How to call Android contacts list?

Question

I'm making an Android app, and need to call the phone's contact list. I need to call the contacts list function, pick a contact, then return to my app with the contact's name. Here's the code I got on the internet, but it doesnt work.

import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.provider.Contacts.People;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ListAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.SimpleCursorAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class Contacts extends ListActivity {

    private ListAdapter mAdapter;
    public TextView pbContact;
    public static String PBCONTACT;
    public static final int ACTIVITY_EDIT=1;
    private static final int ACTIVITY_CREATE=0;

    // Called when the activity is first created. 
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
        super.onCreate(icicle);
        Cursor C = getContentResolver().query(People.CONTENT_URI, null, null, null, null);
        startManagingCursor(C);

        String[] columns = new String[] {People.NAME};
        int[] names = new int[] {R.id.row_entry};

        mAdapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(this, R.layout.mycontacts, C, columns, names);
        setListAdapter(mAdapter);
    } // end onCreate()
    // Called when contact is pressed
    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

        Cursor C = (Cursor) mAdapter.getItem(position);
        PBCONTACT = C.getString(C.getColumnIndex(People.NAME));

        // RHS 05/06
        //pbContact = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myContact);
        //pbContact.setText(new StringBuilder().append("b"));

        Intent i = new Intent(this, NoteEdit.class);
        startActivityForResult(i, ACTIVITY_CREATE);
    }
}

Answer 1

Be careful while working with android contact list.

Reading contact list in above methods work on most android devices except HTC One and Sony Xperia. It wasted my six weeks trying to figure out what is wrong!

Most tutorials available online are almost similar - first read "ALL" contacts, then show in Listview with ArrayAdapter. This is not memory efficient solution. Instead of looking for solutions on other websites first, have a look at developer.android.com. If any solution is not available on developer.android.com you should look somewhere else.

The solution is to use CursorAdapter instead of ArrayAdapter for retrieving contact list. Using ArrayAdapter would work on most devices, but it's not efficient. The CursorAdapter retrieves only a portion of contact list at run time while the ListView is being scrolled.

public void onActivityCreated(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
    ...
    // Gets the ListView from the View list of the parent activity
    mContactsList =
        (ListView) getActivity().findViewById(R.layout.contact_list_view);
    // Gets a CursorAdapter
    mCursorAdapter = new SimpleCursorAdapter(
            getActivity(),
            R.layout.contact_list_item,
            null,
            FROM_COLUMNS, TO_IDS,
            0);
    // Sets the adapter for the ListView
    mContactsList.setAdapter(mCursorAdapter);
}

Retrieving a List of Contacts: Retrieving a List of Contacts

Answer 2

-> Add a permission to read contacts data to your application manifest.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS"/>

-> Use Intent.Action_Pick in your Activity like below

Intent contactPickerIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK,
                ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_URI);
        startActivityForResult(contactPickerIntent, RESULT_PICK_CONTACT);

-> Then Override the onActivityResult()

 @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        // check whether the result is ok
        if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            // Check for the request code, we might be usign multiple startActivityForReslut
            switch (requestCode) {
            case RESULT_PICK_CONTACT:
               Cursor cursor = null;
        try {
            String phoneNo = null ;
            String name = null;           
            Uri uri = data.getData();            
            cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, null, null, null, null);
            cursor.moveToFirst();           
            int  phoneIndex =cursor.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.NUMBER);
            phoneNo = cursor.getString(phoneIndex); 

            textView2.setText(phoneNo);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
                break;
            }
        } else {
            Log.e("MainActivity", "Failed to pick contact");
        }
    }

This will work check it out

Answer 3

Looking around for an API Level 5 solution using ContactsContract API you could slightly modify the code above with the following:

  Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK);
  intent.setType(ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_TYPE);
  startActivityForResult(intent, PICK_CONTACT);

And then in onActivityResult use the column name:

  ContactsContract.Contacts.DISPLAY_NAME

Answer 4

Here is the code snippet for get contact:

package com.contact;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.ContentResolver;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.provider.ContactsContract;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class GetContactDemoActivity extends Activity implements OnClickListener {

private Button btn = null;
private TextView txt = null;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);
    txt = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textView1);

    btn.setOnClickListener(this);
}

@Override
public void onClick(View arg0) {
    if (arg0 == btn) {
        try {
            Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI);
            startActivityForResult(intent, 1);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            Log.e("Error in intent : ", e.toString());
        }
    }
}

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int reqCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    super.onActivityResult(reqCode, resultCode, data);

    try {
        if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            Uri contactData = data.getData();
            Cursor cur = managedQuery(contactData, null, null, null, null);
            ContentResolver contect_resolver = getContentResolver();

            if (cur.moveToFirst()) {
                String id = cur.getString(cur.getColumnIndexOrThrow(ContactsContract.Contacts._ID));
                String name = "";
                String no = "";

                Cursor phoneCur = contect_resolver.query(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_URI, null,
                        ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTACT_ID + " = ?", new String[] { id }, null);

                if (phoneCur.moveToFirst()) {
                    name = phoneCur.getString(phoneCur.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.DISPLAY_NAME));
                    no = phoneCur.getString(phoneCur.getColumnIndex(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.NUMBER));
                }

                Log.e("Phone no & name :***: ", name + " : " + no);
                txt.append(name + " : " + no + "\n");

                id = null;
                name = null;
                no = null;
                phoneCur = null;
            }
            contect_resolver = null;
            cur = null;
            //                      populateContacts();
        }
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        Log.e("IllegalArgumentException :: ", e.toString());
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        Log.e("Error :: ", e.toString());
    }
}

}

Answer 5

I use the code provided by @Colin MacKenzie - III. Thanks a lot!

For someone who are looking for a replacement of 'deprecated' managedQuery:

1st, assuming using v4 support lib:

import android.support.v4.app.LoaderManager;
import android.support.v4.content.CursorLoader;
import android.support.v4.content.Loader;

2nd:

your_(activity)_class implements LoaderManager.LoaderCallbacks<Cursor>

3rd,

// temporarily store the 'data.getData()' from onActivityResult
private Uri tmp_url;

4th, override callbacks:

@Override
public Loader<Cursor> onCreateLoader(int id, Bundle args) {
    // create the loader here!
    CursorLoader cursorLoader = new CursorLoader(this, tmp_url, null, null, null, null);
    return cursorLoader;
}

@Override
public void onLoadFinished(Loader<Cursor> loader, Cursor cursor) {
    getContactInfo(cursor); // here it is!
}

@Override
public void onLoaderReset(Loader<Cursor> loader) {
}

5th:

public void initLoader(Uri data){
    // will be used in onCreateLoader callback
    this.tmp_url = data;
    // 'this' is an Activity instance, implementing those callbacks
    this.getSupportLoaderManager().initLoader(0, null, this);
}

6th, the code above, except that I change the signature param from Intent to Cursor:

protected void getContactInfo(Cursor cursor)
{

   // Cursor cursor =  managedQuery(intent.getData(), null, null, null, null);      
   while (cursor.moveToNext()) 
   {
        // same above ...
   } 

7th, call initLoader:

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (PICK_CONTACT == requestCode) {
        this.initLoader(data.getData(), this);
    }
}

8th, don't forget this piece of code

    Intent intentContact = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, ContactsContract.Contacts.CONTENT_URI);
    this.act.startActivityForResult(intentContact, PICK_CONTACT);

References:

Android Fundamentals: Properly Loading Data

Initializing a Loader in an Activity

Answer 6

To my surprise you do not need users-permission CONTACT_READ to read the names and some basic information (Is the contact starred, what was the last calling time). However you do need permission to read the details of the contact like phone number.