How to add programmatically a custom account in android?

Question

I am trying to create an account for my app, where I will be able to have my contacts against my account like facebook, viber, whatsapp etc. I want my account to be visible

Answer 1

I have written a library for this, which gets you free from doing the chores needed for managing android accounts, such as defining a bound service, authenticator xml, etc. Working with that is in 5 simple steps:

Step 1

Add this to dependencies for build.gradle of the app:

compile 'com.digigene.android:account-authenticator:1.3.0'

Step 2

Define your authentication account type as a string in strings.xml:

DigiGene

Replace ‘DigiGene’ with your own account type. This is what appears in Android Accounts in this screenshot.

Step 3

Design your registration layout for registering the users (e.g. this image):

and make a new class, say MyRegistrationActivity.java, with the following code:

import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.activity.RegistrationActivity;

public class MyRegistrationActivity extends RegistrationActivity {
    private EditText accountNameEditText, passwordEditText;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.registration_layout);
        accountNameEditText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.account_name);
        passwordEditText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.password);
    }

    public void startAuthentication(View view) {
        register(accountNameEditText.getText().toString(), passwordEditText.getText().toString(),
                null, null);
    }
}

Step 4

Make an entry layout as in here:

This layout goes with the following class:

import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.AuthenticatorManager;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
    EditText accountNameEditText;

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        accountNameEditText = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.account_name);
    }

    public void signIn(View view) {
        AuthenticatorManager authenticatorManager = new AuthenticatorManager(MainActivity.this,
                getString(R.string.auth_account_type), this, MyRegistrationActivity.class,
                MyInterfaceImplementation.class);
        String authTokenType = "REGULAR_USER";
        AuthenticatorManager.authenticatorManager = authenticatorManager;
        authenticatorManager.getAccessToken(accountNameEditText.getText().toString(),
                authTokenType, null);
    }

    public void addUser(View view) {
        AuthenticatorManager authenticatorManager = new AuthenticatorManager(MainActivity.this,
                getString(R.string.auth_account_type), this, MyRegistrationActivity.class,
                MyInterfaceImplementation.class);
        String authTokenType = "REGULAR_USER";
        AuthenticatorManager.authenticatorManager = authenticatorManager;
        authenticatorManager.addAccount(authTokenType, null, null);
    }
}

Step 5

This is the last step in which the methods needed to connect to the server for registration and sign-in purposes and after that are implemented. In the following, contrary to a real case, server connections are mocked, just to demonstrate the functionality of the library. You may replace the following implementation with your own real one.

import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.AbstractInterfaceImplementation;
import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.AuthenticatorManager;
import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.result.RegisterResult;
import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.result.SignInResult;
import com.digigene.accountauthenticator.result.SignUpResult;

public class MyInterfaceImplementation extends AbstractInterfaceImplementation {
    public static int accessTokenCounter = 0;
    public static int refreshTokenCounter = 0;
    public static int demoCounter = 0;
    public static int accessTokenNo = 0;
    public static int refreshTokenNo = 0;
    public final int ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_COUNTER = 2;
    public final int REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_COUNTER = 5;
    public final int DEMO_COUNTER = 15;

    @Override
    public String[] userAccessTypes() {
        return new String[]{"REGULAR_USER", "SUPER_USER"};
    }

    @Override
    public void doAfterSignUpIsUnsuccessful(Context context, Account account, String
            authTokenType, SignUpResult signUpResult, Bundle options) {
        Toast.makeText(context, "Sign-up was not possible due to the following:\n" + signUpResult
                .errMessage, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        AuthenticatorManager.authenticatorManager.addAccount(authTokenType, null, options);
    }

    @Override
    public void doAfterSignInIsSuccessful(Context context, Account account, String authTokenType,
                                          String authToken, SignInResult signInResult, Bundle
                                                  options) {
        demoCounter = demoCounter + 1;
        Toast.makeText(context, "User is successfully signed in: \naccessTokenNo=" +
                accessTokenNo + "\nrefreshTokenNo=" + refreshTokenNo +
                "\ndemoCounter=" + demoCounter, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

    @Override
    public SignInResult signInToServer(Context context, Account account, String authTokenType,
                                       String accessToken, Bundle options) {
        accessTokenCounter = accessTokenCounter + 1;
        SignInResult signInResult = new SignInResult();
        signInResult.isSuccessful = true;
        synchronized (this) {
            try {
                this.wait(2000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        if ((accessTokenCounter > ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_COUNTER || demoCounter > DEMO_COUNTER)) {
            signInResult.isSuccessful = false;
            signInResult.isAccessTokenExpired = true;
            if (demoCounter < DEMO_COUNTER) {
                signInResult.errMessage = "Access token is expired";
                return signInResult;
            }
        }
        return signInResult;
    }

    @Override
    public SignUpResult signUpToServer(Context context, Account account, String authTokenType,
                                       String refreshToken, Bundle options) {
        SignUpResult signUpResult = new SignUpResult();
        synchronized (this) {
            try {
                this.wait(2000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        refreshTokenCounter = refreshTokenCounter + 1;
        signUpResult.isSuccessful = true;
        signUpResult.accessToken = "ACCESS_TOKEN_NO_" + accessTokenNo;
        signUpResult.refreshToken = "REFRESH_TOKEN_NO_" + refreshTokenNo;
        if (demoCounter > DEMO_COUNTER) {
            signUpResult.isSuccessful = false;
            signUpResult.errMessage = "You have reached your limit of using the demo version. " +
                    "Please buy it for further usage";
            return signUpResult;
        }
        if (refreshTokenCounter > REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_COUNTER) {
            refreshTokenCounter = 0;
            signUpResult.isSuccessful = false;
            signUpResult.errMessage = "User credentials have expired, please login again";
            return signUpResult;
        }
        if (accessTokenCounter > ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION_COUNTER) {
            accessTokenCounter = 0;
            accessTokenNo = accessTokenNo + 1;
            signUpResult.accessToken = "ACCESS_TOKEN_NO_" + accessTokenNo;
        }
        return signUpResult;
    }

    @Override
    public RegisterResult registerInServer(Context context, Account account, String password,
                                           String authTokenType, String[] requiredFeatures,
                                           Bundle options) {
        RegisterResult registerResult = new RegisterResult();
        registerResult.isSuccessful = false;
        synchronized (this) {
            try {
                this.wait(2000);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        if (true) {  // password is checked here and, if true, refresh token is generated for the
            // user
            refreshTokenNo = refreshTokenNo + 1;
            accessTokenNo = accessTokenNo + 1;
            registerResult.isSuccessful = true;
            registerResult.refreshToken = "REFRESH_TOKEN_NO_" + refreshTokenNo;
        }
        return registerResult;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean setDoesCallbackRunInBackgroundThread() {
        return false;
    }
}

Results

The following shows the library in action. You can find the complete tutorial here and about how AccountManager in android works in these three posts from my website:part 1, part 2, part 3.