xref: /frameworks/base/docs/html/about/versions/android-4.0.3.jd

page.title=Android 4.0.3 APIs
excludeFromSuggestions=true
sdk.platform.version=4.0.3
sdk.platform.apiLevel=15
@jd:body

<div id="qv-wrapper">
<div id="qv">

<h2>In this document</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#api">API Overview</a></li>
  <li><a href="#Honeycomb">Previous APIs</a></li>
  <li><a href="#api-level">API Level</a></li>
</ol>

<h2>Reference</h2>
<ol>
<li><a
href="{@docRoot}sdk/api_diff/15/changes.html">API
Differences Report &raquo;</a> </li>
</ol>

</div>
</div>

<p><em>API Level:</em>&nbsp;<strong>{@sdkPlatformApiLevel}</strong></p>

<p>Android {@sdkPlatformVersion} ({@link android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES#ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH_MR1})
is an incremental release of the Android 4.x
(Ice Cream Sandwich) platform family. This release includes new features for
users and developers, API changes, and various bug fixes.</p>

<p>For developers, the Android {@sdkPlatformVersion} platform is available as a
downloadable component for the Android SDK. The downloadable platform includes
an Android library and system image, as well as a set of emulator skins and
more. To get started developing or testing against Android {@sdkPlatformVersion},
use the Android SDK Manager to download the platform into your SDK.</p>


<h2 id="api">API Overview</h2>

<p>The sections below provide a technical overview of new APIs in Android 4.0.3.</p>

<div class="toggle-content closed">

  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">
    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-closed.png"
class="toggle-content-img" alt="" /><strong>Table of Contents</strong>
  </a></p>

  <div class="toggle-content-toggleme" style="padding-left:2em;">
    <ol class="toc" style="margin-left:-1em">
      <li><a href="#contacts">Social stream API in Contacts Provider</a></li>
      <li><a href="#calendar">Calendar Provider</a></li>
      <li><a href="#widgets">Home screen widgets</a></li>
      <li><a href="#textservices">Spell-checking</a></li>
      <li><a href="#bluetooth">Bluetooth</a></li>
      <li><a href="#ui">UI toolkit</a></li>
      <li><a href="#accessibility">Accessibility</a></li>
      <li><a href="#tts">Text-to-speech</a></li>
      <li><a href="#database">Database</a></li>
      <li><a href="#intents">Intents</a></li>
      <li><a href="#camera">Camera</a></li>
      <li><a href="#permissions">Permissions</a></li>
    </ol>
  </div>
</div>





<h3 id="contacts">Social stream API in Contacts Provider</h3>

<p>Applications that use social stream data such as status updates and check-ins
can now sync that data with each of the user’s contacts, providing items in a
stream along with photos for each.</p>

<p>The database table that contains an individual contact’s social stream is
defined by android.provider.ContactsContract.StreamItems, the Uri for
which is nested within the {@link android.provider.ContactsContract.RawContacts}
directory to which the stream items belong. Each social stream table includes
several columns for metadata about each stream item, such as an icon
representing the source (an avatar), a label for the item, the primary text
content, comments about the item (such as responses from other people), and
more. Photos associated with a stream are stored in another table, defined by
android.provider.ContactsContract.StreamItemPhotos, which is available
as a sub-directory of the android.provider.ContactsContract.StreamItems
Uri.</p>

<p>See android.provider.ContactsContract.StreamItems and
android.provider.ContactsContract.StreamItemPhotos for more information.</p>

<p>To read or write social stream items for a contact, an application must
request permission from the user by declaring <code>&lt;uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.READ_SOCIAL_STREAM"&gt;</code> and/or <code>&lt;uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.WRITE_SOCIAL_STREAM"&gt;</code> in their manifest files.</p>

<h3 id="calendar">Calendar Provider</h4>
<ul>
<li>Adds the class {@link android.provider.CalendarContract.Colors} to represent
a color table in the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/providers/calendar-provider.html">Calendar
Provider</a>. The class provides fields for accessing
colors available for a given account. Colors are referenced by 
{@link android.provider.CalendarContract.ColorsColumns#COLOR_KEY COLOR_KEY}
which must be unique for a given account name/type. These values can only be
updated by the sync adapter.</li>
<li>Adds {@link android.provider.CalendarContract.CalendarColumns#ALLOWED_AVAILABILITY ALLOWED_AVAILABILITY}
and 
{@link android.provider.CalendarContract.CalendarColumns#ALLOWED_ATTENDEE_TYPES ALLOWED_ATTENDEE_TYPES}
for exchange/sync support.</li>
<li>Adds {@link android.provider.CalendarContract.AttendeesColumns#TYPE_RESOURCE}
(such as conference rooms) for attendees and 
{@link android.provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns#AVAILABILITY_TENTATIVE},
as well as {@link android.provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns#EVENT_COLOR_KEY}
for events.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="widgets">Home screen widgets</h3>

<p>Starting from Android 4.0, home screen widgets should no longer include their
own padding. Instead, the system now automatically adds padding for each widget,
based the characteristics of the current screen. This leads to a more uniform,
consistent presentation of widgets in a grid. To assist applications that host
home screen widgets, the platform provides a new method 
{@link android.appwidget.AppWidgetHostView#getDefaultPaddingForWidget(android.content.Context, android.content.ComponentName, android.graphics.Rect)
getDefaultPaddingForWidget()}. Applications can call this method to get the
system-defined padding and account for it when computing the number of cells to
allocate to the widget.</p>

<h3 id="textservices">Spell-checking</h3>

<ul>
<li>For apps that accessing spell-checker services, a new {@link
android.view.textservice.SpellCheckerSession#cancel() cancel()} method cancels
any pending and running spell-checker tasks in a session.</li>

<li>For spell-checker services, a new suggestions flag, 
{@link android.view.textservice.SuggestionsInfo#RESULT_ATTR_HAS_RECOMMENDED_SUGGESTIONS},
lets the services distinguish higher-confidence suggestions from
lower-confidence ones. For example, a spell-checker could set the flag if an
input word is not in the user dictionary but has likely suggestions, or not set
the flag if an input word is not in the dictionary and has suggestions that are
likely to be less useful.

<p>Apps connected to the spell-checker can use the {@link
android.view.textservice.SuggestionsInfo#RESULT_ATTR_HAS_RECOMMENDED_SUGGESTIONS}
flag in combination with other suggestion attributes, as well as the {@link
android.view.textservice.SuggestionsInfo#getSuggestionsAttributes()} and {@link
android.view.textservice.SuggestionsInfo#getSuggestionsCount()} methods, to
determine whether to mark input words as typos and offer suggestions.</p></li>

<li>A new {@link android.text.style.SuggestionSpan#FLAG_AUTO_CORRECTION} style
for text spans indicates that auto correction is about to be applied to a
word/text that the user is typing/composing. This type of suggestion is rendered
differently, to indicate the auto correction is happening.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="bluetooth">Bluetooth</h3>
<p>New public methods {@link
android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice#fetchUuidsWithSdp()} and {@link
android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice#getUuids()} let apps determine the features
(UUIDs) supported by a remote device. In the case of {@link
android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice#fetchUuidsWithSdp()}, the system performs a
service discovery on the remote device to get the UUIDs supported, then
broadcasts the result in an {@link
android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice#ACTION_UUID} intent.</p>

<h3 id="ui">UI toolkit</h3>

<p>New methods {@link android.app.Fragment#setUserVisibleHint(boolean) setUserVisibleHint()} and
{@link android.app.Fragment#getUserVisibleHint() getUserVisibleHint()} allow a
fragment to set a hint of whether or not it is currently user-visible. The
system defers the start of fragments that are not user-visible until the loaders
for visible fragments have run. The visibility hint is "true" by default.</li>
</p>

<h3 id="graphics">Graphics</h3>

<ul>
<li>New method {@link android.graphics.SurfaceTexture#setDefaultBufferSize(int
width, int height)} in {@link android.graphics.SurfaceTexture} sets the default size of the image
buffers. This method may be used to set the image size when producing images
with {@link android.graphics.Canvas} (via {@link
android.view.Surface#lockCanvas}), or OpenGL ES (via an EGLSurface).</li>
<li>Adds definitions for the enums of the GL_OES_EGL_image_external OpenGL ES extension &mdash;
{@link android.opengl.GLES11Ext#GL_REQUIRED_TEXTURE_IMAGE_UNITS_OES},
{@link android.opengl.GLES11Ext#GL_SAMPLER_EXTERNAL_OES},
{@link android.opengl.GLES11Ext#GL_TEXTURE_BINDING_EXTERNAL_OES}, and
{@link android.opengl.GLES11Ext#GL_TEXTURE_EXTERNAL_OES}.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="accessibility">Accessibility</h3>

<ul>
<li>Clients of {@link android.widget.RemoteViews} can now use the method {@link
android.widget.RemoteViews#setContentDescription(int, java.lang.CharSequence)
setContentDescription()} to set and get the content description of any View in
the inflated layout.</li>

<li>The methods {@link android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityRecord#getMaxScrollX()},
{@link android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityRecord#getMaxScrollY()},
{@link android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityRecord#setMaxScrollX(int) setMaxScrollX()}, and
{@link android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityRecord#setMaxScrollY(int) setMaxScrollY()}
allow apps to get and set the maximum scroll offset for an
{@link android.view.accessibility.AccessibilityRecord} object.</li>

<li>When touch-exploration mode is enabled, a new secure setting 
{@link android.provider.Settings.Secure#ACCESSIBILITY_SPEAK_PASSWORD} 
indicates whether the user requests the IME to speak text entered in password fields, even when
a headset is not in use. By default, no password text is spoken unless a headset
is in use.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="tts">Text-to-speech</h3>

<ul>
<li>Adds the new method {@link
android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech.Engine#getFeatures(java.util.Locale)
getFeatures()}for querying and enabling network TTS support.
<li>Adds a new listener class, {@link
android.speech.tts.UtteranceProgressListener}, that engines can register to
receive notification of speech-synthesis errors.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="database">Database</h3>

<ul>
<li>A new {@link android.database.CrossProcessCursorWrapper} class lets content
providers return results for a cross-process query more efficiently. The new
class is a useful building block for wrapping cursors that will be sent to
processes remotely. It can also transform normal {@link android.database.Cursor}
objects into {@link android.database.CrossProcessCursor} objects
transparently.

<p>The {@link android.database.CrossProcessCursorWrapper} class fixes common
performance issues and bugs that applications have encountered when
implementing content providers.</p></li>

<li>The {@link android.database.CursorWindow#CursorWindow(java.lang.String)}
constructor now takes a name string as input. The system no longer distinguishes
between local and remote cursor windows, so {@link
android.database.CursorWindow#CursorWindow(boolean)} is now deprecated.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="intents">Intents</h3>

<p>Adds new categories for targeting common types of applications on the
device, such as {@link android.content.Intent#CATEGORY_APP_BROWSER}, {@link
android.content.Intent#CATEGORY_APP_CALENDAR}, {@link
android.content.Intent#CATEGORY_APP_MAPS}, and more.</li>

<h3 id="camera">Camera</h3>

<ul>
<li>{@link android.media.MediaMetadataRetriever} adds the new constant
{@link android.media.MediaMetadataRetriever#METADATA_KEY_LOCATION} to let apps
access retrieve location information for an image or video. </li>

<li>{@link android.media.CamcorderProfile} adds the QVGA (320x240) resolution
profiles. Quality level is represented by the
{@link android.media.CamcorderProfile#QUALITY_QVGA}.and
{@link android.media.CamcorderProfile#QUALITY_TIME_LAPSE_QVGA} constants.</li>

<li>New methods {@link android.hardware.Camera.Parameters#setVideoStabilization(boolean) setVideoStabilization()},
{@link android.hardware.Camera.Parameters#getVideoStabilization() setVideoStabilization()}, and {@link android.hardware.Camera.Parameters#isVideoStabilizationSupported() isVideoStabilizationSupported()}
let you check and manage video stabilization for a {@link android.hardware.Camera}.</li>
</ul>

<h3 id="Permissions">Permissions</h3>

<p>The following are new permissions:</p>
<ul>
<li>android.Manifest.permission#READ_SOCIAL_STREAM and
android.Manifest.permission#WRITE_SOCIAL_STREAM: Allow a sync
adapter to read and write social stream data to a contact in the shared
Contacts Provider.</li>
</ul>


<div class="special" style="margin-top:2em">
<p>For a detailed view of all API changes in Android {@sdkPlatformVersion} (API Level
{@sdkPlatformApiLevel}), see the <a
href="{@docRoot}sdk/api_diff/{@sdkPlatformApiLevel}/changes.html">API Differences Report</a>.</p>
</div>


<h2 id="api-level">API Level</h2>

<p>The Android {@sdkPlatformVersion} API is assigned an integer
identifier&mdash;<strong>{@sdkPlatformApiLevel}</strong>&mdash;that is stored in the system itself.
This identifier, called the "API level", allows the system to correctly determine whether an
application is compatible with the system, prior to installing the application. </p>

<p>To use APIs introduced in Android {@sdkPlatformVersion} in your application, you need compile the
application against an Android platform that supports API level {@sdkPlatformApiLevel} or
higher. Depending on your needs, you might also need to add an
<code>android:minSdkVersion="{@sdkPlatformApiLevel}"</code> attribute to the
<a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html">{@code &lt;uses-sdk&gt;}</a>
element.</p>

<p>For more information, see the <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html#ApiLevels">API Levels</a>
document. </p>