how can I tell if an Activity is reached through PendingIntent - android

Is there a way to tell if I reached some Activity through regular flow of the app or whether I reached this (deep) Activity from a Notification via PendingIntent?
I need to perform some operations when the application starts and if I got to this Activity via notification I need to make sure these operations are made.

You can put an extra on your PendingIntent and than when the activity starts check for it using getIntent() ("Return the intent that started this activity."). Doing so you can getExtras() and check how the activity was started.

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What is the best way to finish() an activity from a foreground service without bringing the app to the foreground?

I am trying to build an app that can be used for calling.
My CallActivity is declared singleTop in the manifest file. I have a foreground service (CallService) which is started as soon as the app goes to the background while the user is on a call, since the device must not sleep during a call.
The notification for my CallService allows the user to either resume the call or hangup. My goal is to have the user press a button on the notification and hangup the ongoing call without bringing the app to the foreground.
I have tried using PendingIntent.getActivity() to start the CallActivity once the app is in background, from the CallService. But I have not been able to hangup the call yet. Here is some code...
Intent returnToCallIntent = new Intent(this, CallActivity.class);
PendingIntent returnPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, returnToCallIntent, 0);
Intent hangUpCallIntent = new Intent(this, CallActivity.class);
hangUpCallIntent.putExtra("ACTION_FINISH_ACTIVITY", true);
PendingIntent hangUpPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, hangUpCallIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
Right now both pending intents resolve to the same action which is hanging up the call while bring the app to the foreground. I figured out that this is happening because the 2 intents only differ in their extras and hence android does not distinguish them, i.e. intent#filterEquals() does not see any difference between them.
But the more important question is how can I finish() the CallActivity and have it pop off the backstack silently, without bringing it to the foreground. Also, after the CallActivity has been stopped, I need to stop the CallService in the background. So when the user taps the app in the recents screen, she/he should see the activity which was prior to the CallActivity on the backstack.
PS: Logic to hang up the call has been done in onNewIntent() method in CallActivity.
You can have your Activity register an anonymous BroadcastReceiver that listens for a specific broadcast Intent. When your Service wants to finish the Activity, it can just send the broadcast Intent that the Activity is listening for.
In onReceive() of the BroadcastReceiver, just call finish(). This won't bring the Activity to the foreground.

Multiple fullscreen android notifications at the same time not stacking

I am working on an android project that has an alarm clock like functionality.
I schedule an intentService for each alarm instance (fires at 9pm, for example.), this intentService builds the notification and displays it. The notification includes a fullScreenIntent, which works as expected and launches the activity. I use the following code to do this:
alarmActivityIntent = new Intent(this, AlarmActivity.class);
PendingIntent alarmActivityPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, alertSchedule.getIntentId(), alarmActivityIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);
mBuilder.setFullScreenIntent(alarmActivityPendingIntent, true);
Notification mNotification = mBuilder.build();
mNotificationManager.notify(alertSchedule.getIntentId(), mNotification);
This works as expected when only one alarm is set to fire at a specific time, however if two alarms are set to fire at a specific time the behavior changes.
I want the first fullScreenIntent to start its activity, then when that activity finishes, show the next one. I believe I want to build up a task stack, and push these alarm intents onto it. However this is all new to me.
Is it possible to group these notifications?
If you are using the full screen Intent feature, you don't need to use an IntentService or a Notification at all. Just have the AlarmManager start your Activity when it fires.
You don't want to build a task stack, that is all too complicated. If you have multiple alarms that can fire at the same time, you can have the AlarmManager start the same Activity each time. Set the launch mode of this Activity to singleTop (in the manifest), so that if the Activity is already showing when the alarm fires, it will not create another instance of the Activity on top of the existing one, but instead will deliver the Intent by calling onNewIntent() on the existing instance of the Activity. In onNewIntent() you can save the data (extras) of the Intent in a queue that will be processed when the user finishes the currently shown Activity. To do that, just override onBackPressed() so that when the user presses the BACK button to finish the current Activity, you can check if there are any additional alarms waiting in the queue. If there are none, you can just call super.onBackPressed() to finish the Activity. If there is anything in the queue, you can remove the first element in the queue and display that in your Activity. Keep doing that until the queue is empty.

Can an activity be triggered immediately when a notifcation arrives?

I need to implement this feature but I am not sure if this is possible on android.
We have gcm listener service running. But let's say the app is open, and a notification arrives from the server. I need to have an activity triggered automatically without touching the notification status bar on the top of the phone screen.
In other words, without any user interaction once the notification arrives, if the app is running, an activity must be triggered immediately.
I took a look at this thread, but this is not really what I need.
Intent - if activity is running, bring it to front, else start a new one (from notification)
any clues or more info?
thx!
You can start an activity without another prior activity by using the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag.
Context c = getApplicationContext(); // or getContext(), or any other context you can find from the current app
Intent i = new Intent(c, YourActivity.class);
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(i);

Share datas at the end of a Service

I would like to have your opinion.
I have got an Activity A with a button (and a listener of course). It starts a Service and a Notification.
I would like that when I click on the notification, it runs a new Activity B and it stops the Service.
My problem is : how use an Indent to send the datas from the Service to the Activity B when the Service is stop? (I need the very last values of datas in my Service)
Thanks in advance for yours answers.
Intent has a couple of methods called putExtra(String name, ...) which allow you to put a number of EXTRAS on the intent. You don't specify a whole lot of detail in your question. This is the most generic answer I can give you.
Before calling stopSelf() on the service you should start the Activity B with the intent (say I). Immediately after calling startActivity(B, I), you should call stopSelf on service.
While creating I, you can put data into the intent as EXTRAs.

Start Activity for result in a Broadcast Receiver?

I have managed to get an Activity to start from my onReceive() methdod, but I really need to do a startActivityForResult();.
Is there any way I could do this?
On a side note, how would I make my app become a 'camera' app, as in it would appear when an app started the intent to take a picture?
The important thing to know about broadcast receivers is that you should not add long running processes in it, because after something like 5 seconds your app will crash.
The best thing to do in your case is to intent to other Activity from your broadcast receiver, and from that activity use startActivityForResult(), get the picture and continue from there...
startActivityForResult can only be called from an Activity since it is defined in the Activity class and require instance of activity.
You can only call startAcivity() from broadcast receiver since in onRecieve() you only have access to generic context object and it does not have startActivityForResult method defined in the class..

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