[Android] Contact APIs

[ContactsContract]

• 是最根本的資料所在(?)，而其下延伸出的資料儲存方式(db)，有待再瞭解...。
• The contract between the contacts provider and applications.
• Contains definitions for the supported URIs and columns.
• These APIs supersede ContactsContract.Contacts. (?)

• Overview ContactsContract defines an extensible database of contact-related information. Contact information is stored in a three-tier data model:
• A row in the ContactsContract.Data table
• Data is a generic table that can hold any kind of contact data.
• 連絡人的所有資料，每筆資料可能存有不同 type。
• Can store any kind of personal data, such as a phone number or email addresses.
• Contains data points tied to a raw contact. 
• Each row of the data table is typically used to store a single piece of contact information (such as a phone number) and its associated metadata (such as whether it is a work or home number).
• The set of data kinds that can be stored in this table is open-ended.
• There is a predefined set of common kinds, but any application can add its own data kinds. ex:
• ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone
• ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Email...etc.
• A row in the ContactsContract.RawContacts table
• Represents a set of data describing a person and associated with a single account.
• Contains one row of contact information for each person in each synced account.
• Sync adapters and contact management apps are the primary consumers of this API.
• 在一個帳號中的一位聯絡人的一筆資料。
• ex: one of the user's Gmail accounts.
• A row in the ContactsContract.Contacts table
• Represents an aggregate of one or more RawContacts presumably describing the same person.
• RawContact 的整合。
• When data in or associated with the RawContacts table is changed, the affected aggregate contacts are updated as necessary.

[New APIs in Level 14]

• ContactContracts.isProfileId (long id)
• To identify whether the given ID is associated with profile data.
• openContactPhotoInputStream
• API 14 支援高解析度 icon (?)。
• ContactsContract.Profile
• Permissions
• public static final String READ_PROFILE
• public static final String WRITE_PROFILE
• ContactsContract.Intents.INVITE_CONTACT
• ContactsContract.DataUsageFeedback

[SampleSyncAdapter - Sample Sync Adapter | Android Developers]

• The sample uses two related parts of the Android framework:
• The account manager
• The synchronization manager (through a sync adapter).
• It also demonstrates how to provide users the ability to create and edit synchronized contacts using a custom editor.
• Account Manager
• The account manager allows sharing of credentials across multiple applications and services.
• Users enter the credentials for each account only once
• Applications with the USE_CREDENTIALS permission can then query the account manager to obtain an auth token for the account.
• An authenticator (a pluggable component of account manager)
• Requests credentials from the user
• Validates them with an authentication server running in the cloud
• Stores them to the account manager.
• This sample demonstrates how to write an authenticator for your service by extending the new AbstractAccountAuthenticator abstract class.
• SyncAdapter
• The sync adapter (essential to the synchronization service) declares the account type and ContentProvider authority to the sync manager.
• This sample demosntrates how to write your own sync adapters
• By extending the AbstractThreadedSyncAdapter abstract class.
• Implementing the onPerformSync() method, which gets called whenever the sync manager issues a sync operation for that sync adapter.

* Reference
- ContactsContract | Android Developers
- ContactsContract.Contacts | Android Developers
- Android联系人数据库 | Android开发网