A (175)

CHAPTER 14: Android Content Providers: Providing Data to Applications 513

Table 14-2. ContactsContract databases in the Android provider package and the type of data that they contain

Database.Table Interface Database Table Contents

ContactsContract.BaseSyncColumns Generic columns used by sync adapters

ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.BaseTypes All typed datatypes supported

ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.

CommonColumns

Common columns across specific types

ContactsContract.ContactNameColumns Contact name and contact name metadata columns

in the RawContacts database

ContactsContract.ContactOptionsColumns Columns of ContactsContract.Contacts that track the

user preference for, or interaction with, the contact

ContactsContract.ContactsColumns Columns of ContactsContract.Contacts refer to

intrinsic contact properties

ContactsContract.ContactStatusColumns Data used for contact’s status info

ContactsContract.DataColumns Columns (joined) from the data table

ContactsContract.DataColumnsWithJoins Combines all Join Columns returned by

ContactsContract.Data table queries

ContactsContract.DisplayNameSources DataType used to produce display name

ContactsContract.FullNameStyle Constant for combining into full name

ContactsContract.GroupsColumns Data used for contact’s grouping info

ContactsContract.PhoneLookupColumns Data used for contact’s phone lookups

ContactsContract.PhoneticNameStyle Constants for pronunciation of a name

ContactsContract.PresenceColumns Additional datalink back to _ID entry

ContactsContract.RawContactsColumns Data used for the RawContact database

ContactsContract.SettingsColumns Data used for contact’s OS settings

ContactsContract.StatusColumns Data used for social status updates

ContactsContract.StreamItemPhotosColumns Columns in the StreamItemPhotos table

ContactsContract.StreamItemsColumns Data columns in the StreamItems table

All of these Contact related database tables replace the deprecated versions listed in Table 14-1.
If you want to look into these data tables in greater detail, detailed descriptions of these are available
from the Android developer site at this link:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/package-summary.html

As you can see in Table 14-2, the ContactsContract database table structure is an order of
magnitude more complex than the simple Contacts database table structure that was used prior to
Android 2.1. With this complexity comes power and flexibility, but at the cost of more complex Java
code needed to implement these databases and their features in your Android applications. This is a
complex topic for the Absolute Beginner!