Develop Reference

What is the name of this on app development?

We are doing an app for a client an he needs some similar functionality to this (see picture attached) offered by the iTranslate App on iOS.
With this functionality, when you are in any other App (for instance reading anything on the Medium App) and you select a word, a menu appears and you can select to open this word with the app of my client. But instead of opening the whole App and closing the one were are using, a kind of pop up appears:
I have a few questions about this:
- Does this have a name?
- Can something like this be done with Ionic or you need to code the app in Native?
- Is this possible only on iOS or also in Android?
I am really lost about this issue and would appreciate some guidance.
Thanks

The example in the first picture would be called a "Floating Context Menu," according to the Android Developers website. The example in the second picture would be called a "Popup Menu."
Hope this helps! Good Luck!

You can use a text selection toolbar https://material.io/design/platform-guidance/android-text-selection-toolbar.html# for this, which was added in Android 6.0. Note that you can only use this on Android 6.0 and later.
There is a nice article here, which provides some examples on how to create this:
https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/custom-text-selection-actions-with-action-process-text-191f792d2999
From the article, the basic implementation is the following:
AndroidManifest.xml
<activity
android:name=".ProcessTextActivity"
android:label="#string/process_text_action_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.PROCESS_TEXT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
ProcessTextActivity.java
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.process_text_main);
CharSequence text = getIntent()
.getCharSequenceExtra(Intent.EXTRA_PROCESS_TEXT);
// process the text
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_PROCESS_TEXT, result);
setResult(RESULT_OK, intent);
}
So, I am pretty sure you can implement this in ionic. I never wrote anything in ionic, but you may be able to call something like this Java code from it.

This is a customized PopupWindow(Android Documentation) which should not be a major issue to cook up with something like PopoverController (Iconic Documentation).
the real problem you will face is the text selection. you can look into this stackoverflow link for pointers.
Solutions like these may work in one or the other platform you have to muck the code unless there is and api for text selection in iconic.
if iconic does not give you the API you will have to roll up your sleeves. At this point you are on a slippery slope looking over the webview(s).
Update:
All the above juggling is needed to implement this within your app. Android and iOS will not allow you to add items to system context menu as you see in an PC based(Windows/MacOS/...) OS(s).
If you check Google Translator app in Android. it listens clipboard copy event and pops up a transient icon over other apps. in iOS drawing over other app is not possible.
So if you want your feature to show up in Medium App then they have to add the UI and they have to call your 'API'.

How to send highlighted text from default browser to Activity?

I am new in Android Application Development.
Research: Before asking this question, I have read topics related with my question (How to send string from one activity to another?). Unfortunately they are explaining how to copy string from one activity to another activity.
My intention: User opens default browser of mobile phone, highlights text and clicks the button which will be added by me on menu and needed activity is opened with highlighted (copied) text
Tried: I have added intent filter to activity, then added action (android.intent.action.SEARCH) and category (android.intent.category.DEFAULT) into intent-filter. I thought, link for activity will be in Search section after Google, Google Translate, Wikipedia, Dictionary. Also, tried android.intent.action.ACTION_SEARCH_LONG_PRESS. Also, android.intent.action.SEND. Why it is not working, I have no idea.
Tried(2): Found answer for my question partially from here. But link for activity will be in Share->Share as Text->Activity. I think it is too long way.
<activity android:name="ActivityDate">
<intent-filter android:label="Lesson">
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Questions (I have many questions. I will try make them short and ask the ones that are most important for me)
Question 1: Is it possible to add a button within menu (which opens when
text is highlighted. It includes copy, search, share)?
Question 2: If it is possible, how to do that? How to make the button so
that when it is clicked, highlighted text should be send to my
activity?
Question 3: If I could do this function for the default browser, can I implement to
other applications (3rd party applications)?

Launch Home choice from an app

Hello my question is a bit difficult let me explain and try to understood
I have a custom Home who is set as default when user press home. Know i need a way to ask wich home use when i press on a setting key, or a way to launch Setting activity for delete home default action.
In fact i wan't a way to go back to home app installed by google instead of mine just in case.
I need this because my custom home is still in dev and don't have all feature yet.
I need to keep my home as a default action when user press home buton but i need to add a home selector in special case.
I have try to use finish() when i need to go back to old home but mine as default is automaticly relaunch because he is the default one.
Any idea?
EDIT
I try to reformul a bit.
I'm making a home apps. I set it as default on my tablet. My home apps don't have all feature yet. And when i will launch something or go to setting i need to relaunch default home app.
So i need a way inside my app to reset default home action or launch a home apps, or ask user to choice wich app he will use has home apps.
Hope this is clear for all.

Probably you should use this one to implement your idea. keep the below lines in your manifest file.
<activity android:name="Home"
android:theme="#style/Theme"
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:stateNotNeeded="true">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
For more info about the sample project. just go the below path in your Android SDK
\android-sdk\samples\android-8\Home
EDIT :
Hi Please check this to pro grammatically unset the default application.
How do I use PackageManager.addPreferredActivity()?
for more info go through this also to clear the clearPackagePreferredActivities
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/PackageManager.html#clearPackagePreferredActivities%28java.lang.String%29
hope this helps you.

Every activity in my app is added to app drawer

Well, just like the title suggests, every activity within my application is being added to the app drawer.... Im really hating this new ADT. First it was a problem with the app name appearing as the first activity name, now all the activities are showing up on the application list. If I go to uninstall it only shows 1. Anyone else having this problem and has figured out a work around?

for future cases specifically you can change in the android manifest under :
<intent-filter>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
change to:
<intent-filter>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
This will remove the activities' icon from the app drawer. As the OP says: sometimes the wizard puts this in the manifest for you.

Ok, figured it out... Everytime you create a new activity through the adt wizard (New -> Android Activity) it creates the code in your manifest for you.... the problem is that it added intent filters to it as well. Just remove those and they dont show up.... stupid adt.

I know when I am using IntelliJ as my IDE for Android programming, there is a box you can check when using the wizard to create a new Activity that says "Mark as start-up Activity".
Be aware of these types of things because that is what caused me to have the same problem you had Shaun.
I wouldn't completely erase the intent filters, simply have only the Activity you want as the "start-up" Activity marked as the "Launcher" in the Manifest file. All other Activities get "Default".

What does "category" in the manifest mean?

The documentation says you can specify a custom category.
When, why and how would you do it?
What would be the use of it?

The way I understand it, categories are public directives to the android operating system(and other apps) that represent different categories that your app should be a part of.
Example
When the launcher icon is tapped on the home screen, the home application looks through every installed app's manifest for the HOME category -- and if so it displays it in the app drawer.
However, there's more. You can specify categories in your applications manifest that lets the system know that you application can handle the intent category. For example, by putting a ALTERNATIVE category, other apps in the system know that your app can handle that category without specifically knowing the action name! In the following example, custom intent categories are passed through this intent, which is filtered and the corresponding object gets edited(taken from the Notes example app):
<intent-filter android:label="#string/resolve_title">
<action android:name="com.android.notepad.action.EDIT_TITLE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.ALTERNATIVE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.SELECTED_ALTERNATIVE" />
<data android:mimeType="vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.google.note" />
</intent-filter>
By registering this intent filter in an <activity /> tag, you can edit a "note". The intent data would contain the note, and the intent would get routed to the activity that this filter is registered in.
In Conclusion:
There isn't really a reason you'd use a custom category. They are for Android, and thus don't really make sense in application use. But, if you choose to use them, they can be used in the methods described above. "They provide some specific semantic rules, and if those rules are useful to you then feel free to use them"(Hackbod).

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-filters.html
Scroll down a bit and you should see a section under "Intent Objects"
They basically describe certain special properties of an activity. for example, adding
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
means that the app can be started on the phone's bootup

I'm kinda a noob to Android still, although I have programming experience otherwise.. It says a custom category in your own namespace. I'm guessing that if you are programming multiple apps and you want one app to run another app, you could use a custom category for your intent to force the phone to find your other app to catch the intent with?

When you do not want to use the default category then use the custom category.
Custom categories should use the package name as a prefix, to ensure that they are unique.
Some information is provided on below link:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/category-element.html
Check the below link it has somewhat same question:
Android custom categories