How do I get a Uri to an image in my Assets that will work for the SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_ICON_1 column?

Question

I have successfully integrated my app\'s country search into the global search facility and now I am trying to display each country\'s flag next to the search suggestions.

Answer 1

You first create an AssetProvider. We will later create uris that will be handled by this class.

public class AssetsProvider extends ContentProvider {

    private AssetManager assetManager;
    public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = 
            Uri.parse("content://com.example.assets");

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri arg0, String arg1, String[] arg2) { return 0; }

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) { return null; }

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) { return null; }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {
        assetManager = getContext().getAssets();
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) { return null; }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) { return 0; }

    @Override
    public AssetFileDescriptor openAssetFile(Uri uri, String mode) throws FileNotFoundException {
        String path = uri.getPath().substring(1);
        try {
            AssetFileDescriptor afd = assetManager.openFd(path);
            return afd;
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new FileNotFoundException("No asset found: " + uri, e);
        }
    }
}

Lot's of boilerplate in there. The essential method is of course the openAssetFile that justs translates the path of the uri passed to it into a AssetFileDescriptor. In order for Android to be able to pass URIs to this provider, remember to include this in your AndroidManifest.xml file inside the application-tag:

Now, in your search provider you can create an URI like this:

content://com.example.assets/my_folder_inside_assets/myfile.png