Modifying Contacts Using Intents

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.

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);