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In this video we'll learn what Content Providers are and when to use them!
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Hi, I'm Ben and in this workshop we're
going to learn about content providers.
0:04
A content provider is basically just
an interface for working with a dataset.
0:09
You can think of it as a middleman
between your app and its data.
0:14
Unfortunately, content providers get kind
of a bad rap but it's not their fault.
0:18
They're just misunderstood.
0:23
You see, content providers were created
to allow apps to share their data with
0:25
other apps.
0:29
So if you don't plan on sharing
your data with other applications,
0:30
you don't need to use a content provider.
0:34
Which means that almost all apps
don't need to use a content provider.
0:36
And I think that's what makes them seem so
difficult.
0:40
There's a lot of folks who get the idea
that they should be using a content
0:43
provider when really they'd be
fine with a local database or
0:46
even just shared preferences.
0:49
That said, there are a few places where
content providers can come in handy.
0:51
In fact, the Android system itself makes
use of a bunch of content providers.
0:55
Your alarms, contacts and
even your calendar are all available to
1:00
other applications through
content providers.
1:04
In the case of alarms, the Android system
has an app that stores all the data for
1:07
your alarms.
1:11
And that app has a content provider
to make that data accessible to
1:12
other applications.
1:15
This way app developers like us can write
apps to access that data and set alarms.
1:17
So we might have multiple alarm apps, but
they're all looking at the same data.
1:23
And that's what makes content providers so
powerful,
1:27
they give us a way to have a common
dataset across multiple applications.
1:30
For this workshop,
we're going to make a new content provider
1:34
to keep track of our VICs,
very important contacts.
1:37
It will be kind of like the already
existing contacts provider
1:41
except this one will only
have very important contacts.
1:44
In order to focus on content providers,
we're going to start with an already built
1:49
app that uses a SQL like
database to store the VICs.
1:52
So if you're not familiar with SQL, you
might want to check out some of the links
1:56
in the teacher's' notes
before we get started.
1:59
And on that note,
2:01
join me in the next video to start
diving into content providers.
2:02
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