App launcher to reload from beginning in Android - android

I have created app to act like an home launcher. So when user clicks on the home button I get Complete action using Launcher or my app's name say for example "myhomelauncher".
When I click on home button and click myhomelauncher my application loads everything from first perfectly fine. Now when I am in the second screen in my application say I am looking at activity 2 in my app and now I click on Home button and click myhomelauncher I endup getting the same activity 2 windows it is not reloading. (It should reload and show up activity 1 rather than 2)
I have seen lot of apps that can reload everytime I click their launcher. Why not mine?
Here is what I have done in my manifest.xml
<activity
android:name=".MyLauncher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:persistent="true"
android:screenOrientation="landscape">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
I am not sure where is the mistake?

Please have a look into the documentation - what can be of interest to your problem are the following settings:
android:clearTaskOnLaunch
android:launchMode
I would suspect setting android:launchMode to singleTask could solve your problem, altough be careful which side effects this will cause.
So:
<activity
android:name=".MyLauncher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:persistent="true"
android:screenOrientation="landscape"
android:launchMode="singleTask">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
should do the trick.

Look up launchMode. But be careful, with great power, comes great responsibility.

This is the relevant section in a menifest that seems to work for me. Note that I have put singleInstance in the launch mode because I don't want more than one of my app, ever.
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="#string/app_name">
<activity android:name=".usbEffects"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"
android:windowSoftInputMode="stateAlwaysHidden"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Related

Multi icon in screen Android [duplicate]

I am writing an Android App that has one main activity and one subactivity. When I install the app on my phone to test it out, I get two icons instead of one. The first icon is for the main activity and the second is for the subactivity. I don't want/need an icon for the subactivity.
Does anyone know how to turn this off in my app code, so that only the icon for the main activity is installed? Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
MobiKnow
Does your application manifest list an intent filter under your sub-activity that matches the main launcher?
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
Make sure that your sub-activity is not filtering for these intents.
Edit: Just to be very clear, make sure the above lines are not listed under your sub-activity. That intent filter lets the Android system know that you intend for it to be listed as an entry point to your application.
We have the same problem but i fixed it this way
before my code below in manifest
<application
android:debuggable="true"
android:allowBackup="true">
<activity android:name=".SplashActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.noupdate.apptest_noupdate.MainActivity"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
Notice that in the SplashActivity inside the intent is this code
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
i only deleted the category
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
So after i deleted the intent-filter category in splash it didn't install two app icon but only one for main the code will be like this notice that the intent-filter category is deleted
<application
android:debuggable="true"
android:allowBackup="true">
<activity android:name=".SplashActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity
android:name="com.noupdate.apptest_noupdate.MainActivity"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
it really helps
It creates two App icon because you must have added the given filter to two of your activities. See manifest.
<category android:name="android.intent.category.MAIN" />
Remove the above statement from the other one. Then you are good to go.
Like in the other answers,
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
Was the culprit. However, in my manifest I only had one activity with that intent filter. As it turns out, I am using a library I built and it has an activity declared in it's manifest which uses that intent filter. So, in short, be sure your app's manifest and dependencies, if any, only have one activity with the intent filter.
I guess that in your AndroidManifest.xml, you've got both activities having the LAUNCHER intent-filter. Remove it from the second activity, and you should be set!
You have
<intent-filter . . . >
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
along with
android:icon="#drawable/icon.png"
set for both activities.
What that means is that this is a launcher icon, put me on the home screen. Only set those for the activit(ies/y) you want on the home screen.
I was searching answer to exactly the same question. It appears the only thing needed (in addition to recommendations on removing MAIN and LAUNCHER intent filter) is to rebuild your project - that will clean things up and upon next launch I saw single icon on my device (just running application on device after changes did not help).
if anyone run into this issue using Pebble SDK. I noticed PebbleKit Androidmanifest.xml holds a LAUNCHER activity as well. This is what caused it for me. Just remove this part. It will not effect Pebble functionality.
SIMPLE answer..
REMOVE:
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
From your AndroidManifest.xml
Leave your intent-filter alone.
<intent-filter android:icon=”drawable resource” android:priority=”Integer” /intent-filter>
Priorities are set for the parent component. This setting may help you to set the parent icon for your Android app development.

Android - How to change entry point of App without removing shortcuts?

So, in a previous version of my Application, I had an entry point named MainActivity
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
This version, I have a new entry point for my application, which then re-directs to MainActivity or another screen programmatically. Here are the two activities:
<activity
android:name=".NewEntryPoint"
android:label="#string/title_activity_second" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name" >
<intent-filter>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
I removed the action.MAIN from main activity and set it to my NewEntryPoint. However, any users that had the application as a shortcut on their homescreen will lose the shortcut. Keeping the Launcher category in MainActivity didn't help either.
Is there a way to change entry point of my App without removing shortcuts?
Thanks!
I believe you could use activity-alias for this, but I would question whether or not it's worth the future maintenance just to avoid users having to add a shortcut to your app again. Something like this:
<activity-alias
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:targetActivity=".NewEntryPoint">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity-alias>

android menu Home item

I'm running my android app on my droid x2 device. this app has a menu with some items, one of which is the Home (the screen that launches when the app starts).
the problem is that when I tap on the Home item it brings up this menu,
I don't know why it does that and how i can fix it.
I actually fix this issue by adding a new activity to my manifest file. so what I had for the launcher activity was
<activity
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:name=".Home" >
<intent-filter >
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
and I also added the following activity which would act just as a normal activity and in my menu selection I used the action name of this new activity.
<activity
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:name=".Home" >
<intent-filter >
<action android:name="com.mywebsite.app.HOME" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Issue with launching Android application via Intents

My problem is thus; I am new to programming on the ANDROID platform and have a 'working' application that piggy-backs on the API-Docs example. I wish it to launch three tabs one containing a list of reports, one a form to file a report and the last to show the geo-located reports. It doesn't appear as a separate application, it instead appears as a list to be launched by the API-Docs example. Below is my manifest code...
<activity android:name=".HelloFlamingos">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.SAMPLE_CODE" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".Controls2" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.TAB" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".List1" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.TAB" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".ReviewTab" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.TAB" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3" />
HelloFlamingos is the initial page that I wish to be displayed, I realise that the intents for this are wrong, have thought about using category: VIEWS, action: DEFAULT, however is seemingly unwilling to work. Thanks!
In what context is the activity started? If you're looking to have the HelloFlamingos activity the first displayed from the Android OS, you should change its category in the manifest to category.LAUNCHER.
If you're looking to start the activity from elsewhere in your app, create an Intent which matches what you've specified (category.SAMPLE_CODE) and use startActivity or startActivityForResult.

Too many Activities being started when launching an Android Application

I am confirming about creating activity.
My Manifest.xml is like this :
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="#string/app_name">
<activity android:name=".FirstActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".SecondActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".ThirdActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
You can see property action android:name= property is "android.intent.action.MAIN" and
category android:name= is "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" for all activities.
When the application starts up, it calls FirstActivity.
Then calls useless Activity such as ThirdActivity or SecondActivity.
In this case, is my manifest.xml correct?
Or, do I need to set another property to Second and Third activity?
If so, what is that?
I wonder manifest.xml file is right for my case.
Please advise.
Try this config:
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="#string/app_name">
<activity android:name=".FirstActivity" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".SecondActivity" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".ThirdActivity" android:label="#string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Think of an Intent as message used to start an Activity to do something. So I can create an Intent to view a web page and an application with an Activity which knows how to view a web page - most likely the browser - can intercept his Intent as act on it.
You tell Android which Activities can act on which Intents using the <intent-filter> part of your Manifest.
The MAIN Intent is a special one. This is sent to an application when it is launched and basically it says "Go!" So the Activity which shoud be displayed first needs to intercept this by having a correctly defined <intent-filter>.
As you had all three Activities with MAIN in their filter they all responded to the request to start your application. So you should have that <intent-filter> only for FirstActivity.
One of the other problems with using
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> for more than one activity is that the Phone's launcher menu will display more than one icon...
From the docs:
CATEGORY_LAUNCHER The activity can
be the initial activity of a task and
is listed in the top-level application
launcher.

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