Develop Reference

Opening a native settings menu page programmatically in NativeScript

How can you programmatically open a page from the native Android settings menu using NativeScript?
Classic java examples show it can be done this way:
Intent intent = new Intent(Settings.ACTION_SETTINGS);
startActivity(intent);
but how to do the same in NativeScript?

This can be achieved using the module tns-core-modules/application, which will make startActivity available. An example using TypeScript is provided below:
import * as appM from 'tns-core-modules/application';
const intent = new android.content.Intent(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_SETTINGS);
const activity = appM.android.foregroundActivity || appM.android.startActivity;
activity.startActivityForResult(intent, 0);
Unfortunately, TypeScript types are not included for foregroundActivity and startActivity, which made finding a solution to this extremely hard.
A big thanks to user10655801 for his test repo containing the solution.

Android intent for display url?

for some time, I have been observing that modern android apps(Telegram) use a new way to open urls in the app. By default, the apps I have made, use ACTION_VIEW and the external browser open the url. These apps now manage that intent with a kind of in-app browser witch adapts to the same style. Any idea of what its?
sample

Those are Custom chrome tabs.In app browser.instead of using webview to open your Url, you are going to customize your chrome browser,to look alike your app.you can modify the toolbar tab color as per your app theme .You could give enter and exit animation like fragments transition.So the user wouldn't feel a big transition from your app to browser.For implementation details check this link https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs
For security reasons also it could be useful,as because you are not going handle those url on you own or inside your app(there might be some security issues with JavaScript)

This is done with WebView. You will find the documentation very interesting https://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebView

This is achieved by WebView in an Activity that displays web pages. Instead of
Uri uri = Uri.parse("https://www.google.com/");
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
startActivity(intent);
You will load the page by calling:
webviewObj.loadUrl("https://www.google.com/");
You can check the official document which describes the whole process. Basic Usage of WebView has been described in this blog which is easy to comprehend and implement.

do the following:
String url = "http://www.example.com";
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
i.setData(Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(i);
try this it helps you.

How to show 'Clear Defaults' programmatically?

Now i am working on a Home Launcher application.I want to clear defaults of default home launcher(eg: Samsung Home). ie.I want to show Settings-> Applications->Manage Application->Samsung Home->clear defaults programmatically.
How to show this through code?
Thanks in Advance

NOTE: Since this question is limited to accessing the Manage Application Settings options, my answer covers just that. You will have to figure out a way of getting the actual Package Name.
Also, if the idea is to also Clear the Defaults automatically via code, then that, to the best of my knowledge, cannot be done. Someone can correct me if I am wrong on this.
That being said, this piece of code will open the specific application's Manage Application screen from your app (the package name must be supplied).
Intent showSettings = new Intent();
showSettings.setAction(android.provider.Settings.ACTION_APPLICATION_DETAILS_SETTINGS);
Uri uriAppSettings = Uri.fromParts("package", "THE_APP_PACKAGE_NAME", null);
showSettings.setData(uriAppSettings);
startActivity(showSettings);
For example, if the package name of the Google Maps application is com.google.android.apps.maps, the replace THE_APP_PACKAGE_NAME with it and the code will open the Manage Application screen for the Google Maps application.
UPDATE:
The PackageManager has a method, clearPackagePreferredActivities used to clear the default via code. However, that doesn't seem to work in newer Android versions: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10246711/450534
Other posts worth reading:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/7750187/450534
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/android-developers/Rzv8VU-EUAw

Just for complete the picture, for getting "THE_APP_PACKAGE_NAME" youc can use something like that :
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME);
ResolveInfo resolveInfo = getPackageManager().resolveActivity(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
String packageName = resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName;

Android: starting a default application or one which may be different on different devices

I would like to start a default application: browser, contact-book, phone, email, music app, etc. I have found many q/a, like browser opening a specific URL or blank, and here the answer is even "No not possible". But I would like to just open/launch it without telling it to go to a specific URL or sending a mail to someone, etc.
However, I also saw some Home applications where this seems to be working (at least for some apps). On my colleague's device there is for example a different contact-book (no google) which is detected and opened correctly.
I have seen in the Android documentation some intent categories that point to these problems, but these are only >= API.11. So I can't use/test them on my device.
Question: Is it not somehow possible to launch a default application (having the app chooser is of course ok) without providing extra data? If no, what do you think are these Home apps doing (perhaps workarounds are somehow possible).
PS: for the phone app I think, I have a workaround using Intent.ACTION_DIAL without any other information which will open simply the dialer.
UPDATE: I modified the title. Some applications like the address book may not be the same on different devices. So in this case I would like to start the address-book app, whichever this is.

This answer is not a 100% answer, but some workarounds on some typical applications.
Still open are: music player, address book
Browser: I get a list of applications that handle "http"-data intents, and then I look if one is available in the list of preferred applications.
Intent appFilter = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
appFilter.setData(Uri.parse("http://www.google.com"));
List<ResolveInfo> browserInfoList = pm.queryIntentActivities(appFilter, 0);
List<IntentFilter> outFilters = new ArrayList<IntentFilter>();
List<ComponentName> outActivities = new ArrayList<ComponentName>();
pm.getPreferredActivities(outFilters, outActivities, null);
if(outActivities.size() > 0) {
for(ComponentName cn : outActivities) {
String cnClass = cn.getClassName();
String cnPkg = cn.getPackageName();
for (ResolveInfo info : browserInfoList) {
if(info.activityInfo.name.equals(cnClass) &&
info.activityInfo.packageName.equals(cnPkg)) {
return cn;
}
}
}
}
In case no default is found, I open a browser chooser dialog, see here.
Phone: as described in the question:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL);
startActivity(intent);

You can start apps by the function "startActivity" if you know about the canonical app name
like "android.com.browser". Do this simple by searching for AndroidManifest.xml in the app
source code (look at Codeaurora.com or at github/Cyanogenmod) and grab the app name you want.
After you know about the App name ("Activity") implement the code as follows:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName(this, "com.android.browser");
intent.setCategory(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
startActivity(intent);
THIS is only a example, sometimes you have to put intent extras or data values, this information can be found in the app's AndroidManifest.xml too.

Global search box extension - how to make browser to start when suggestion picked

I'm implementing global search box extension (sth like SearchableDictionary sample in android sdk). Everything works fine - suggestions are displayed properly. Problem is that I want browser to start when user picks a suggestion. (each suggestion is a link)
Columns of my cursor contain SearchManager.SUGGEST_COLUMN_INTENT_DATA, and I use that to pass http link. My searchable xml contains default intent action set to: android:searchSuggestIntentAction="android.intent.action.VIEW". But when user hits the suggestion, my application is started instead of browser. What am I missing?
Regards!

You need to implement the search in the same app i.e Browser in your example. The SearchManager can only send intent to the current activity.
Btw, try to catch that intent which will be generated when the search item is selected and then open the browser from your activity.

Try to use this code. Rewrote the showResults function in the Searchable Dictionary sample code.
private void showResults(String query) {
Intent myIntent;
myIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(query));
startActivity(myIntent);
finish();
}