CursorLoader usage without ContentProvider

Question

Android SDK documentation says that startManagingCursor() method is depracated:

This method is deprecated. Use the new CursorLoader class

Answer 1

A third option would be to simply override loadInBackground:

public class CustomCursorLoader extends CursorLoader {
    private final ForceLoadContentObserver mObserver = new ForceLoadContentObserver();

    @Override
    public Cursor loadInBackground() {
        Cursor cursor = ... // get your cursor from wherever you like

        if (cursor != null) {
            // Ensure the cursor window is filled
            cursor.getCount();
            cursor.registerContentObserver(mObserver);
        }

        return cursor;
    }
};

This will also take care of re-querying your cursor when the database changes.

Only caveat: You'll have to define another observer, since Google in it's infinite wisdom decided to make theirs package private. If you put the class into the same package as the original one (or the compat one) you can actually use the original observer. The observer is a very lightweight object and isn't used anywhere else, so this doesn't make much of a difference.