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Uri of images keeps changing, is this an emulator issue or am I doing something wrong?

I have set up some code to pick an image from the gallery.
private void setImg() {
Intent imgIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK);
imgIntent.setType("image/*");
startActivityForResult(imgIntent, IMG_INPUT);
}
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, #Nullable Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
if (requestCode == IMG_INPUT) {
Uri imgUri = data.getData();
if (imgUri != null) {
imgStrUri = imgUri.toString();
recipeImg.setImageURI(imgUri);
recipeImg.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
imgBtn.setText(getString(R.string.remove_image));
} else {
Toast.makeText(this, "Something went wrong",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
}
}
The Uri of the image is then stored in a custom datastructure as a String (in the form of imgStrUri) and saved to sharedprefs using gson.
Later when I load the data from sharedpref to set the image in another activity the stored Uri no longer works and no image is put into my imageview.
String image = recipeCard.getRecipeImage();
if (image != null) {
((ImageView) findViewById(R.id.image_display)).setImageURI(Uri.parse(image));
}
I did some debugging and found that although a Uri was saved to my datastructure (of which recipeCard is an instance) it no longer pointed to anything as nothing was loaded into my ImageView. So I went to run my setImg function again and chose the same picture only to find that the picture now had a slightly different Uri. So my question is, is this an emulator issue or have I done something wrong?
Here is an example of how the Uri changes:
content://com.google.android.apps.photos.contentprovider/-1/1/content%3A%2F%2Fmedia%2Fexternal%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2F11/ORIGINAL/NONE/1007823737
content://com.google.android.apps.photos.contentprovider/-1/1/content%3A%2F%2Fmedia%2Fexternal%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2F11/ORIGINAL/NONE/1302460634
As you can see the numbers after the last slash changes.
Haven't posted very many questions here so not very used to formulating my problem like this. As such I might very well have forgotten to provide some needed info or code snippets, if so please let me know and I'll get right on it.

I have set up some code to pick an image from the gallery
ACTION_PICK does not take a MIME type.
The Uri of the image is then stored in a custom datastructure as a String (in the form of imgStrUri) and saved to sharedprefs using gson.
That is not going to work well with ACTION_PICK. Your rights to access the content identified by the Uri is going to be limited. Quoting myself from that blog post:
If you need durable access — such as being able to access the content
tomorrow — you have two main options that I know of:
If you used ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT, ACTION_CREATE_DOCUMENT, or similar
Storage Access Framework actions, you can try using takePersistableUriPermissions()
on ContentResolver to get long-term access to the content.
Otherwise, before your component is destroyed, make a local copy of
the content in your app's portion of internal storage (e.g., getCacheDir()).
This approach sucks,
as it duplicates the content, and changes to the original edition of the
content will not be reflected in the copy. Use appropriate UI terms
(e.g., "import") to help the user understand that this is what is going
on.
Do not assume that your ACTION_PICK Uri is going to be able to be used later, read back in from your JSON.
So I went to run my setImg function again and chose the same picture only to find that the picture now had a slightly different Uri.
FWIW, there is no requirement for any ACTION_PICK implementation to return consistent Uri values. You see this sort of behavior elsewhere, such as there being multiple URLs under which you can get to this Web page.

Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT with Google Drive

I have the following intent:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
intent.setType("text/*");
startActivityForResult(intent, DBOpenHelper.REQUEST_CODE_RESTORE);
The intent allows the user to select a text file from a number of options. It works fine with local storage and Dropbox for example, and in both cases I can get the file from as follows:
#Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
if ((requestCode == DBOpenHelper.REQUEST_CODE_RESTORE)
&& (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK)) {
restoreFile = new File(data.getData().getPath());
restoreFileName = restoreFile.getName();
}
}
Local storage works fine and Dropbox will copy a local copy of the file to the SD card and return the correct path. The problem is that if the user to selects files from Google Drive. When they use Google Drive, data.getData().getPath() returns something like: "/document/acc=1;doc=195" instead of returning the path to the locally stored file. How do I have Google Drive download the file and return the path? I want to allow the user to select from any file storage option they have available.

Google Drive may or may not have downloaded the file locally when the user picks the file. However, in all cases, you can access the contents of the file via getContentResolver().openInputStream(data.getData()) - note that openInputStream() also supports local files and can and should be used in other cases as well.

How to open a file browser in Android?

I am developing on a Android 4.0.3 device. How do I open a file browser for my app? Is there one built in the to Android SDK? Do I have to write my own?
I don't want my app to depend on a the user installing a separate app for file browsing.

To get a file from a file browser, use this:
Intent fileintent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
fileintent.setType("gagt/sdf");
try {
startActivityForResult(fileintent, PICKFILE_RESULT_CODE);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
Log.e("tag", "No activity can handle picking a file. Showing alternatives.");
}
I'm not quite sure what the gagt/sdf is for... it seems to work in my app for any file.
Then add this method:
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
// TODO Fix no activity available
if (data == null)
return;
switch (requestCode) {
case PICKFILE_RESULT_CODE:
if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
String FilePath = data.getData().getPath();
//FilePath is your file as a string
}
}
If the user doesn't have a file manager app installed or preinstalled by their OEM you're going to have to implement your own. You might as well give them a choice.

I hope this one will help you for file picking:
public void performFileSearch() {
// ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT is the intent to choose a file via the system's file
// browser.
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT);
// Filter to only show results that can be "opened", such as a
// file (as opposed to a list of contacts or timezones)
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
// Filter to show only images, using the image MIME data type.
// If one wanted to search for ogg vorbis files, the type would be "audio/ogg".
// To search for all documents available via installed storage providers,
// it would be "*/*".
intent.setType("image/*");
startActivityForResult(intent, READ_REQUEST_CODE);
}
The code is from this documentation:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider.html
Refer to it for more information.

If someone would still need it for newer versions, it got updated with developing Storage Access Framework by Google for SDK >= 4.4. Check this Google site for further details:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider.html

There is no single file-management app that is installed across all devices.
You probably want your app to be also working on devices with Android 3.x or lower.
The best choice you have though is writing your own file-manager. It isn't as much effort as it might sound, there is a lot of code on this already out there on the web.

Open file picker form my Android activity

I'm making an Android app which stores some downloaded pdf files inside the device's SD card.
Everything works fine, but now I want to add a function to just pop up the default android file/folder browser showing the directory where my app stores all the PDF (with subdirectories in it) so that the user sees where his documents are stored and can easily browse them.
I've been throught many other SO questions and forum posts, but it seems this can only be done for music/images/contacts/etc. basically those file types which have a 'dedicated browsing system' but not with general file browsing.
I'm actually using this code:
File file = new File("/sdcard/MySorgenia/Documenti/");
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
Uri data = Uri.fromFile(file);
String type = "*/*";
intent.setDataAndType(data, type);
startActivity(intent);
But this will show me a "Choose the application to complete your action" dialog with many applications such as "Music" "Gallery" etc, but no general purpose one.
Thanks!

Because In android there is no any native application which you can use as a File Explorer and responds to Intent type "*/*"
Implement your own File-Explorer Code for this purpose..
Look at these two Links..
openintents
Android-File-Explore

public void loadfile()
{
private static final int gallery=12;
private static final String type="*/*";
Intent i=new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
i.setType(type);
startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(i,"select file"), gallery);
}
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
if (requestCode == gallery && resultCode == RESULT_OK && data != null) {
Uri uploadfileuri = data.getData();
File file = new File(uploadfileuri.getPath());
}
}

Since Android 4.4 KitKat (API level 19), there is an Android built-in file picker: your app invokes the ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT and/or ACTION_CREATE_DOCUMENT intent and receives the files returned by document providers. More info about that can be found here:
Open files using storage access framework | Android Developers
Depending on where you want to store files, you may need to request permission:
Request App Permissions | Android Developers
Here is a how to:
An Android Storage Access Framework Example - Techtopia.
And a great working example is Ian Lake's Local Storage. Its source can be found on GitHub:
https://github.com/ianhanniballake/LocalStorage
And the app can be downloaded from Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ianhanniballake.localstorage

Most android distributions do not come with a default file browser, and the behavior you noticed is the default android behavior. If there's any good third party file browser installed, it will automatically show up in that list. However it is not guaranteed that every end user will have a file browser installed. A general purpose fragment-widget can be created for this (and probably shared with others).

Look at this file picker, it's the best one I found:

Barcode scanner app in zxing

I have posted a question before and got response regarding Barcode scanning in ZXing.
Currently i have run the barcode scanner app code, that is given in the source(/android/) using this post
My objective is to scan a barcode in my app. Since zxing is open source as told by the authors, i need to customize the scanner app raw code in my app. I found many files like WifiActivity and all. I dont know whether all the files are required to scan a barcode.
Now i want to extract the necessary and required files to decode using the camera captured image. Is it possible to extract the parts? If yes, can anyone help me in doing this by referring any links or steps. Thanks for all your useful posts and great responses. Sorry for my bad english.

what exactly are you trying to achieve? Do you want to edit and enhance the ZXing Source/App or want to use this library in your App for scanning.
For scanning you could invoke the activity for the scan result like following:
Intent intent = new Intent("com.google.zxing.client.android.SCAN");
try {
startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
//Do something here
}
After scan u will receive the result in onActivityResult method:
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {
if (requestCode == REQUEST_CODE) {
if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
String contents = intent.getStringExtra("SCAN_RESULT");
String format = intent.getStringExtra("SCAN_RESULT_FORMAT");
} else if (resultCode == RESULT_CANCELED) {
// Handle cancel
}
}
}

I did something similar to this, but I only wanted the QR generation part of the zxing project. So I found the relevant call (maybe something like Bitmap b = zx.genQRCode() or whatever) and copied that java file into my project.
Compile and BAM - you get a ton of compile errors. At the point you just start copying other referenced files into your project until you don't get any more compile errors.
Don't forget to include proper attribution in your app - see this FAQ.