Develop Reference

StartActivityForResult from browser

In Android, if you want to launch an activity and have that activity return a result you do something like this:
Intent intent = new Intent(this, DisplayMessageActivity.class);
startActivityForResult(intent);
and
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
....
}
If you want an activity to be launched from the browser you can write some HTML like this:
Link
Question:
Can you launch an activity from the browser and have that activity return a result to the browser?
I don't think it's possible but if anyone has any idea, please let me know. If you have an source that explain how to do this, I am happy to make a POC and report my findings.

basically its not possible
since followings concerns are not clear.
How will you handle results.
Where you where handle results.

StartActivityForResult from browser is not possible.
As per the chrome developer guide, the basic syntax for an intent-based URI is as follows:
intent:
HOST/URI-path // Optional host
#Intent;
package=[string];
action=[string];
category=[string];
component=[string];
scheme=[string];
end;
It do not provide any callback parameter, in which you can get callback, so it is not feasible.
For more details visit https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/intents

It isn't possible (as others have stated). However, you could have your Activity launch an URL in the browser which could then show the "result". This would be a way to have your Activity "return a result" to the browser. The URL launched could be static HTML page, or some JavaScript code or whatever.

Retrieving putExtra values from onActivityResult intent

I am trying to append certain data to an intent, before using StartActivityForResult on it.
When the intent returns in OnActivityForResult, I would like to access the data I appended in the intent. So I can correlate the data retrieved in the intent, with things like database entries, container ids, etc.
Unfortunately the intent that returns does not seem to be the same one I started. I tried comparing (==) the old and the new intent in a test case, and the result failed, and not surprisingly then the data I am trying append is not there. Is there any link back to the original intent?
Basic idea of what I've tried:
Code to StartActivityForResult in psuedo code:
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI)
i.putExtra([-Key-], [int]);
i.putExtra([-Key-], [int]);
....
getParentFragment().startActivityForResult(i, requestCode);
Pseudo Code for OnActivityResult
#Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {
....
switch(requestcode){
case RESULT_LOAD_IMAGE :
//These always evaluate to default. The intent returns with the picture,
//and I process it fine (with default values), but any extra data i try to append
//to the intent is lost.
int rowId = intent.getIntExtra([-Key-], [-def_value-]);
....
....
break;
default:
throw new RuntimeException();
}
}

When you launch an Activity using implicit Intent resolution, which is what you are doing when you do this:
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI)
....
getParentFragment().startActivityForResult(i, requestCode);
you don't have any guarantees what Activity will actually be chosen to perform the action. Because of this, there isn't any "contract" between your Activity and the Activity that will be used to perform the desired action. This is, unfortunately, one of the disavantages of using implicit Intent resolution. Because there is no contract between the 2 Activities, you can't be sure what you are going to get in the result that is returned to you in onActivityResult().
If you look at the documentation for ACTION_PICK, it at least indicates what "should" happen (if the selected Activity actually behaves the way the documentation reads):
Input: getData() is URI containing a directory of data
(vnd.android.cursor.dir/*) from which to pick an item.
Output: The URI of the item that was picked.
This indicates that you should provide a URI that contains a directory of data and that you will be returned an Intent containing the URI of the item that was picked. That's it. That's all you can expect to get. You can put lots of other "extras" in the Intent that you pass to the Activity with ACTION_PICK, but that Activity doesn't care about those extras and will just ignore them. The Activity that performs the ACTION_PICK will create a new Intent containing the URI of the selected item and pass that back to you. It doesn't pass your original Intent back. The "input Intent" and the "output Intent" are completely different and don't have anything to do with each other.
To solve your problem, I'd suggest that you create a unique integer requestCode and save your "extras" in a table or map in your Activity associated with that requestCode. Then you can launch the ACTION_PICK activity using the requestCode. In onActivityResult() you can use the requestCode argument that comes back to find your "extras" that you saved and you'll be able to associate the returned URI with them.
NOTE: One more thing: When you call startActivityForResult() your Activity will be paused and the launched Activity will run. Your Activity won't be resumed until onActivityResult() is called. This means that you will only ever be able to have one ACTION_PICK pending at any given time. For this reason you may not need a way to associate a specific PICK action with any given data.

action code for taking pictures

im trying to take a picture inside an android app, and im trying to use the android devloper tutorial:
http://developer.android.com/training/camera/photobasics.html
they bring the following code:
private void dispatchTakePictureIntent(int actionCode) {
Intent takePictureIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(takePictureIntent, actionCode);
}
i can't understand what is this action code and what it should be for taking pictures
thanks!

Per Getting a Result from an Activity, the second parameter to startActivityForResult is used to distinguish between multiple different requests (say, if you got results from both the camera and the gallery you'd want to know where the result is from).
That same actionCode is then returned as the requestCode in onActivityResult:
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
The point is that it doesn't matter exactly what the number is (0, 1, 100, 5439, whatever), only that it is unique within your Activity. Therefore if you are only calling startActivityForResult in one place for one result, any number will do (as there is nothing to conflict with)

Intents are designed to allow your application to interact with others. In this case, your application will bring up the camera app, and the result will be sent back into your app.
A great place to get started with understanding this is, is the Android training "Interacting with Other Apps".

Get Back Result from Android native Calculator

I'm invoking android native calculator from my app, how do i get result data from it.. means i started native calender like this, after finishing calculation i press back onActivityResult is executed and data returned is null, how to get calculated data.. Help me
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClassName("com.android.calculator2",
"com.android.calculator2.Calculator");
startActivityForResult(i, 1);
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
if(requestCode == 1){
Log.i("CALCULATOR", "Result Data is"+ data);
}
}

After some testing, I'm starting to think that you can't really get something back from the calculator. Calling something with startActivityForResult doesn't mean it's going to return something other than null and since there's no way of getting out of the calculator other than pressing the back key, I think this is one of those cases.
The native calculator doesn't seem to be calling setResult(RESULT_SUCESS,intent_with_data) which is the step needed to be able to retrieve this result. Easiest thing I can think of, since you're wanting to do some calculation is to implement your own calculator class and call that one instead of the native one.
Calculators are easy to make and you have a zillion examples on the net. Just make sure you have an OK button that calls setResult(RESULT_SUCESS, intent_with_data) after you put extras to the intent with the result.
Warning
Be aware that you're hardcoding a class name instead of calling an intent by specifying an action and URI. This may call the original calculator on the emulator and standard versions of Android, but manufacturers change those kinds of things and since no one is supposed to be calling them like you intend to with your intent, you may end up crashing the app.

onActivityResult doesn't work?

I am facing with a problem related startActivityForResult()
To start SecondActivity from FirstActivity :
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClass(FirstActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("key1", "12345");
startActivityForResult(intent, 0);
And handles result :
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
//TODO handle here.
}
To send the message to FirstActivity from SecondActivity :
in SecondActivity :
setResult(0);
I can't handle the result on onActivityResult in FirstActivity.
It never works for my application.
My OS is : 1.5
What is wrong here?

startActivityForResult is meant to be used for situations where you want to select a piece of data, or perform some sort of action that your Activity or application cannot do.
For example, you want to pick a contact, so you launch the contacts application, the user chooses the person they want, and you get sent the result. Or you want to take a photo, so you launch the camera application and ask it to send you the photo once it's done. This action is completely separate from your first activity that calls startActivityForResult.
The Activity you're launching will not send you the result until that Activity has completed, i.e. finish() has been called.
So in your case, you need to call this in SecondActivity:
setResult(...);
finish();
before FirstActivity will receive the result in its onActivityResult method. Of course, this means that SecondActivity is now gone and FirstActivity is top of the stack again.
It's not possible to send the result to FirstActivity then close it while keeping SecondActivity still active. In this case you should just handle whatever this 'result' is in SecondActivity, or send it off to a Service you define to do whatever processing it is you want.

I was stuck here for a while. Adding my problem here to make sure that you don't scratch your head as well.
The second parameter of this function has to be 0 or higher.
startActivityForResult(intent, 0); // <- this is OK
I was setting the second parameter to RESULT_OK, which is -1, and my onActivityResult callback was never getting called. So if you get stuck like me, you can also check if your second parameter is correct.
startActivityForResult(intent, RESULT_OK); // <- this is wrong
The above line will fail to call onActivityResult.

I was also stuck on the same problem - but due to a different reason as matangs. Apparently startActivityForResult only works if you have android:launchMode set to standard for main activity (in manifest). Hope it helps someone.

Your code seems ok, but do you stop your second activity ?
Try this in it :
setResult(0);
finish();

If you are doing actions on onPause (like unbinding a service) try to comment it and see if onActivityResult is called (I wasted few good hours on this..)

Thanks to #johndodo (that point to the manifiest) - I find my solution for the same problem.
removing android:noHistory=true at the manifiest" solved this problem for me.