Develop Reference

How to create shortcuts from other android apps

I am looking for a way to create shortcuts from other apps.
Like launchs can query the apps that allow to create shortcuts and create them save them in thier program.
My API version is between M(21) to N7.1(25).
Even just a link or name of API it's fine. I just couldn't find it at all. All I found is about the new shortcut in android N.
Thx for ur time.

I found the way to do it. Since i don't see much info for this. I hope my share can help whoever is also looking for the answer.
So there will be 3 steps:
Get apps that can create shortcuts
Send Intent to the app that you want to create shortcut from
Get shortcut data in Activity.onActivityResult
1.
Since I just need to create shortcuts from certain apps. I skipped step one. But I guess using queryIntentActivities(...) or some other functions in PackageManager can get you the list.
Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.CREATE_SHORTCUT");
PackageManager.queryIntentActitvies(intent,0);
2. Send intent to the app to create a shortcut.
Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.CREATE_SHORTCUT");
intent.setComponent(...);
startActivityForResult(intent, requestCode);
3. Get data of shortcut:
Shortcut intent
Intent shortcutIntent = activityResultIntent.getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT);
Shortcut name
String shortcutName = intent.getStringExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME);
Shortcut icon
Bitmap shortcutIcon = intent.getParcelableExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON);

Android, run a certain shortcut

So, there are apps that can create shortcuts on the home screen.
My question is, How can my app opens/runs/starts a certain shortcut?
if I have 2 browser shortcuts, each of them loads a different url ... how can I choose between them? how to choose to open the 1st or the second one?

To open a URL/website you do the following:
String url = "http://www.example.com";
Intent mIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
mIntent.setData(Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(mIntent);
Here's the documentation of Intent.ACTION_VIEW.

Android Start VPNClient (com.ipsec.vpnclient) Programmatically

I have an android application that requires VPN. My users will be using Galaxy Note 3's and will be using the built in "VPN Client" (com.ipsec.vpnclient). I need to find a way to launch this application from my application, in the instance of the VPN dropping. I've already figured out a way to determine if the VPN dropped, but I still need a way to launch the application.
ANSWER:
Thanks to help from #Muthu I was able to get it working with the following method.
final Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW");
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.ipsec.vpnclient", "com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity"));
EDIT:
To add to the confusion, I am easily able to add a shortcut to the activity (com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity) via another Launcher like ADW or Nova. I also tried using com.ipsec.vpnclient.MainActivity instead of com.ipsec.vpnclient in the method below, to no avail.
Intent intent = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.ipsec.vpnclient");
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(intent);
The above method works with other packages, but I can't seem to get this one to launch.
Here is the application when viewed in Android System Info.
Any ideas on how to launch this application programmatically?

You can Start any installed application by using intent. in your case like this
Intent LaunchVPN = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.ipsec.vpnclient");
startActivity( LaunchVPN );
Edit
You can open pre installed apps that can be found inside settings page by
final Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW");
i.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.android.settings","com.android.settings.InstalledAppDetails"));
startActivity(i);

ACTION_SEND intent android

I am trying to pass a url to a specific app using the ACTION_SEND intent, I want to by pass the chooser and just go straight to the app i desire but it doesn't seem to take the url unless i use the chooser..
private void shareIt(){
Intent pC = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
pC.setType("text/plain");
pC.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "http://www.bob.com");
pC.setType("text/plain");
pC.setClassName("com.sec.print.mobileprint","com.sec.print.mobileprint.UI.WebPrint");
//startActivity(pC);
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(pC,"Share jon"));
}
if i comment out the last line and comment back in the line before it.. it opens the app i want bypassing the chooser, but the app opens to google instead of bob.com.. if i leave it as is.. it brings up the chooser and should i choose the app it goes to bob.com .. how can i get it to go to bob.com while bypassing the chooser?

I suspect that the Intent.setClassName method you’re calling takes an unqualified class name as its second argument (after all, why bother repeating the package name qualification?). Alternatively, you can use setClass instead.

Are you sure you need to pass the URL via EXTRA_TEXT and not by pC.setData(Uri.parse("http://www.bob.com");?

Receive explicit intent. Android

Is it possible to receive an explicit intent with the component option set?
Example:
Starting activity: Intent { action=android.intent.action.VIEW data=http://example.org flags=0x10000000 comp={com.android.browser/com.android.browser.BrowserActivity} }
The reason why i want to this this is because i want receive this intent above, launch another browser than the default one, and drop the intent before it starts the default browser. In another words, i want to make another browser the default one.
If this is impossible, any other ideas how i can accomplish this?
Thanks!

1) You can explicitly launch alternative browser by calling something like startActivity(new Intent(this, OtherBrowser.class)) from Activity.
2) You can't override the default browser, but you can provide a browser alternative that user could choose when opening http://something. Just have a look at intent-filters that the default Browser declares (from Android sources).