Develop Reference

How to get a callback from Android system to the app?

I'm making an app in which you can chat and call with other contacts. But in case of calling, I've designed the app in such a way that after typing the number and clicking on the call icon, it takes you to native calls app for calling and updates the call log in my current app.
For this process, this is the code I've written:
if (nativeCall(mobileNumber)) {
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL).setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:" + mobileNumber));
if (((BaseActivity) context).isNetworkOk()) {
addToUserCallLogs(context, DateUtils.convertTimestampToDate(), contactUri, "Out", System.currentTimeMillis());
}
context.startActivity(intent);
return true;
}
You can see that I'm putting mobile number into the intent and starting it. And I'm using addToUserCallLogs() function to show it in my app's call logs.
This works fine usually, but in the issue is in the following case.
When the user has multiple calling applications(For eg, the user has installed application named SMARTalk. Now he has native caller app and SMARTalk app to call from), in that case the Android system gives options to chose from like this:
Now, if he choses from one of them, even in that case there is no issue. Say he didn't chose any of those and clicked on the other part of the screen. Then this options bar will be closed. Since all this is happening after starting the intent, this call will be added in the call logs of the app from the function addToUserCallLogs(). But I don't want the call to be shown in the call Logs because I haven't done any call.
But according to the code I've written, before starting the intent, I'm adding into my app's call logs database. Is there a way the information of whether the call has happened or not can be sent back from the system to the app?
Or a way to get these options to be shown manually from the app?
Please comment if you need any more explanation.

I guess no way to receive the callback information because ACTION_CALL does not return a result. You can see the output is nothing from docs even you use startActivityForResult

Disabling first-run greeter on fresh android emulator

I am writing a test that requires launching application directly from launcher. Because I can't emulate it correctly by launching through intent.
The problem is that when I am running the test on a fresh emulator (I am using Travis CI, but it can be easily reproduced on my home PC) the emulator starts with the "first run" greeter overlay. Which blocks my uiautomator code from correctly launching the application.
I have tried to add some code to close that greeter but unfortunately it can appear with some delay, when my "greeter detecting and closing" code has already stopped working thinking that the coast is clear.
Is there any guaranteed way to disable that greeter? Some preference maybe or just an example of code that will reliably kill the greeter.

Have you tried using PackageManager.getLaunchIntentForPackage(..)? This will allow you to send the same Intent that the launcher uses to start your app. It should be equivalent to clicking on your application's launcher icon.
If you do need to go through the launcher, you can use a UiWatcher to dismiss the first-run overlay. Whenever UiAutomator can't find an element, it will call the checkForCondition(..) method for each registered UiWatcher and give you a chance to dismiss any overlays or dialogs that are getting in the way.

Apparently the greeter is called "cling". Searching though (rather old) code I found the following:
http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/com.google.android/android-apps/4.0.2_r1/com/android/launcher2/Launcher.java#Launcher.isClingsEnabled%28%29
private boolean isClingsEnabled() {
// TEMPORARY: DISABLE CLINGS ON LARGE UI
if (LauncherApplication.isScreenLarge()) return false;
// disable clings when running in a test harness
if(ActivityManager.isRunningInTestHarness()) return false;
return true;
}
And next stop is isRunningInTestHarness() at http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/com.google.android/android/4.0.2_r1/android/app/ActivityManager.java#ActivityManager.isRunningInTestHarness%28%29
public static boolean isRunningInTestHarness() {
return SystemProperties.getBoolean("ro.test_harness", false);
}
Which in turn leads to adb shell setprop ro.test_harness true. Which just works.

How make a Android application that can't be closed

I'm developing an Android app for a company where those who will use it are the employees, for this reason the company asked me to develop an application that the user can not close, because if he will not use the smartphone for other purposes, but for this I need the Android native buttons do not interfere with the application.
I've deactivated the button to go back and put the application as Home.
#Override
     public void onBackPressed () {
         super.onBackPressed ();
     }
...
<category android: name = "android.intent.category.HOME" />
However if the user clicks the button that displays open applications, it can exit the application.
I researched a lot before creating resolve this question and realized several attempts to solve this problem.
One. I tried to create the same behavior as the MX Player has, when you use the lock to see a video, the MX Player is always on top of everything, leaving the user to see and click others places. However using this behavior does not i cant see My Dialogs nor Popup and also can not apply a thema, as in my case is not simply an activity is the entire application.
Reference links of my attempt
How to disable Home and other system buttons in Android?
http://www.piwai.info/chatheads-basics/
If anyone knows how to use that behavior MX Player, or if anyone knows any more how to make the user can not close the application, please help me, I know it's not just me who have this problem.
Any help is welcome!
My API is 16 - Android-4.1

Are your target devices rooted? If so, this article goes through the steps to make this possible. What you specifically ask about can be done by modifying the build.prop file to include the following line: qemu.hw.mainkeys=1. This will stop the soft-key navigation bar from ever showing up.
If the device you're running isn't rooted, I don't think that it's possible to do what you're asking.

The best way i found to the user can't access others apps, was to make a service that check which is the top activity, if don't is my then reopen my app.
ActivityManager manager = (ActivityManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
List<ActivityManager.RunningTaskInfo> runningTasks = manager.getRunningTasks(1);
if (runningTasks != null && runningTasks.size() > 0) {
ComponentName topActivity = runningTasks.get(0).topActivity;
if (!topActivity.getPackageName().startsWith("com.mypackage.")) {
Log.i("Top Activity", topActivity.getPackageName());
if (LocalCache.getInstance().isForceHome()) {
Intent intent = new Intent(HomeService.this, AuthLoginActivity.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(intent);
}
}
handler.postDelayed(this, 500);
}

Old question, but I'm facing exactly same situation:
In-house App
Can't be close
I'm going to set App as a Launcher, and block top-dowm swipe to prevent status bar appear.
I think it's good enough for an in-house App ~

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)

Back button issues after forwarding intents via share menu

I am working on a login screen for my application. If I open the application, by either running from eclipse or by selecting the application icon installed on the emulator, it will run an AuthUser.class which checks for a valid token on a remote server. If the user is not logged in then the AuthUser.class forwards to Login.class via...
if (authtoken.length() == 0 || authtoken.length() > 0
&& checkAuthToken(authtoken) == false) {
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClass(AuthUser.this, Login.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
This works great, as when I use the back button on the emulator it will close the app rather than go back to the login screen. Perfect.
Now when I am coming from a share menu, like when I select share icon on an image within the gallery, and then select my application from the popup menu I also forward to the Login.class via...
Intent intent1 = new Intent();
intent1.setClass(SharePictureMenu.this, AuthUser.class);
startActivity(intent1);
finish();
Now when I login from here and it forwards to AuthUser.class as per usual, however, the back button press now takes me back to the login screen, even though I am forwarding and finishing exactly the same in both cases. Obviously I don't want that behavior as I want it to close the app and return to the gallery after login so the user can continue to share images immediately without having to go back through the login screen.
Any suggestions, hacks or otherwise on fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

If you are calling finish() on that activity, before that functions return it will be marked as finished by the activity manager and the user can not return to it. I don't know of a way this could not happen. Make sure you are actually finishing that activity, and that you are not doing something like starting it twice.
Some useful tools for debugging:
The output of "adb logcat" will contain a log for every activity that is started.
The output of "adb logcat -b events" will contain a log for every activity that is finished, with the reason why it was finished (and various other activity operations). You can combine this with the other with "adb logcat -b events -b system".
"adb shell dumpsys activity" will give you the current activity stacks, so you can see the current activities being managed for your app and how they are related to others.