Android official documentation: (2) Application List -- 2.18 & lt; provider & gt; tag

Syntax:

<provider android:authorities="list"          android:enabled=["true" | "false"]          android:exported=["true" | "false"]          android:grantUriPermissions=["true" | "false"]          android:icon="drawable resource"          android:initOrder="integer"          android:label="string resource"          android:multiprocess=["true" | "false"]          android:name="string"          android:permission="string"          android:process="string"          android:readPermission="string"          android:syncable=["true" | "false"]          android:writePermission="string" >    . . .</provider>

Contained in:

<application>

Can contain:

<meta-data>
<grant-uri-permission>
<path-permission>

Description:

Declares a content provider component. A content provider is a subclass ContentProviderThat supplies structured access to data managed by the application. All content providers in your application must be defined in <provider>Element in the manifest file; otherwise, the system is unaware of them and doesn't run them.

You only declare content providers that are part of your application. Content providers in other applications that you use in your application shoshould not be declared.

The Android system stores references to content providers according toAuthorityString, part of the provider'sContent URI. For example, suppose you want to access a content provider that stores information about health care extends sionals. To do this, you call the methodContentResolver.query(), Which among other arguments takes a URI that identifies the provider:

content://com.example.project.healthcareprovider/nurses/rn

Thecontent: SchemeIdentifies the URI as a content URI pointing to an Android content provider. The authoritycom.example.project.healthcareproviderIdentifies the provider itself; the Android system looks up the authority in its list of known providers and their authorities. The substringnurses/rnIsPath, Which the content provider can use to identify subsets of the provider data.

Notice that when you define your provider in<provider>Element, you don't include the scheme or the path inandroid:nameArgument, only the authority.

For information on using and developing content providers, see the API Guide, Content Providers.

Attributes:

android:authorities

A list of one or more URI authorities that identify data offered by the content provider. multiple authorities are listed by separating their names with a semicolon. to avoid conflicts, authority names shocould use a Java-style naming convention (such com.example.provider.cartoonprovider). Typically, it's the name of ContentProviderSubclass that implements the provider

There is no default. At least one authority must be specified.

android:enabled

Whether or not the content provider can be instantiated by the system -" true"If it can be, and" false"If not. The default value is" true".

The<application>Element has its ownenabledAttribute that applies to all application components, including content providers.<application>And<provider>Attributes must both be"true"(As they bothare by default) for the content provider to be enabled. If either is"false", The provider is disabled; it cannot be instantiated.

android:exported

Whether the content provider is available for other applications to use:

• true: The provider is available to other applications. Any application can use the provider's content URI to access it, subject to the permissions specified for the provider.
• false: The provider is not available to other applications. Setandroid:exported="false"To limit access to the provider to your applications. Only applications that have the same user ID (UID) as the provider will have access to it.

The default value is"true"For applications that set eitherandroid:minSdkVersionOrandroid:targetSdkVersionTo"16"Or lower. For applications that set either of these attributes"17"Or higher, the default is"false".

You can setandroid:exported="false"And still limit access to your provider by setting permissions withpermissionAttribute.

android:grantUriPermissions

Whether or not those who ordinarily wocould not have permission to access the content provider's data can be granted permission to do so, temporarily overcoming the restriction imposed by readPermission, writePermission, And permissionAttributes -" true"If permission can be granted, and" false"If not. If" true", Permission can be granted to any of the content provider's data. If" false", Permission can be granted only to the data subsets listed in <grant-uri-permission>Subelements, if any. The default value is" false".

Granting permission is a way of giving an application component one-time access to data protected by a permission. for example, when an e-mail message contains an attachment, the mail application may call upon the appropriate viewer to open it, even though the viewer doesn't have general permission to look at all the content provider's data.

In such cases, permission is grantedFLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSIONAndFLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSIONFlags in the Intent object that activates the component. For example, the mail application might putFLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSIONIn the Intent passedContext.startActivity(). The permission is specific to the URI in the Intent.

If you enable this feature, either by setting this attribute"true"Or by defining<grant-uri-permission>Subelements, you must callContext.revokeUriPermission()When a covered URI is deleted from the provider.

See also<grant-uri-permission>Element.

android:icon

An icon representing the content provider. this attribute must be set as a reference to a drawable resource containing the image definition. if it is not set, the icon specified for the application as a whole is used instead (see <application>Element's iconAttribute ).

android:initOrder

The order in which the content provider shoshould be instantiated, relative to other content providers hosted by the same process. when there are dependencies among content providers, setting this attribute for each of them ensures that they are created in the order required by those dependencies. the value is a simple integer, with higher numbers being initialized first.

android:label

A user-readable label for the content provided. If this attribute is not set, the label set for the application as a whole is used instead (see <application>Element's labelAttribute ).

The label shoshould be set as a reference to a string resource, so thatit can be localized like other strings in the user interface. however, as a convenience while you're developing the application, it can also be set as a raw string.

android:multiprocess

Whether or not an instance of the content provider can be created in every client process -" true"If instances can run in multipleprocesses, and" false"If not. The default value is" false".

Normally, a content provider is instantiated in the process of the application that defined it. However, if this flag is set"true", The system can create an instance in every process where there's a client that wants to interact with it, thus avoiding the overhead of interprocess communication.

android:name

The name of the class that implements the content provider, a subclass ContentProvider. This shoshould be a fully qualified class name (such ," com.example.project.TransportationProvider"). However, as a shorthand, if the first character of the name is a period, it is appended to the package name specified in <manifest>Element.

There is no default. The name must be specified.

android:permission

The name of a permission that clients must have to read or write thecontent provider's data. This attribute is a convenient way of setting a single permission for both reading and writing. However, readPermissionAnd writePermissionAttributes take precedenceover this one. If readPermissionAttribute is also set, it controls access for querying the content provider. And if writePermissionAttribute is set, it controls access for modifying the provider's data.

For more information on permissions, see the Permissions section in the introduction and a separate document, Security andPermissions.

android:process

The name of the process in which the content provider shocould run. normally, all components of an application run in the default process created for the application. it has the same name as the application package. the <application>Element's processAttribute can set a different default for all components. But each component can override the defaultwith its own processAttribute, allowing you to spread your application processing SS multiple processes.

If the name assigned to this attribute begins with a colon (':'), a new process, private to the application, is created when it's needed and the activity runs in that process. if the process name begins with a lowercase character, the activity will run in a global process of that name, provided that it has permission to do so. this allows components in different applications to share a process, cing resource usage.

android:readPermission

A permission that clients must have to query the content provider. See also permissionAnd writePermissionAttributes.

android:syncable

Whether or not the data under the content provider's control is to be synchronized with data on a server -" true"If it is to be synchronized, and" false"If not.

android:writePermission

A permission that clients must have to make changes to the data controlled by the content provider. See also permissionAnd readPermissionAttributes.

Introduced in:

API Level 1

See also:

Content Providers