Develop Reference

How do I start an intent without the flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK in an Android service?

I am trying to connect to different activities from a custom soft keyboard. I need the activity underneath the keyboard to allow data to be sent without the activity creating a new instance of itself. For example: if the keyboard is over the messaging application, I want to send that application data without losing the current conversation that the user is typing into. I currently have the following code to send data to the activity.
Intent sendIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
sendIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, screenshotUri);
//sendIntent.putExtra("thread_id", (long) 1);
sendIntent.setType("image/*");
startActivity(sendIntent);
I am getting the following obvious error when I try to run it...
E/AndroidRuntime(6129): android.util.AndroidRuntimeException: Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag. Is this really what you want?
How can I keep the current activity underneath the keyboard from resetting itself when an intent is sent from the keyboard service? Or more simply, how can I send an intent from a service without setting the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag?

You can't really do this like that. A Service can't pass data to an Activity without "starting it". You don't want to do that. You want to pass data to an "already started" Activity. There's 2 ways to do this:
Use a bound Service. Have the Activity bind to the Service. The Activity can then call methods on theService (using AIDL) and receive returned data.
Use a BroadcastReceiver. Have the Activity create and register a BroadcastReceiver to listen for the returned data. In your Service, send a broadcast Intent when you want to transmit data to the Activity.

You can do this by several ways but you must set flag in order to complete task.
If you want to create a new instance and close the current instance you need to set Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP.
If you want to reuse the same instance of the activity in this case you need to set both Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP and Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOPafter that it will not create another instance of the activity but call onNewIntent() of activity to run the new Intent.

How can I know the startActivity intent from other application?

I have an Activity and assume that has been launched. When the other application use startActivity method to start my Activity, my Activity will show and run the onResume Method, but I can't find any way to get the intent which is used in startActivity method by the other application. I want to get the extra data in the intent. How can I do?
EDIT
My Activity is singleTask, and I want to get the startActivity intents form other applications. I think it is not associate with filters.

Have you tried using getIntent() ?
Then you can do:
this.getIntent().getExtras();
After that if you need new intents just override the onNewIntent function in your activity.

I simply say an example. When we need to share something. We click share button which shows a list of app by which we can share our things.
So, if you want to make that kind of app which can receive other app data then you need make your activity capable of receiving that data. In order to receive implicit intents, you must include the CATEGORY_DEFAULT category in the intent filter in manifest.
Below this link you will get some more information : http://developer.android.com/training/basics/intents/filters.html

How to run Device Police Manager From A Service

I am able to create an Activity that uses the DevicePolicyManager API's.
The tutorials show that I need use it the following fashion:
if (!mDPM.isAdminActive(mAdminName)) {
Intent intent = new Intent(DevicePolicyManager.ACTION_ADD_DEVICE_ADMIN);
intent.putExtra(DevicePolicyManager.EXTRA_DEVICE_ADMIN, mAdminName);
intent.putExtra("wipe-data", DeviceAdminInfo.USES_POLICY_WIPE_DATA);
startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_ENABLE);
}
else {
mDPM.wipeData(0);
}
However I would like this to run inside a Service.
But I cant call
startActivityForResult
from within a Service.
So what would be the best approach or strategy for me to try ?

The only reason you need to call startActivityForResult() is if your app is not presently configured as a device administrator, to lead the user to go set that up for you. Hence, put that portion of your logic inside of your user interface.
Your service itself would just skip doing anything if isAdminActive() returns false.

Synchronous system activities

I wanna run two system activities one after another in specific order.
now as we know, startActivity is an asynchronous operation, so i cant keep on a specific order.
so i thought maybe I should try to do it with dialogBox in the middle but also running a dialogBox is an asynchronous.
now as i said the activities which i try to run are system activities, so i cant even start them with startActivityForResult (or mybe i can, but i cant think how it will help me).
Any tricks how could i manage with this issue?
Some code:
first activity:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setAction(Settings.ACTION_APPLICATION_SETTINGS);
startActivity(intent);
second activity:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(tmpPackageFile
.getAbsoluteFile()),
"application/vnd.android.package-archive");
startActivity(intent);
as you can see, i dont have any access to those activites, i can just run thire intents from an outside class/activity/service.

You should be able to use startActivityForResult.. The second parameter to that function is a unique id, which you can use to track which activity is ending.
In onActivityResult of the calling activity, check which activity just finished, then start the next one with another call to startActivityForResult (or, if you don't care what happens with the 2nd, just startActivity).

I may be missing the boat on this, it seems you should place your code to start the second activity in the handler that finishes the first activity, such as on a button press or when an item is selected from a ListView. More information on how the first Activity is terminated would help.

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).