Develop Reference

Prevent Android Activity from launching it self

MY PLIGHT EXPLAINED
I cannot figure out or find out to stop my Activity from launching itself. This is necessary as I am making a dir manager that has intent filter to open any file, in attempt to easily locate and rename it. For instance clicking a file from notification to be opened by my app for renaming.
MY PLIGHT SUMMARIESED
But it makes no sense to run this intent if you are already in my app. Thus I want to programatically stop my app from being a choice in this case.
MY TRIES FOR SOLUTION
I have tried many stuff. Google, android reference on ActivityInfo. I even tried creating my own activity chooser dialog. Which doesnt work 100% accurately. If it did I could simply omit my activity from the list.
I humbly seek assistance.
AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="jav.android.dir_mgr">
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="12" android:targetSdkVersion="27" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#mipmap/app_icon"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme">
<activity
android:name=".DirectoryExplorer"
android:screenOrientation="portrait" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:scheme="file" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:scheme="file" />
<data android:mimeType="*/*" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity
android:name=".SelectionWindow"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:label="Selection Window"
android:allowEmbedded="true">
<intent-filter>
. <action android:name="jav.android.dir_mgr.SELECT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>

You can use EXTRA_EXCLUDE_COMPONENTS to exclude your own application from the list shown to the user. See the documentation which states:
You can exclude specific targets by providing
Intent.EXTRA_EXCLUDE_COMPONENTS. This is to be used only to remove
targets you have control over. A common use case is to hide your app’s
share targets when your users share from within your app as their
intent is likely to share outside your app.
Add Intent.EXTRA_EXCLUDE_COMPONENTS to your intent after calling
Intent.createChooser()

So, from what I understand, you need a way to check if your app is in focus or not. If that's so, try using ActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses() which will return a list of application processes that are running on the device.
From there you can iterate through processes that are running on the device and check if your app is listed there and that it's of RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND.
EDIT: I assume you are using pending intents, then you won't be able to check if your app is already running in the above way. Try using a "launch intent" for your app as explained in this answer.

I hope I understood your plight correctly.
One way to solve your problem is to programmatically unregister your activity from listening to a certain intent-filter value. So let's say you have an activity declared as:
<activity android:name=".FileHandlerActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="you-file-rename-action-name-here"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Do this in your app:
PackageManager pm = getApplicationContext().getPackageManager();
ComponentName component = new ComponentName(getPackageName(),
getPackageName()+".FileHandlerActivity");
pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(component,
PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,
PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
Please let me know if this works.

can't open android app from menu/ problems with permisions

I have a problem with launching this app through menu. There is no problem when I start it using a different application that has permission. This is the manifest file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.michael.dangerouslab" >
<uses-permission android:name="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY_PERM"/>
<permission android:name="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY_PERM"
android:protectionLevel="dangerous"/>
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:supportsRtl="true"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme"
android:permission="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY_PERM">
<activity android:name=".DangerDanger" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<action android:name="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>

Delete both occurrences of android:permission="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY_PERM" (one in <application>, one in <activity>).
Those say "no third-party app, including the home screen, can do anything with my app, unless they have <uses-permission android:name="course.labs.permissions.DANGEROUS_ACTIVITY_PERM"/> in their manifest". There are roughly zero apps that have such an element, including roughly zero home screen implementations. Hence, you will not be able to launch your app.

Set Android phone for ShowRoom

We, my company, are facing a problem. We have a phone in public use where we can't be always near the phone. It's a show room where public user can test our Android app.
The problem is :
1) Can we block the phone in our app ? we just pin it but it doesn't block the phone. We found some apps the make something like that but not good results
2) A test user just add a security password to lock the phone. So now, we can't unlock the phone. We need to forbid user to add a lock password but we don't want to add one because if the phone is sleeping, a user should be able to unlock it.
**Edit : ** We can't block user from accessing settings
So, is there a solution for that ? like a "ShowRoom" mod ?
If you need more precisions, please ask.
Thanks

First you need to add the following attribute to your activity:
android:launchMode="singleTask"
Then add two categories to the intent filter :
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
The result could look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.dummy.app"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0" >
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="11"
android:targetSdkVersion="19" />
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme" >
<activity
android:name="com.dummy.app.MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
</manifest>
please read this answer to block exiting app
https://stackoverflow.com/a/16333555/5223973
if you want to use any third party app to lock your app you can use any
android parental control apps

Android manifest for USBAccesory

I am making an app that communicates with a piece of usb hardware made by my company (this is the only app allowed to talk to the usb accessory, it's not a public api). I am having difficulties setting up the proper launch modes in the manifest.
There are three components to the app: the main activity, a login activity, and the USBService.
I'm assuming the intent for the main goes to the login activity, and the intent for the usb goes to the USBService, but I am not sure if I do this, will this start the service if the app is not running? More over, if it does, how do I fetch an already existing service?
What type of structure should I be looking at for the manifest file? (specifically, intent-filters, and appropriate launch modes... I've read a few documents about the launch modes but I am still not sure I quite understand... There should only ever be at most one instance of each activity/service, and they need to communicate together.
edit: it is not necessary for communications to start before the app is open, nor is it necessary to launch the app automatically when the usb is connected.
edit: my manifest as it stands, looks like:
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.usb.accessory" />
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="15"
android:targetSdkVersion="17" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<application
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<activity
android:name="mainpackage.MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:launchMode="singleTop">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.hardware.usb.action.USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED" />
</intent-filter>
<meta-data
android:name="android.hardware.usb.action.USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED"
android:resource="#xml/accessory_filter" />
</activity>
<activity
android:name="mainpackage.LoginActivity"
android:label="#string/title_activity_login"
android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize|stateVisible" >
</activity>
<service android:name="updater.USBService"
android:exported="false" >
<!--
-->
</service>
</application>

in your manifest add
<manifest ...>
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.usb.host" />
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="12" />
In this case, the following resource file should be saved in res/xml/device_filter.xml and specifies that any USB device with the specified attributes should be filtered:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<usb-device vendor-id="1234" product-id="5678" class="255" subclass="66" protocol="1" />
</resources>
Hope this help.

Your manifest looks good,
I think you make a good choice for putting the intent-filter "android.hardware.usb.action.USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED" in the mainActivity and start the application in this activity,
and again I think it's a good choice to start your mainActivity in SingleTop launch mode,
because if an instance of the mainActivity already exists at the top of the current task, the system going to launch this activity, no new instance of this activity will be created.
For a best understanding of the different launch mode available in android,
I think this link may help you :
http://www.intridea.com/blog/2011/6/16/android-understanding-activity-launchmode
To make a long story short I think you'll be all set with this manifest as is.

To Use Android Devices min SDK version should be set to 12 and need to declare following line in AndroidManifest.xml file
<>
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="<version>" />
...
<application>
<uses-library android:name="com.android.future.usb.accessory" />
<activity ...>
...
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.hardware.usb.action.USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED" />
</intent-filter>
<meta-data android:name="android.hardware.usb.action.USB_ACCESSORY_ATTACHED"
android:resource="#xml/accessory_filter" />
</activity>
</application>

Launcher app not in chooser

I'm in the process of making a Launcher app, but I can't get my app to show up in the activity chooser when the home button is pressed. I'm sure I'm just missing something simple, but I can't find it! Here's my manifest file:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.espian.jump"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1.0">
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="16" android:targetSdkVersion="17" />
<application
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher">
<activity
android:name="JumpActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo.NoActionBar"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:clearTaskOnLaunch="true"
android:stateNotNeeded="true">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>

Try replacing that
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
with
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
As it says in the android intent filter documentation:
activities that are willing to receive implicit intents must include
"android.intent.category.DEFAULT" in their intent filters
Actually I'd suggest opening that page and searching for that text, and having a little read around it. I think you'll find these categories make a lot more sense if you do. You're specifying that this appears in the launcher instead.