities, the activity is invoked with the ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER action. The activity then creates the live folder and passes it back to the system by setting it as an activity result. The live folder is described by a content provider URI, a name, an icon and a display mode. Finally, when the user opens the live folder, the system queries the content provider to retrieve the folder's content.

Setting up the live folder activity

The following code sample shows how to write an activity that creates a live folder:

 public static class MyLiveFolder extends Activity {
     public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://my.app/live");

     protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

         final Intent intent = getIntent();
         final String action = intent.getAction();

         if (LiveFolders.ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER.equals(action)) {
             setResult(RESULT_OK, createLiveFolder(this, CONTENT_URI, "My LiveFolder",
                     R.drawable.ic_launcher_contacts_phones));
         } else {
             setResult(RESULT_CANCELED);
         }

         finish();
     }

     private static Intent createLiveFolder(Context context, Uri uri, String name,
             int icon) {

         final Intent intent = new Intent();

         intent.setData(uri);
         intent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_NAME, name);
         intent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_ICON,
                 Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(context, icon));
         intent.putExtra(LiveFolders.EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_DISPLAY_MODE, LiveFolders.DISPLAY_MODE_LIST);

         return intent;
     }
 }
 

The live folder is described by an Intent as follows:

Setting up the content provider

The live folder's content provider must, upon query, return a Cursor whose columns match the following names:

Summary

Inherited constants
From interface android.provider.BaseColumns String _COUNT The count of rows in a directory. String _ID The unique ID for a row.

Inherited methods

From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this object. boolean equals(Object obj) Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one. void finalize() Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the runtime class of this Object. int hashCode() Returns a hash code value for the object. final void notify() Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. final void notifyAll() Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. String toString() Returns a string representation of the object. final void wait(long millis, int nanos) Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed. final void wait(long millis) Causes the current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed. final void wait() Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object.

Constants

String ACTION_CREATE_LIVE_FOLDER

String DESCRIPTION

int DISPLAY_MODE_GRID

int DISPLAY_MODE_LIST

String EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_BASE_INTENT

String EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_DISPLAY_MODE

String EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_ICON

String EXTRA_LIVE_FOLDER_NAME

String ICON_BITMAP

String ICON_PACKAGE

String ICON_RESOURCE

String INTENT

String NAME