Develop Reference

How to create shortcuts from other android apps

I am looking for a way to create shortcuts from other apps.
Like launchs can query the apps that allow to create shortcuts and create them save them in thier program.
My API version is between M(21) to N7.1(25).
Even just a link or name of API it's fine. I just couldn't find it at all. All I found is about the new shortcut in android N.
Thx for ur time.

I found the way to do it. Since i don't see much info for this. I hope my share can help whoever is also looking for the answer.
So there will be 3 steps:
Get apps that can create shortcuts
Send Intent to the app that you want to create shortcut from
Get shortcut data in Activity.onActivityResult
1.
Since I just need to create shortcuts from certain apps. I skipped step one. But I guess using queryIntentActivities(...) or some other functions in PackageManager can get you the list.
Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.CREATE_SHORTCUT");
PackageManager.queryIntentActitvies(intent,0);
2. Send intent to the app to create a shortcut.
Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.CREATE_SHORTCUT");
intent.setComponent(...);
startActivityForResult(intent, requestCode);
3. Get data of shortcut:
Shortcut intent
Intent shortcutIntent = activityResultIntent.getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT);
Shortcut name
String shortcutName = intent.getStringExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME);
Shortcut icon
Bitmap shortcutIcon = intent.getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON);

How can I set my WatchFaceService as the default launch activity in Android Studio

I have a WatchFaceService (WatchFace) and every time I run my application it switches to the SimpleFace and then I have to set mine as the watchFace which ends up to be quite frustrating after many restarts.
To notice this does happen with the new Android Studio 2
I read around S.O. how to set the default activity but that does not do the same job as my WatchFaceService is not an activity but a service.
Also via the UI of Android Studio 2 it cannot be selected.
Is there a way to achieve this ? I think it might be difficult because actually it's not running an app, but setting the watch's Watchface at every run.
Any ideas?

The short answer is that this isn't possible. Your watch face is a Service, after all, so there's no way that it can be the default (launch) Activity for your app. They're completely different component classes.
But you can get close.
What you need to do is create a tiny little shell Activity that contains only the following code:
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = new Intent(WallpaperManager.ACTION_CHANGE_LIVE_WALLPAPER)
.putExtra(WallpaperManager.EXTRA_LIVE_WALLPAPER_COMPONENT,
new ComponentName(getPackageName(),
MyWatchFaceService.class.getName()));
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
...where MyWatchFaceService is the class name of your watch face service (surprise). You'll also need to declare it in your manifest, of course:
<activity android:name=".FaceActivity"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="true">
</activity>
Finally, configure your Wear module in Android Studio to launch FaceActivity when you run the app. This is under the Run menu, in Edit Configurations.
Having done that, run your app from AS onto the watch, and it'll open the watch face chooser on-device, with your face selected. From there, one tap will start it.
I can't see a way to eliminate that single tap, though.

Android Start VPNClient (com.ipsec.vpnclient) Programmatically

I have an android application that requires VPN. My users will be using Galaxy Note 3's and will be using the built in "VPN Client" (com.ipsec.vpnclient). I need to find a way to launch this application from my application, in the instance of the VPN dropping. I've already figured out a way to determine if the VPN dropped, but I still need a way to launch the application.
ANSWER:
Thanks to help from #Muthu I was able to get it working with the following method.
final Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW");
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.ipsec.vpnclient", "com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity"));
EDIT:
To add to the confusion, I am easily able to add a shortcut to the activity (com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity) via another Launcher like ADW or Nova. I also tried using com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity instead of com.ipsec.vpnclient in the method below, to no avail.
Intent intent = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.ipsec.vpnclient");
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(intent);
The above method works with other packages, but I can't seem to get this one to launch.
Here is the application when viewed in Android System Info.
Any ideas on how to launch this application programmatically?

You can Start any installed application by using intent. in your case like this
Intent LaunchVPN = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.ipsec.vpnclient");
startActivity( LaunchVPN );
Edit
You can open pre installed apps that can be found inside settings page by
final Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW");
i.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.android.settings","com.android.settings.InstalledAppDetails"));
startActivity(i);

Android: Starting An Activity For A Different Third Party App

I'm working on an app and I want to integrate the Last.fm app into it. Basically, when someone is looking at an artist in my app, I would like to have a button that they can tap to open up Last.fm application with the artist's information.
This intent works, but it loads a menu asking which app I would like to use (Browser or Last.fm):
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setData(Uri.parse("http://last.fm/music/" + headliner));
i.setAction("android.intent.action.VIEW");
startActivity(i);
However, I just want to start the Last.fm app and skip the dialog asking which app to use, I thought maybe using the setPackage() method would work like this:
i.setPackage("fm.last.android");
But it causes the app to crash:
android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=http://last.fm/music/Rihanna pkg=fm.last.android }
Is it possible to just start the Last.fm app? Here's a copy of Last.fm's AndroidManifest.xml for reference.
Thanks for reading,
Tony

Yes, it's possible but you need to know the correct component name. Launch the last.fm app regularly and check the logfile for the cmp=... information that's been used when the app is started. Use this as well in your app then.
I start the Z-DeviceTest app from the market from within my app without a problem like this:
final Intent intentDeviceTest = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
intentDeviceTest.setComponent(new ComponentName("zausan.zdevicetest","zausan.zdevicetest.zdevicetest"));
startActivity(intentDeviceTest);
in my case the info I took from the logcat was:
// dat=content://applications/applications/zausan.zdevicetest/zausan.zdevicetest.zdevicetest
// cmp=zausan.zdevicetest/.zdevicetest
in order to know how to start the app with the right component/class... do the same for the last.fm app
Edit:
I've tested to launch Last.fm from my own app, and this works fine without any errors:
final Intent intentDeviceTest = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
intentDeviceTest.setComponent(new ComponentName("fm.last.android","fm.last.android.LastFm"));
startActivity(intentDeviceTest);

Use Application within Application on Android

I'm writing a program for the Android Platform and I would like to implement the code of a preexisting application found here .
There is a button in my application menu that says "Show Friends on Map" so I want this program to start from the button press.
For greater detail I will give a small diagram.
User Starts My application > User Presses "Menu" Key > User Presses "Show Friends on Map" > WAMF.apk (the application in the link above) is launched
Is there any way I can do this?

If I understand you correctly and all you want to do is launch WAMF, see this blog post.
In it is the following code, which will detect whether the OpenTable (or WAMF, in this question) is installed, and if so invoke it, otherwise take the user to the Android Market to download OpenTable:
public void showReserveButton() {
// setup the Intent to call OpenTable
Uri reserveUri = Uri.parse(String.format( "reserve://opentable.com/%s?refId=5449",
opentableId));
Intent opentableIntent = new Intent("com.opentable.action.RESERVE", reserveUri);
// setup the Intent to deep link into Android Market
Uri marketUri = Uri.parse("market://search?q=pname:com.opentable");
Intent marketIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW).setData(marketUri);
opentableButton.setVisibility(opentableId > 0 ? View.VISIBLE : View.GONE);
opentableButton.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(View v) {
PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
startActivity(pm.queryIntentActivities(opentableIntent, 0).size() == 0 ?
opentableIntent : marketIntent);
}
});
}
As commonsware says, this is assuming that WAMF is available in the Android market. If not, you're out of luck.

(I'm hoping Reto Meier sees your question, as WAMF is his app)
Well, as I see it, you have two main choices.
Option #1 says that WAMF is installed as a separate application. That may be tricky, as it is unclear if this application is available for distribution anywhere (e.g., Android Market). But, assuming it is, and assuming the user has the app installed, when the user invokes your desired menu choice, you need to call startActivity(), using an Intent that will resolve to whatever in WAMF you would like to have displayed. You can also use PackageManager to detect if WAMF is installed (i.e., seeing if there are any activities that would match the Intent you want to use in startActivity()) -- that way, you can disable the menu choice, or have it pop up a dialog telling people to install WAMF, or something.
Option #2 says that, since WAMF is Free Software, you simply integrate the relevant portions of code straight into your app. On the plus side, there's no question whether the code is there. However, should Mr. Meier update the year-old WAMF, you would have to re-integrate his changes. Also, his application is released under GPLv3, which may or may not work with your own app's licensing scheme.