AbstractAccountAuthenticator Class

Definition

[Android.Runtime.Register("android/accounts/AbstractAccountAuthenticator", DoNotGenerateAcw=true)]
public abstract class AbstractAccountAuthenticator : Java.Lang.Object

[<Android.Runtime.Register("android/accounts/AbstractAccountAuthenticator", DoNotGenerateAcw=true)>]
type AbstractAccountAuthenticator = class
    inherit Object

Inheritance

Object

Object

AbstractAccountAuthenticator

Attributes

RegisterAttribute

Remarks

Abstract base class for creating AccountAuthenticators. In order to be an authenticator one must extend this class, provide implementations for the abstract methods, and write a service that returns the result of #getIBinder() in the service's android.app.Service#onBind(android.content.Intent) when invoked with an intent with action AccountManager#ACTION_AUTHENTICATOR_INTENT. This service must specify the following intent filter and metadata tags in its AndroidManifest.xml file

<intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.accounts.AccountAuthenticator" />
              </intent-filter>
              <meta-data android:name="android.accounts.AccountAuthenticator"
                        android:resource="@xml/authenticator" />

The android:resource attribute must point to a resource that looks like:

<account-authenticator xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
               android:accountType="typeOfAuthenticator"
               android:icon="@drawable/icon"
               android:smallIcon="@drawable/miniIcon"
               android:label="@string/label"
               android:accountPreferences="@xml/account_preferences"
            />

Replace the icons and labels with your own resources. The android:accountType attribute must be a string that uniquely identifies your authenticator and will be the same string that user will use when making calls on the AccountManager and it also corresponds to Account#type for your accounts. One user of the android:icon is the "Account & Sync" settings page and one user of the android:smallIcon is the Contact Application's tab panels.

The preferences attribute points to a PreferenceScreen xml hierarchy that contains a list of PreferenceScreens that can be invoked to manage the authenticator. An example is:

<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
               <PreferenceCategory android:title="@string/title_fmt" />
               <PreferenceScreen
                    android:key="key1"
                    android:title="@string/key1_action"
                    android:summary="@string/key1_summary">
                    <intent
                        android:action="key1.ACTION"
                        android:targetPackage="key1.package"
                        android:targetClass="key1.class" />
                </PreferenceScreen>
            </PreferenceScreen>

The standard pattern for implementing any of the abstract methods is the following: <ul> <li> If the supplied arguments are enough for the authenticator to fully satisfy the request then it will do so and return a Bundle that contains the results. <li> If the authenticator needs information from the user to satisfy the request then it will create an Intent to an activity that will prompt the user for the information and then carry out the request. This intent must be returned in a Bundle as key AccountManager#KEY_INTENT.

The activity needs to return the final result when it is complete so the Intent should contain the AccountAuthenticatorResponse as AccountManager#KEY_ACCOUNT_AUTHENTICATOR_RESPONSE. The activity must then call AccountAuthenticatorResponse#onResult or AccountAuthenticatorResponse#onError when it is complete. <li> If the authenticator cannot synchronously process the request and return a result then it may choose to return null and then use the AccountManagerResponse to send the result when it has completed the request. This asynchronous option is not available for the #addAccount method, which must complete synchronously. </ul>

The following descriptions of each of the abstract authenticator methods will not describe the possible asynchronous nature of the request handling and will instead just describe the input parameters and the expected result.

When writing an activity to satisfy these requests one must pass in the AccountManagerResponse and return the result via that response when the activity finishes (or whenever else the activity author deems it is the correct time to respond).

Java documentation for android.accounts.AbstractAccountAuthenticator.

Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by the Android Open Source Project and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License.

Constructors

Fields

Properties

Methods

Explicit Interface Implementations

Extension Methods

Applies to