Today I've published a new version of my AutoResponder Android application. The main feature in this release was quite simple: show auto-sent messages within standard messages conversation, just as if they were sent by hand. So, how do you do this in the Android SDK? Because it is a background operation, not visible to user, I've decided to build a Service to accomplish this task.

//imports

public class SentSmsLogger extends Service {

    private static final String TELEPHON_NUMBER_FIELD_NAME = "address";
    private static final String MESSAGE_BODY_FIELD_NAME = "body";
    private static final Uri SENT_MSGS_CONTET_PROVIDER = Uri.parse("content://sms/sent");

    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
        addMessageToSentIfPossible(intent);
        stopSelf();
    }

    private void addMessageToSentIfPossible(Intent intent) {
        if (intent != null) {
            String telNumber = intent.getStringExtra("telNumber");
            String messageBody = intent.getStringExtra("messageBody");
            if (telNumber != null && messageBody != null) {
                addMessageToSent(telNumber, messageBody);
            }
        }
    }
    
    private void addMessageToSent(String telNumber, String messageBody) {
        ContentValues sentSms = new ContentValues();
        sentSms.put(TELEPHON_NUMBER_FIELD_NAME, telNumber);
        sentSms.put(MESSAGE_BODY_FIELD_NAME, messageBody);
        
        ContentResolver contentResolver = getContentResolver();
        contentResolver.insert(SENT_MSGS_CONTET_PROVIDER, sentSms);
    }

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }

}

SentSmsLogger expects an Intent with receiver number and message body. Then it passes that information to proper ContentProvider. And this is the clue - it isn't well documented how to manage ContentProvider associated with messaging module. Google to the rescue ;) I've found information that relevant the ContentProvider has the URI content://sms/sent.

The next step was to find out the names of the fields that contain data about message body and its receiver. With the help of debugger, I've found them - it's body and address. I've put all of this in private constants at the top of class. That's all! Now we can use this data in a standard manner. Useful information about this can be found in the official documentation. Important note: due to compatibility issues, I've used Android SDK v. 1.5 here.