Android Content Provider(Easy explaination with diagram)

A content provider component supplies data from one application to others on request. Such requests are handled by the methods of the ContentResolver class. A content provider can use different ways to store its data and the data can be stored in a database, in files, or even over a network.

Content providers let you centralize content in one place and have many different applications access it as needed. A content provider behaves very much like a database where you can query it, edit its content, as well as add or delete content using insert(), update(), delete(), and query() methods. In most cases this data is stored in an SQlite database.

A content provider is implemented as a subclass of ContentProvider class and must implement a standard set of APIs that enable other applications to perform transactions.

Create Content Provider

This involves number of simple steps to create your own content provider.

• First of all you need to create a Content Provider class that extends the ContentProviderbaseclass.
• Second, you need to define your content provider URI address which will be used to access the content.
• Next you will need to create your own database to keep the content. Usually, Android uses SQLite database and framework needs to override onCreate() method which will use SQLite Open Helper method to create or open the provider's database. When your application is launched, the onCreate() handler of each of its Content Providers is called on the main application thread.
• Next you will have to implement Content Provider queries to perform different database specific operations.
• Finally register your Content Provider in your activity file using <provider> tag.