android - New contacts created using ContactsContract do not appear in Contacts app

Question

I'm using the following piece of codes to create a new contact. It follow closely the ContactManager example provided by Android. The problem is, the created contacts do not appear in the Contacts app that shipped with Android. Nevertheless, when I load all the contacts from the phonebook, I can see the newly created contacts.

private void insertPBEntry() throws RemoteException, OperationApplicationException {

     ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops = new ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation>();

     ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(ContactsContract.RawContacts.CONTENT_URI)
             .withValue(ContactsContract.RawContacts.ACCOUNT_TYPE, "Account type")
             .withValue(ContactsContract.RawContacts.ACCOUNT_NAME, "Account name")
             .build());

     ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI)
             .withValueBackReference(ContactsContract.Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, 0)
             .withValue(ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE,
                     ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.StructuredName.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE)
             .withValue(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.StructuredName.DISPLAY_NAME, "TOTAL_NEW")
             .build());
     ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI)
             .withValueBackReference(ContactsContract.Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, 0)
             .withValue(ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE,
                     ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE)
             .withValue(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.NUMBER, "9090")
             .withValue(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE,Phone.TYPE_MOBILE)
             .build());     
     getContentResolver().applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops);

}

I've searched hard but have yet to find the answer. I found one answer suggesting that the problem might have (sth) to do with my strings "Account type" and "Account name". For my case, I do not need to create any account whatsoever. All I want is to add a new contact with a name, email/mail address, phones.

Thanks, guys!

Answer 1

The sample codes provided by Google work. Just that when it's run on the emulator, no account or group can be found to attach the created contact to. And by default, this newly created contact is not visible.

Using the actual phone (for my case, HTC Dream), after detecting the account name and type to feed in the codes, it works. Alternatively, we can get the visible group ids available and attach the new contact to one of those groups.

To get the available accounts:

//accounts
    Account[] accounts = AccountManager.get(act).getAccounts(); 
    for (Account acc : accounts){
        Log.d(TAG, "account name = " + acc.name + ", type = " + acc.type);
    }

To get the list of groups:

//group membership info
    String[] tempFields = new String[] {
            GroupMembership.GROUP_ROW_ID, GroupMembership.GROUP_SOURCE_ID};
    Cursor tempCur = act.managedQuery(Data.CONTENT_URI, tempFields,
             Data.MIMETYPE + "='" + GroupMembership.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE + "'",
             null, null);

Now, if we want to associate the new contact to a group instead of an account:

ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(Data.CONTENT_URI)
            .withValueBackReference(Data.RAW_CONTACT_ID, 0)
            .withValue(ContactsContract.Data.MIMETYPE, GroupMembership.CONTENT_ITEM_TYPE)
            .withValue(GroupMembership.GROUP_SOURCE_ID, *<THE_IDENTIFIED_GROUP_ID>*)
            .build());

Hope it helps.