Develop Reference

Directly list the available networks in android phone programmatically

I need to directly display the list of available networks in android phone instead of following the options Wireless&networks->Mobilenetworks->Network operators->Select manually etc, is it possible to directly display the list of available networks without following the above steps i tried the following codes..
startActivityForResult(new Intent(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_DATA_ROAMING_SETTINGS), 0);
The second thing i tried is
Intent intent = new Intent(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_DATA_ROAMING_SETTINGS);
startActivity(intent);
The third one which i tried is
Intent intent = new Intent(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_NETWORK_OPERATOR_SETTINGS);
startActivity(intent);
When i tried the third one i got the select manually and choose automatically screen but it is blinking and goes off.
What are all the other options which i can use to select the network without any options?

How to display only specific Settings fragment from android inbuilt Settings app

I want to show only wi-fi settings fragment from settings. I have achieved this by using following code:
Intent i = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_SETTINGS);
i.putExtra(":android:show_fragment", "com.android.settings.wifi.WifiSettings");
i.putExtra(":android:no_headers", true);
startActivity(i);
Now I want to show only date & time fragment from settings so I changed my code to:
Intent i = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_SETTINGS);
i.putExtra(":android:show_fragment","com.android.settings.ACTION_DATE_SETTINGS");
i.putExtra(":android:no_headers", true);
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(i);
unfortunately it's not working.How can I display only specific Settings fragment from android inbuilt Settings app like this

I want to show only wi-fi settings fragment from settings. I have achieved this by using following code:
I would recommend that you use ACTION_WIFI_SETTINGS and get rid of the undocumented extras.
Now I want to show only date & time fragment from settings so I changed my code... unfortunately it's not working.
The right solution is to use ACTION_DATE_SETTINGS and get rid of the undocumented extras. Beyond that, com.android.settings.ACTION_DATE_SETTINGS is not the name of a fragment.

Evidently no_headers was silently removed from Android L and above... so we are out of luck. Re-write just select pieces of com.android.settings and block the standard settings through MDM - then pray for SYSTEM signature on your app.

Can I start an activity as a new Application or outside my app?

I am trying to help my users to turn on their GPS like this:
Intent gpsOptionsIntent = new Intent(
android.provider.Settings.ACTION_LOCATION_SOURCE_SETTINGS);
startActivity(gpsOptionsIntent);
The problem is that it opens the android settings as it was a view from my app, but I want to open it as a new application (android default settings aplication), in other words, outside my app.
Does anyone know how to accomplish what I want?
Thanks!

The code you are executing shows a new activity "on its own app process", if the activity you are calling is not in your application project it mean's that is not in your application context, so my thought is that just because you go back and fall down in the last activity shown you may think is in your app, but that's not the case, the activity is running on it's own process and because of the back stack you are going back to your previous activity.
Hope this Helps.
Regards!

The problem is that it opens the android settings as it was a view from my app,
No it doesn't. It's starting an Activity which is part of the Android Settings app.
but I want to open it as a new application (android default settings aplication), in other words, outside my app.
That's exactly what is happening - it's just opening the Activity which deals with the settings for Location Services rather than opening the default Settings root page.
Don't confuse the generic terms 'app' and 'application' with Android classes such as Application and Activity.
Android is meant to be modular - even though it looks like the Activity which is started with your code is part of your own 'app', in reality what happens is an instance of the native Settings app is created and the Location Services Activity is displayed. This happens entirely outside of your app.

As mentioned in this answer and comment, you need to add intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
Intent gpsOptionsIntent = new Intent(
android.provider.Settings.ACTION_LOCATION_SOURCE_SETTINGS);
// add the following line
gpsOptionsIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(gpsOptionsIntent);

Create new intent in background

I am looking for a way to launch another app from within my app but so that the focus is not changed from my app to the app launched.
I.e currently I have the new app launched via a intent, however when this is carried out the new app is launched and becomes the app in view, I need it to be kept in the background with my app still in view.
The reason for this?
I am developing an application for internal use that will act like a lock-screen to the device so although things must happen in the background the 'lock-screen' must always be on top.
I have done some research into intents and launching other apps but can not find anything about what I need.
Hope you can help thank you!
Currently the terminal is called like this:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("jackpal.androidterm", "jackpal.androidterm.RemoteInterface"));
intent.setAction("jackpal.androidterm.RUN_SCRIPT");
intent.putExtra("jackpal.androidterm.iInitialCommand", cmdString);
The reason it needs to be running in the background is so that the app can run commands in terminal without the user having access, but then they 'unlock' the screen they need to then be able to view the terminal and what commands are being run etc

You can not startActivity in Background.Instead start the activity and minimise the activity(in your case this activity is of different application) using moveTaskToBack(true);
In your case, put a condition based on your intent and its params and use moveTaskToBack(true); so that activity will be minimised only when your application launches.

This won't be possible, you will have to start a background Service that does the actual work and only launch the Activity you want to navigate to once your foreground Activity is finished. Depending on your architecture, you can store the Activity to call when your foreground Activity is finished and change it from the service. That way you will have your desire behaviour without having to actually call the Activity.

In addition to the answer from #Meher, in the intent for your current starting activity, you can add the flag FLAG_FROM_BACKGROUND.
With this you get rid of the "blinking" effect (the one where your activity shows for one fraction of second while it discovers wether to go to background)

re-prompt to choose default activity

is there a way to reprompt the user to choose a default activity for an intent? For example, user selects his default home apk and I want him to reconsider his choice once again.
I know how to do that on 2.1 and before, but is there a way to do that now on 2.2?
Famous Home Switcher, which did similar thing, does not work on 2.2 anymore thanks to google team

This is how I represent the Activity selection dialog:
It start the android default ResolverActivity for "HOME" Applications.
Intent selector = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
selector.addCategory("android.intent.category.HOME");
selector.setComponent(new ComponentName("android", "com.android.internal.app.ResolverActivity"));
startActivity(selector);
The above code is working for my 2.2 enabled tablets.
When executed, it displays the "Complete Actions with:" dialog with all possible Home applications in the list.
A way to detect which is currently set by default you could ask for all preferred activities. The lists "filters" and "comps" contain the data when calling .getPreferredActivities(...).
filters - contains the intent filter data, which you could query what type of data it is.
comps - contians the component which would be called if the intent filter matches
This way you could check if your application is the current "home" application set as preferred by the user.
List<IntentFilter> filters = new ArrayList<IntentFilter>();
List<ComponentName> comps= new ArrayList<ComponentName>();
getPackageManager().getPreferredActivities(filters, comps, null);

For example, user selects his default home apk and I want him to reconsider his choice once again.
That is no longer possible, unless your app is the preferred one. Then, I think you can use clearPackagePreferredActivities() to remove yourself as the preferred choice.
In other words, you are welcome to affect your own app, but you are not welcome to affect other apps.