Whats the fastest way to create large numbers of contacts?

Question

In my application i need to create a great amount of contacts.

The code I currenly use:

        ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation> ops = new ArrayList<ContentProviderOperation>();
        ops.add(ContentProviderOperation.newInsert(ContactsContract.RawContacts.CONTENT_URI)
                .withValue(ContactsContract.RawContacts.ACCOUNT_TYPE, accounts[0].type)
                .withValue(ContactsContract.RawContacts.ACCOUNT_NAME, accounts[0].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, name)
                        .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, number)
                        .withValue(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE, ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE_HOME)
                        .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, number)
                        .withValue(ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE, ContactsContract.CommonDataKinds.Phone.TYPE_MOBILE)
                        .build());


        try {
            cr.applyBatch(ContactsContract.AUTHORITY, ops);
        } catch (RemoteException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (OperationApplicationException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

For some amounts of contacts the code works perfect, but if I create large amount then this code workt to slow. Therefore my question: Whats the fastest way to create large numbers of contacts?

Thanks in advance, any suggestions of idea's are welcome.

How many contacts do you need? How fast would you like to load these contacts? — Paweł Nadolski, May 24 '12 at 11:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

0

If you can sync with gmail, you could import contacts in gmail.com (as CSV) and sync them to the phone.

Or just see this similar question: Insertion of thousands of contact entries using applyBatch is slow

edited May 23 '17 at 10:09

Community

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answered May 24 '12 at 11:19

Paweł Nadolski

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These would ofc also be added to the ContactsProvider (using batches) by the Google sync adapter for ContactsContract. No real speed improvement there. – Jens May 24 '12 at 11:26
@Jens, the speed improvement is in developing solution time, generating large CSV is trivial and sync algorithm made by google should be optimal. – Paweł Nadolski May 24 '12 at 11:32
however, his question involved "`code workt (sic) to slow`" - and, as shown in his pasted example - he already has the `ContentProviderOperation`s required to insert new contacts into an arbitrary account. The sync operation by google would most likely be a delta sync - i.e. changes since last sync, i.e. **at best** the same operations he's trying to perform but with the added overhead of HTTP, protocol & parsing. – Jens May 24 '12 at 11:35
Added also link to similar questions which should give some hints how to do it in code. – Paweł Nadolski May 24 '12 at 11:49
Right-oh. Just a fyi for @Greezer - in "more recent versions" (e.g. ICS) `bulkInsert` will also yield in the same manner as `applyBatch` after you've reached a predefined constant number of operations in your bulk/batch. – Jens May 24 '12 at 11:57
thanks for your replies. @Paweł Nadolski i want to add like 600 contacts with multiple numbers which needs to be merged with the native android contacts. I also looked at you link but I did not find the name of the native database for the contacts. I Also find some example on other website but same question how to add the native database to the example: http://eshyu.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/using-sqlite-transactions-with-your-contentprovider/ – Greezer May 24 '12 at 13:49
@jens So in ICS it doesn’t matter if I use either the applyBatch or the BulkInsert. But what’s the speed difference for earlier versions of android? – Greezer May 24 '12 at 13:55
1

Well, bulkInsert in ICS has a harder limit than batches - i.e. it will yield even more often. You're probably better of trying to do reasonably sized applyBatches (of **max** 500 ops) in the background. Why do you need to fill the address book with ludicrous amounts of contacts? Testing purposes? – Jens May 25 '12 at 08:32
@Jens I am now using the applyBatch in small numbers, but it is very slow. Therefore I will test your suggestion to update in larger numbers. I am making custom fields for native contacts therefore I need to add/update large numbers of contacts. Is there a way to adjust the contacts2.db directly with own provider, or is this not possible (permissions)? – Greezer May 25 '12 at 10:53
@Greezer - correct, it's not possible to directly access the SQLite database. – Jens May 25 '12 at 10:54
@Jens, I tried your solution and its it way faster as before. I now got some time loss in my query’s for obtaining the needed data. Thanks for your advice. If you post it under answer then I can mark the your answer as the solution. – Greezer May 29 '12 at 10:25

Whats the fastest way to create large numbers of contacts?

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