Android ContentProvider Generator

A tool to generate an Android ContentProvider. It takes a set of entity (a.k.a "table") definitions as the input, and generates:

• a ContentProvider class
• a SQLiteOpenHelper class
• a SQLiteOpenHelperCallbacks class
• one BaseColumns interface per entity
• one Cursor class per entity
• one ContentValues class per entity
• one Selection class per entity

How to use

The _config.json file

This is where you declare a few parameters that will be used to generate the code.

These are self-explanatory so here is an example:

{
	"toolVersion": "1.7",
	"projectPackageId": "com.example.app",
	"authority": "com.example.app.provider",
	"providerJavaPackage": "com.example.app.provider",
	"providerClassName": "ExampleProvider",
	"sqliteOpenHelperClassName": "ExampleSQLiteOpenHelper",
	"sqliteOpenHelperCallbacksClassName": "ExampleSQLiteOpenHelperCallbacks",
	"databaseFileName": "example.db",
	"databaseVersion": 1,
	"enableForeignKeys": true,
}

Entity files

Create one file per entity, naming it <entity name>.json. Inside each file, declare your fields (a.k.a "columns") with a name and a type. You can also optionally declare a default value, an index flag and a nullable flag.

Currently the type can be:

• String (SQLite type: TEXT)
• Integer (INTEGER)
• Long (INTEGER)
• Float (REAL)
• Double (REAL)
• Boolean (INTEGER)
• Date (INTEGER)
• byte[] (BLOB)
• enum (INTEGER).

You can also optionally declare table contraints.

Here is a person.json file as an example:

{
	"fields": [
		{
			"name": "first_name",
			"type": "String",
			"default_value": "John"
		},
		{
			"name": "last_name",
			"type": "String",
			"nullable": true,
			"default_value": "Doe"
		},
		{
			"name": "age",
			"type": "Integer",
			"index": true
		},
		{
			"name": "gender",
			"type": "enum",
			"enumName": "Gender",
			"enumValues": [
				"MALE",
				"FEMALE",
				{"OTHER": "Value to use when neither male nor female"},
			],
			"nullable": false,
		},
	],
	
	"constraints": [
		{
			"name": "unique_name",
			"definition": "unique (first_name, last_name) on conflict replace"
		}
	]
}

Note: nullable is optional (true by default).

A more comprehensive example is available in the etc/sample folder.

The header.txt file (optional)

If a header.txt file is present, its contents will be inserted at the top of every generated file.

Get the app

Download the jar from here: https://github.com/BoD/android-contentprovider-generator/releases/latest

Run the app

java -jar android-contentprovider-generator-1.7.0-bundle.jar -i <input folder> -o <output folder>

• Input folder: where to find _config.json and your entity json files
• Output folder: where the resulting files will be generated

Use the generated files

• When querying a table, use the corresponding Selection class as shown in this example:

PersonSelection where = new PersonSelection();
where.firstName("John").or().age(42);
Cursor c = context.getContentResolver().query(PersonColumns.CONTENT_URI, projection,
        where.sel(), where.args(), null);

• When using the results of a query, wrap the resulting Cursor in the corresponding wrapper class. You can then use the generated getters directly as shown in this example:

PersonCursor person = new PersonCursor(c);
String lastName = person.getLastName();
Long age = person.getAge();

• You can also conveniently combine these two facilities by using the query (or delete) method:

PersonSelection where = new PersonSelection();
where.firstName("John").or().age(42);
PersonCursor person = where.query(getContentResolver());
person.moveToNext();
String lastName = person.getLastName();
Long age = person.getAge();

• When updating or inserting into a table, use the corresponding ContentValues class as shown in this example:

PersonContentValues values = new PersonContentValues();
values.putFirstName("John").putAge(42);
context.getContentResolver().update(personUri, values.values(), null, null);

Building

You need maven to build this app.

mvn package

This will produce android-contentprovider-generator-1.7.0-bundle.jar in the target folder.

Licence

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Just to be absolutely clear, this license applies to this program itself, not to the source it will generate!