Android get sms from inbox, optimized way to read all messages and group them

Question

Hi am implementing a SMS App, now am able to retrieve all messages with their respective contact info like display name, photo uri.. and am displaying them in a custom list where on item click takes you to respective discussion. Here my issues is the time taking to sync all these messages,

1. I need to optimize this time.
2. Each time i send a new message in the discussion view and go back to recent chats i need to only update the particular item, not the whole list.

Here's my code:

ReadSMS.java:

public class ReadSMS {

    ArrayList<HashMap<Contact, ArrayList<OneComment>>> recentChats;

    Application _context;

    public ReadSMS(Application context) {
        this._context = context;
        this.recentChats = ((ChatApplication) _context).getChats();
    }

    public ArrayList<HashMap<Contact, ArrayList<OneComment>>> getSMS() {

        // Init
        ArrayList<SmsMsg> smsMsgs = new ArrayList<SmsMsg>();
        TreeSet<Integer> threadIds = new TreeSet<Integer>();

        Uri mSmsinboxQueryUri = Uri.parse("content://sms");
        Cursor cursor = _context.getContentResolver().query(
                mSmsinboxQueryUri,
                new String[] { "_id", "thread_id", "address", "date", "body",
                        "type" }, null, null, null);

        String[] columns = new String[] { "address", "thread_id", "date",
                "body", "type" };
        if (cursor.getCount() > 0) {

            while (cursor.moveToNext()) {

                SmsMsg smsMsg = new SmsMsg();

                String address = null, displayName = null, date = null, msg = null, type = null, threadId = null;
                Uri photoUri = null;

                threadId = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(columns[1]));

                type = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(columns[4]));

                if (Integer.parseInt(type) == 1 || Integer.parseInt(type) == 2) {

                    address = cursor.getString(cursor
                            .getColumnIndex(columns[0]));

                    if (address.length() > 0) {

                        String[] contactData = getContactByNumber(address);
                        if (contactData != null) {
                            displayName = contactData[0];
                            if (contactData[1] != null)
                                photoUri = Uri.parse(contactData[1]);
                        }
                    } else
                        address = null;

                    date = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(columns[2]));
                    msg = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(columns[3]));

                    smsMsg.setDisplayName(displayName);
                    smsMsg.setThreadId(threadId);
                    smsMsg.setAddress(address);
                    smsMsg.setPhotoUri(photoUri);
                    smsMsg.setDate(date);
                    smsMsg.setMsg(msg);
                    smsMsg.setType(type);

                    // Log.e("SMS-inbox", "\n\nNAME: " + displayName
                    // + "\nTHREAD_ID: " + threadId + "\nNUMBER: "
                    // + address + "\nPHOTO_URI: " + photoUri + "\nTIME: "
                    // + date + "\nMESSAGE: " + msg + "\nTYPE: " + type);

                    smsMsgs.add(smsMsg);

                    // Add threadId to Tree
                    threadIds.add(Integer.parseInt(threadId));
                }

            }

            for (int threadId : threadIds) {

                HashMap<Contact, ArrayList<OneComment>> oneChat = new HashMap<Contact, ArrayList<OneComment>>();
                Contact con = new Contact();
                ArrayList<OneComment> oneDisc = new ArrayList<OneComment>();

                for (SmsMsg smsMsg : smsMsgs) {

                    if (Integer.parseInt(smsMsg.getThreadId()) == threadId) {

                        con.setContactName(smsMsg.getDisplayName());
                        con.setContactNumber(smsMsg.getAddress());
                        con.setContactPhotoUri(smsMsg.getPhotoUri());

                        if (Integer.parseInt(smsMsg.getType()) == 1)
                            oneDisc.add(0, new OneComment(true,
                                    smsMsg.getMsg(), smsMsg.getDisplayName(),
                                    smsMsg.getDate(), false));
                        else if (Integer.parseInt(smsMsg.getType()) == 2)
                            oneDisc.add(0,
                                    new OneComment(false, smsMsg.getMsg(),
                                            "Me", smsMsg.getDate(), false));

                    }

                }

                oneChat.put(con, oneDisc);
                // add at pos 0
                recentChats.add(0, oneChat);

            }

        }

        return recentChats;
    }

    public String[] getContactByNumber(final String number) {
        String[] data = new String[2];

        try {

            Uri uri = Uri.withAppendedPath(PhoneLookup.CONTENT_FILTER_URI,
                    Uri.encode(number));

            Cursor cur = _context.getContentResolver().query(uri,
                    new String[] { PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME, PhoneLookup._ID },
                    null, null, null);

            if (cur.moveToFirst()) {
                int nameIdx = cur.getColumnIndex(PhoneLookup.DISPLAY_NAME);
                data[0] = cur.getString(nameIdx);

                String contactId = cur.getString(cur
                        .getColumnIndex(PhoneLookup._ID));

                Uri photoUri = getContactPhotoUri(Long.parseLong(contactId));

                if (photoUri != null)
                    data[1] = photoUri.toString();
                else
                    data[1] = null;

                cur.close();
                return data;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return null;

    }

    public Uri getContactPhotoUri(long contactId) {

        Uri photoUri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(Contacts.CONTENT_URI,
                contactId);
        photoUri = Uri.withAppendedPath(photoUri,
                Contacts.Photo.CONTENT_DIRECTORY);
        return photoUri;

    }

}

SmsMsg.java POJO:

public class SmsMsg {

    private String address = null;
    private String displayName = null;
    private String threadId = null;
    private String date = null;
    private String msg = null;
    private String type = null;
    Uri photoUri = null;

    public Uri getPhotoUri() {
        return photoUri;
    }

    public void setPhotoUri(Uri photoUri) {
        this.photoUri = photoUri;
    }

    public String getDisplayName() {
        return displayName;
    }

    public void setDisplayName(String displayName) {
        this.displayName = displayName;
    }

    public String getAddress() {
        return address;
    }

    public void setAddress(String address) {
        this.address = address;
    }

    public String getThreadId() {
        return threadId;
    }

    public void setThreadId(String threadId) {
        this.threadId = threadId;
    }

    public String getDate() {
        return date;
    }

    public void setDate(String date) {
        this.date = date;
    }

    public String getMsg() {
        return msg;
    }

    public void setMsg(String msg) {
        this.msg = msg;
    }

    public String getType() {
        return type;
    }

    public void setType(String type) {
        this.type = type;
    }

}

Answer 1

POJO storage is not a great approach since those are required to stay in memory all the time, or else be reloaded causing pain and slowness.

In this case, you should create a Service that updates a sqlite database, and present it as a ContentProvider. The sqlite db should only contain the structure that is not provided by Android, i.e. your Contact/Threads hierarchy, and any data you might be displaying in your list, such as the text of the most recent message.

This thread has a discussion of how to detect new SMS Message arrival/sends, whether from your app or another, which is probably what you really want rather than simply detecting that the user posted a message from your own app. The Service should perform this task, the UI Activity only needs to observe the ContentProvider.

Aside: I wonder how the user will send a message to a contact to whom they have not yet sent a message, since your list only contains contacts who they have sent messages to.