I have one activity which can be launched from several other activites, along with url filter intents.
On this activity I use the home icon in the actionbar as a back button, bringing the user back to the previous activity (and not as a "home" action). For now I do this by calling the finish() function. This works fine when working from within the application.
However, if launching the activity by an url filter intent, I want the home icon to bring the user to the main activity. Obviously, calling finish() will just close the activity.
So my question is, is there a way to check whether my application stack is empty and then launch the main acivity if true? Or am I attacking this the wrong way?
If your app is launched via url intent filter and it creates its own task, then you can use
if (isTaskRoot()) {
// This activity is at root of task, so launch main activity
} else {
// This activity isn't at root of task, so just finish()
}
EDIT: Added another possible method
If your app is launched into an existing task when it is launched via URL intent filter, then you can do something like the following:
When you launch your activity from other activities in your application, add an EXTRA to the Intent like this:
Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("internal", "true");
startActivity(intent);
When your activity gets launched it can then check for the presence or absence of the EXTRA in the Intent to determine whether it was launched internally or via URL intent-filter, like this:
Intent intent = getIntent();
if (intent.hasExtra("internal")) {
// Launched internally
} else {
// Launched via intent-filter
}
Related
Suppose I have two activities A and B activity A which contains a button I want to start Activity B when I press Button without intent.
According the Oficial Documentation:
An intent is an abstract description of an operation to be performed. It can be used with startActivity to launch an Activity, broadcastIntent to send it to any interested BroadcastReceiver components, and startService(Intent) or bindService(Intent, ServiceConnection, int) to communicate with a background Service.
An Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between the code in different applications. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities. It is basically a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.
So you have to use it to open activities with no exceptions or workarounds, if you do that, you are ignoring the entire system architecture.
There is no way to start an activity from anotherone without an intent.
If the reason of not using Intent that you don't want the the user to re-enter the previous activity
You can use finish() to finish that activity intent after you done work with
if(currentUser == null){
startActivity(new Intent(MainActivity.this,StartActivity.class));
finish();
}
So user will be unable to back again
If you want to do some code while the activity is finishing
You can use onDestroy() override method, Sometimes it can also be called if the activity is being killed by the android itself so you can add
isFinishing() function
Inside onDestroy() method which checks whether the application is closing by the call finish() returning true or otherwise by anything else returning false then you can easily specify your code for each situation.
#Override
protected void onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy();
if(isFinishing()){
// Activity is being destroyed by the function `finish()`
// What to do...
}else{
// Activity is being destroyed anonymously without `finish()`
// What to do...
}
}
Put your activity inside a Fragment and start the fragment fromo the button.
These are the possible ways to start any Activity
1st
startActivity(new Intent(Activity_A.this, Activity_B.class));
2nd
Intent intent = new Intent(Activity_A.this, Activity_B.class);
startActivity(intent);
3rd
Intent intent = new Intent(Activity_A.this, Activity_B.class);
startActivityForResult(intent,code);
I have following two applications, A & B.
Application A has a service which waits for application B to come in foregrouond. Now, when application B comes in foreground, service of A calls an activity of A which perform certain task.
Now from this activity of A, I want to go back to application B, from where I came to activity of B.
What I am trying right now is:
In service,
String foregroundProcess = getForgroundProcessName();
Now if it matches to a desired process, I am calling an activity:
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),ActivityOfApplicatinA.class).setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.putExtra("foregroundProcess",foregroundProcess);
startActivity(intent);
Now, from this activity ActivityOfApplicatinA, I want to return back to application B, which is done by:
Intent intent = getIntent();
name = intent.getStringExtra("foregroundProcess");
Log.d(TAG, "The foreground process was:" + name);
Intent LaunchIntent = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(name);
startActivity(LaunchIntent);
finish();
The issue with my approach is that I am not returning to the previous state of application B. It simply relaunch the application B. I don't want this to happen. I want to open application B, with previous state.
Please help me to solve this.
From the docs FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT:
Intent LaunchIntent = m_context.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageNameOfAppB);
LaunchIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT);
startActivity(LaunchIntent);
NOTE:
Works only if the application B was launched before and in activity history stack.
What happens when you click on an app's launch icon?
Is a new intent always sent, or is the result sometimes the same as resuming a task from recent tasks?
If an intent is sent, when does it get sent to the onCreate() method of a new activity instance and when does it get routed through onNewIntent() of an existing activity?
Let's suppose the intent gets routed through onNewIntent() of an existing activity in the task. Which activity does it get sent to? The one nearest the top or the one nearest the root? Will it always get sent to an instance of the application's launch activity or can it sometimes get sent to an activity with the same affinity as the root? Can it ever get sent to an activity which does not share the same affinity as the root?
Finally, how is this all affected by the various launch modes (standard, single top, single instance, single task) of the activities in the task?
If there is anyone out there who understands all this, please help me!
What happens when you click on an app's launch icon?
Launcher apps calls startActivity with an intent [action = Intent.ACTION_MAIN, category = Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER and flag = Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK].
Regarding Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK, from docs:
When using this flag, if a task is already running for the activity
you are now starting, then a new activity will not be started;
instead, the current task will simply be brought to the front of the
screen with the state it was last in.
onNewIntent basics:
onNewIntent is delivered only when activity has set either singleTask, singleInstance launch modes. It is also delivered if activity has set singleTop launch mode or the intent to start the activity has set the flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP and the activity instance is already at the top of the target task. It means an attempt was made to launch a new instance of activity, instead the existing instance itself need to handle the intent.
Here is the response to your queries:
Is a new intent always sent, or is the result sometimes the same as
resuming a task from recent tasks?
If the task is already running, it is brought to foreground. In case FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET flag was used to launch a activity and latter the task is brought to foreground, then the activity is killed. From docs:
This is useful for cases where you have a logical break in your
application. For example, an e-mail application may have a command to
view an attachment, which launches an image view activity to display
it. This activity should be part of the e-mail application's task,
since it is a part of the task the user is involved in. However, if
the user leaves that task, and later selects the e-mail app from home,
we may like them to return to the conversation they were viewing, not
the picture attachment, since that is confusing. By setting this flag
when launching the image viewer, that viewer and any activities it
starts will be removed the next time the user returns to mail.
-
If an intent is sent, when does it get sent to the onCreate() method
of a new activity instance and when does it get routed through
onNewIntent() of an existing activity?
onCreate is called while creating a new instance of activity. onNewIntent is called if already an activity instance exists and no new instance need to be created, as in case of singleInstance, singleTask and conditionally singleTop (as described above).
Let's suppose the intent gets routed through onNewIntent() of an
existing activity in the task. Which activity does it get sent to? The
one nearest the top or the one nearest the root? Will it always get
sent to an instance of the application's launch activity or can it
sometimes get sent to an activity with the same affinity as the root?
Can it ever get sent to an activity which does not share the same
affinity as the root?
In case of singleTask and singleInstance it has to be root of the task. In case of singleTop it has to be top activity of the task.
Finally, how is this all affected by the various launch modes
(standard, single top, single instance, single task) of the activities
in the task?
I hope the explanation provided till now, answers it.
Update 1:
Here is the Launcher code which adds the flags to intent:
void processShortcut(Intent intent) {
....
Intent mainIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
mainIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
....
}
void startActivitySafely(Intent intent) {
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
...
startActivity(intent);
}
Your best bet is to read through the Developer docs here: http://developer.android.com/training/basics/activity-lifecycle/index.html
There is a flow chart in the first lesson(http://developer.android.com/images/training/basics/basic-lifecycle.png) which provides an excellent graphical representation of the Android activity life-cycle.
I have an activity called FooActivity. It can be opened two ways. 1 - by MainActivity and 2 - by going to my app's URL
In the doInBackground(..) of AsyncTask in FooActivity I have the following code to finish this activity.
Intent returnIntent = new Intent(FooActivity.this.getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
returnIntent.putExtra("result", "one");
AcceptActivity.this.setResult(FooActivity.this.RESULT_OK, returnIntent);
AcceptActivity.this.finish();
This works fine when my app had already been opened. Because when I finish FooActivity I would see MainActivity.
However, if my app was not already opened and the first time it opened was through a URL, then FooActivity just finishes and I see the phone's desktop.
Question
Is there a way to detect whether MainActivity has been opened already or not? If it is not opened then I'd change above code to open the MainActivity.
Just do that in your onPostExecute() of your FooActivity
launch home screen using startActivity(Intent) with an intent that has flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP, and pass the result manually through the intent
I have a foreground service that keeps a connection open with the server as long as the user is logged into the application. This is so that the connection is kept alive and can receive messages directly from the server even when the application has been sent into the background by the user pressing Home.
The application has a number of Activities, any of which could be the active one when it is sent into the background.
I would like to allow the user to click on the notification to restore the current Activity. I understand how to restore a particular activity, but wondered if there is a way to restore the last Activity that the user was on? Of course I could keep track of the the last one, and then call that from the Notification callback, but thought there might be a way at a task level?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
What you need is just a simple Activity that does nothing. Here is an example:
public class NotificationActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
// Now finish, which will drop the user in to the activity that was at the top
// of the task stack
finish();
}
}
Set up your notification to start this activity. Make sure that in the manifest the task affinity of this activity is the same as the task affinity of the other activities in your application (by default it is, if you haven't explicitly set android:taskAffinity).
When the user selects this notification, if your application is running, then the NotificationActivity will be started on top of the topmost activity in your application's task and that task will be brought to the foreground. When the NotificationActivity finishes, it will simply return the user to the topmost activity in your application (ie: wherever the user left it when it went into the background).
This won't work if your application isn't already running. However, you have 2 options to deal with that:
Make sure the notification isn't present in the notification bar when your application is not running.
In the onCreate() method of the NotificationActivity, check if your application is running, and if it isn't running call startActivity() and launch your application. If you do this, be sure to set the flag Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK when starting the application so that the root activity of the task is not NotificationActivity.
Works very well, thanks David! The following class checks if the application is already running and if not, starts it before finishing (as suggested by David in option 2).
public class NotificationActivity extends Activity
{
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
// If this activity is the root activity of the task, the app is not running
if (isTaskRoot())
{
// Start the app before finishing
Intent startAppIntent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), MainActivity.class);
startAppIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(startAppIntent);
}
finish();
}
}
There is a simpler solution that does not require the extra activity. See this post for details. Basically, the notification starts the (possibly existing) task the same way it is started when you click the launcher icon while the app ist in the background.
My solution, which emulates the behaviour of the launcher (bringing up the task to the foreground):
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
intent.setClassName(MyApplication.class.getPackage().getName(), MainActivity.class.getName());
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
This works, no doubts about it but the problem is when you set your intent as ACTION_MAIN. Then you will not be able to set any bundle to the intent. I mean, your primitive data will not be received from the target activity because ACTION_MAIN can not contain any extra data.
Instead of this, you can just set your activities as singleTask and call your intent normally without setting ACTION_MAIN and receive the intent from onNewIntent() method of your target activity.
But be aware if you call, super.onNewIntent(intent); then a second instance of the activity will be created. Just don't call super method.
I combined David Wasser's and Raginmari's solution by doing that approach to the root activity of your app then it will work for both cases when your app was already started or haven't been started.
public class YourRootActivity extends Activity
{
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
if (!isTaskRoot()) // checks if this root activity is at root, if not, we presented it from notification and we are resuming the app from previous open state
{
val extras = intent.extras // do stuffs with extras.
finish();
return;
}
// OtherWise start the app as usual
}
}