Android read browser history

Question

I want to read browser history in Android phone.

I have done some document reading, then I come to know that we can read browser history by android.provider.Browser class. It has :

final static Cursor
getAllVisitedUrls(ContentResolver cr)

...method which returns Cursor.

May I get help to handle Cursor, or any example code to get browser history?

score 29 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

29

Not really an answer but I can tell you what I did.

I first clone the browser repo and try to reproduce how they get the history. And I started getting:

Permission Denial: reading com.android.browser.BrowserProvider

So I added:

<uses-permission android:name="com.android.browser.permission.READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS" />

But it still is giving me the same error. I google it and I found this Accessing Data With Android Cursors.

Hope it helps.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
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answered Apr 05 '10 at 12:28

Macarse

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The permission should be: `` It works then. – Firebrandt Jun 23 '11 at 12:46
@Firebrandt: I just fixed it. Thanks. – Macarse Jun 27 '11 at 17:42
Does this method require root access, or just that single permission? – ethanpil Apr 16 '12 at 15:58
@ethanpil.. no root access required buddy – Noman Feb 27 '14 at 07:06
This answer is not completed, after I try so many times, I discovered the other part of problem was the AVD. so install AVD with API 18 (I was running API 23) then I was able to run it. I don't sure why this process is so picky. – Jaider Sep 26 '15 at 17:26
11

This will not work in Marshmallow anymore: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-bookmark-browser – user1406716 Oct 25 '15 at 21:32

Aditya · Answer 2 · 2013-07-08T08:52:19.083

managedQuery has been deprecated so use getContentResolver instead, use the following code:

String[] proj = new String[] { Browser.BookmarkColumns.TITLE, Browser.BookmarkColumns.URL };
String sel = Browser.BookmarkColumns.BOOKMARK + " = 0"; // 0 = history, 1 = bookmark
Cursor mCur = getContentResolver().query(Browser.BOOKMARKS_URI, proj, sel, null, null);
mCur.moveToFirst();
@SuppressWarnings("unused")
String title = "";
@SuppressWarnings("unused")
String url = "";
if (mCur.moveToFirst() && mCur.getCount() > 0) {
    boolean cont = true;
    while (mCur.isAfterLast() == false && cont) {
        title = mCur.getString(mCur.getColumnIndex(Browser.BookmarkColumns.TITLE));
        url = mCur.getString(mCur.getColumnIndex(Browser.BookmarkColumns.URL));
        // Do something with title and url
        mCur.moveToNext();
    }
}

Also add permissions using

<uses-permission android:name="com.android.browser.permission.READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS" />

this answer works! I also made an example based on this answer https://github.com/shanwu/shanwu_coding_base/tree/bookmark_record_example — shanwu, Jul 14 '14 at 14:51
[Most things related to Bookmarks were removed in API Level 23 (Android 6.0+)](https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-bookmark-browser) — Aashish Kumar, Feb 09 '18 at 04:29

Mitul Nakum · Answer 3 · 2015-10-26T16:19:45.153

9

For Lollipop or earlier

I am able to get the history by using the following code:

Cursor mCur = activity.managedQuery(Browser.BOOKMARKS_URI,
                    Browser.HISTORY_PROJECTION, null, null, null);
            if (mCur.moveToFirst()) {
                while (mCur.isAfterLast() == false) {
                    Log.v("titleIdx", mCur
                            .getString(Browser.HISTORY_PROJECTION_TITLE_INDEX));
                    Log.v("urlIdx", mCur
                            .getString(Browser.HISTORY_PROJECTION_URL_INDEX));
                    mCur.moveToNext();
                }
            }

edited Oct 26 '15 at 16:19

answered Apr 06 '10 at 06:55

Mitul Nakum

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Log.v("urlIdx", mCur.getString(Browser.HISTORY_PROJECTION_DATE_INDEX)); try this out. and for further info please visit http://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Browser.html – Mitul Nakum Apr 26 '12 at 05:24
2

This will not work in Marshmallow anymore: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-bookmark-browser – user1406716 Oct 25 '15 at 21:32

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 21 '15 at 20:12

This post is a little bit old, but here is another easy solution for getting data related to Bookmark and Search content providers in Android:

Use this lib: https://github.com/EverythingMe/easy-content-providers

Get all bookmarks:

BrowserProvider browserProvider = new BrowserProvider(context);
List<Bookmark> bookmarks = browserProvider.getBookmarks().getList();

Each Bookmark has all fields, so you can get any info you need: title, url, visits, ...

Get all Search history:

List<Search> searches = browserProvider.getSearches().getList();

It works with lists or cursor and there a sample app to see how it looks and works.

In fact, there is support for all Android content providers like: Contacts, SMS, Calls, ... Full doc with all options: https://github.com/EverythingMe/easy-content-providers/wiki/Android-providers

Hope it helped :)

naidu · Answer 5 · 2014-02-20T12:18:56.237

  public ArrayList<HistoryEntry> getBrowserHistory() {

    String title = "";
    String url = "";

    ArrayList<HistoryEntry> list = new ArrayList<HistoryEntry>();

    String[] proj = new String[] { Browser.BookmarkColumns.TITLE,
            Browser.BookmarkColumns.URL };
    String sel = Browser.BookmarkColumns.BOOKMARK + " = 0"; // 0 = history,
                                                            // 1 = bookmark
    Cursor mCur = getContentResolver().query(Browser.BOOKMARKS_URI, proj,
            sel, null, null);
    mCur.moveToFirst();

    if (mCur.moveToFirst() && mCur.getCount() > 0) {
        boolean cont = true;
        while (mCur.isAfterLast() == false && cont) {
            HistoryEntry entry = new HistoryEntry();

            title = mCur.getString(mCur
                    .getColumnIndex(Browser.BookmarkColumns.TITLE));
            url = mCur.getString(mCur
                    .getColumnIndex(Browser.BookmarkColumns.URL));
            // Do something with title and url
            entry.setTitle(title);
                            entry.setUrl(url);
                            list.add(entry );
            Log.d("TAG", "title   " + title);
            mCur.moveToNext();
        }
    }

    mCur.close();

    return list;
}

[Most things related to Bookmarks were removed in API Level 23 (Android 6.0+)](https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-bookmark-browser) — Aashish Kumar, Feb 09 '18 at 04:26

Android read browser history

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