How to properly clear intent data from singleTop Activity? - android

Scenario is:
Activity with singleTop declared at the manifest. This activity is called with some extras. I'm able to clear the intent data and be able to flip screen and such without the original intent being called...
The issue is that when the activity is killed by the system and the user goes back to this activity it gets restarted using the original intent used to create the activity.
How do I remove this? I tried starting the same activity from within with a new Intent but no luck... I have also used various flags.

Well turns out that there isn't a proper way to clear intent data from the ActivityManager. The only way around this bug is to keep a flag state for when extras have been cleared. Please see the following post about keeping a flag.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-developers/vrLdM5mKeoY

I'm sending pending intents as alarms and I could receive differents alarms when my app is launched so the flag state doesn't suit me.
I did like this :
I'm sending intents with a id, for example intent.setAction("MyIntent"+System.getCurrentTimeinMillis);
storing this key as a reference in BD or shared prefs.
When you receive the intent on newIntent you ask the bd or shared prefs is the intent.getAction() is there and after that you clear the reference.

Related

How to recreate recent-apps activity when app is launched from notification

My app and activity is in my list of recent apps when I receive a notification. When I click on the notification, I want the intent of the notification to be honored. In my case I want to restart the activity (brute force) and pass in the new intent: so, finish then re-create. I am reading about such tags as FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK and FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP but I don't understand them enough to know how to force a "finish then re-create` of my activity. And, oh, the activity in question is MainActivity.
The snippet inside GcmListenerService uses
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
for sending the notification intent
Alternatively
If I go with onNewIntent things get complicated because there maybe DialogFragments being displayed, etc. And I would have to clear everything. That is why finish then re-create seem like the simplest solution to me.
Intent flag FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP should produce the desired behavior. The documentation for Tasks and Back Stack says this in the section for Using Intent Flags:
If the launch mode of the designated activity is "standard", it too is
removed from the stack and a new instance is launched in its place to
handle the incoming intent. That's because a new instance is always
created for a new intent when the launch mode is "standard".
The documentation for FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP describes the same behavior in more detail.

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

What happens when you click on an application's launch icon?

 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.

Restarting Android application after process is killed

When my application is idle, Android kills the process.
If user reopens the application after some time, only the top Activity is created - this is a problem for me because the activity depends on initialization of other objects (which are now destroyed).
What I want to do in that case is to re-launch the application.
How can I do that?
Just identify that your Application is being launched after it was previously destroyed by Android, you could do this by keeping a variable in a custom Application class, and set it to true after your applicaiton is initialized. So when the applicaction is re-launched, this flag is false, and then just make an Intent to launch your main Activity specifying FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP :
Intent reLaunchMain=new Intent(this,MainActivity.class);
reLaunchMain.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
startActivity(reLaunchMain);
I think this answer only for you.
After finish progress call this
finish();
Intent intent = new Intent(this, sameactivity.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(intent);
You should probably be looking at storing such Objects in your app's implementation of the Application class.
If these objects contain state that needs to be more persistent, you should save the state of such Objects in each Activity's onPause() method, either to the database, in SharedPreferences or remotely.

How to bring an Activity to foreground (or create if not existing)?

I am intercepting sms messages with some information in them. Then in my SmsListener I'm creating notification to show in statusbar.
Then, when user clicks on a notification I want
Bring MainActivity to foreground (If such activity does not exist yet it should be created)
Pass to it data from the sms
Perform some ui changes basing on this data in this MainActivity
My activity is defined as
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:screenOrientation="sensor"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:launchMode="singleTask"/>
Activity is launched as
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClass(context, MainActivity.class);
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(i);
Also in my activity I have overridden method onNewActivity
#Override
public void onNewIntent(Intent intent){
super.onNewIntent(intent);
// I have data from broadcast in intent variable passed to this activity
processDataFromBroadcast(intent);
}
It works fine if the MainActivity already exists but if MainActivity does not exist it is started however onNewIntent was not called
Then I tried to invoke processDataFromBroadcast from onCreate: processDataFromBroadcast(getIntent()).
First time data is passed correctly from my broadcast to the activity.
However if MainActivity is sent to background and then again brought to foreground either onCreate or onNewIntent is called and processDataFromBroadcast is executed again with intent sent by broadcast and thus my MainActivity is updated with data from broadcast every-time the app is bringing to foreground - the latter is unwanted, how can I make my activity to forget this intent after first handling.
Here is sample application.
For an activity to launch only one instance of itself, have a look at the <activity> manifest element, and particularly android:launchMode. You want to configure it with either singleTask or singleInstance.
To pass data to your activity, you add data to the Intent you use to open it. To pass data with the intent, use the putExtra() methods of the intent before sending it off, and getExtra() methods to retrieve them in your receiving activity.
I'm assuming that you know roughly how intents work, but if not you could learn more about intents by taking a look at this Android developers article.
in case your problem is still unresolved, as I was just running into the same issue, here's how I solved it:
I am putting a timestamp as intentId as an extra upon the intent during it's creation. the first time, I am handling the intent in onCreate() or onNewIntent() I am reading the intentId and store it as the last intent handled. so the next time onCreate() or onNewIntet() is invoked I can check the intentId and if it equals the id of the last intent handled, I ignore it! It don't know if this helps in your case, maybe you can adopt it.
To keep intentId independent from activity lifecycles you could persist it in the userdefaults.
I agree that one would expect calling setIntent(new Intent()) in onNewIntent should do the trick.
It it late to answer, but it might be helpful to others looking for the solution.
Just add below lines of code :
Intent mIntent = new Intent(this, SplashActivity.class);
mIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); // You need this if starting the activity from a service
mIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
mIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
Where SplashActivity is the name of initial application that is the first screen of your application.
Hope it helps. :)

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