Develop Reference

How can I set my WatchFaceService as the default launch activity in Android Studio

I have a WatchFaceService (WatchFace) and every time I run my application it switches to the SimpleFace and then I have to set mine as the watchFace which ends up to be quite frustrating after many restarts.
To notice this does happen with the new Android Studio 2
I read around S.O. how to set the default activity but that does not do the same job as my WatchFaceService is not an activity but a service.
Also via the UI of Android Studio 2 it cannot be selected.
Is there a way to achieve this ? I think it might be difficult because actually it's not running an app, but setting the watch's Watchface at every run.
Any ideas?

The short answer is that this isn't possible. Your watch face is a Service, after all, so there's no way that it can be the default (launch) Activity for your app. They're completely different component classes.
But you can get close.
What you need to do is create a tiny little shell Activity that contains only the following code:
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = new Intent(WallpaperManager.ACTION_CHANGE_LIVE_WALLPAPER)
.putExtra(WallpaperManager.EXTRA_LIVE_WALLPAPER_COMPONENT,
new ComponentName(getPackageName(),
MyWatchFaceService.class.getName()));
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
...where MyWatchFaceService is the class name of your watch face service (surprise). You'll also need to declare it in your manifest, of course:
<activity android:name=".FaceActivity"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="true">
</activity>
Finally, configure your Wear module in Android Studio to launch FaceActivity when you run the app. This is under the Run menu, in Edit Configurations.
Having done that, run your app from AS onto the watch, and it'll open the watch face chooser on-device, with your face selected. From there, one tap will start it.
I can't see a way to eliminate that single tap, though.

Android: Sharing Data and Receiving text from 3rd party app. Why doesn't my app receive new text?

Summary
I am attempting to get data sent from the user via the Share menu. In this case, I'll use the basic Android web browser to select text and then share it to my app.
Problem
The first time the user shares the text my app gets the text as expected and displays it via Log.d() -- see the handleSendText() method in the code below.
However, each time thereafter even though the user has selected new text in the web browser and shared it with my app, I still get the original text the user selected (previous value).
Question
How do you reset the Intent -- or whatever it is -- so that I can obtain the new text the user has selected after the first time?
Details
My application has a MainActivity and I've followed the Google docs at :
http://developer.android.com/training/sharing/receive.html
With code like the following in my MainActivity
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
Intent intent = getIntent();
String action = intent.getAction();
String type = intent.getType();
if (Intent.ACTION_SEND.equals(action) && type != null) {
if ("text/plain".equals(type)) {
handleSendText(intent, "onCreate"); // Handle text being sent
}
}
}
#Override
public void onResume(){
super.onResume();
Intent intent = getIntent();
String action = intent.getAction();
String type = intent.getType();
if (Intent.ACTION_SEND.equals(action) && type != null) {
if ("text/plain".equals(type)) {
handleSendText(intent, "onResume"); // Handle text being sent
}
}
}
void handleSendText(Intent intent, String callingMethodName) {
String sharedText = intent.getStringExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT);
if (sharedText != null) {
Log.d("MainActivity", "sharedText : " + sharedText + " called from : " + callingMethodName);
}
}
}
My AndroidManifest section for the activity has the filter added like:
<activity android:name=".MainActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Walk-Thru With Screens and Log
NOTE: Please notice that I've implemented the onResume() in my app also to insure that I don't only get the Intent when onCreate() is called (only one time when the app is started).
Start up browser and grab the text "hurricane".
Choose the app to share with (our test app).
View the log and notice that onCreate() and onResume() are called and value is 'hurricane'
Go back to browser again to share more text...
Select a new word, Atlantic, to share.
Extra note: When we click that Share link this time the Android MenuChooser doesn't display, instead, it automatically opens GrabText again. I found that behavior somewhat odd.
Notice that the Intent text still has the value of hurricane. You can see that there are now two new entries in the logcat.
Attempted Workaround Solutions
I have found that I can destroy the app entirely by overriding onPause() and calling finish() on my Activity (thus closing the entire app) and that seems to work, but isn't there some other way to reset that Intent or the associated text or something?
Do you know of any other way to insure that the new data is retrieved?
I appreciate any help.
UPDATE
Note:I'm updating because there's not a great way to show additional code tried, however, I wouldn't have know to try this without input from other SO User, CommonsWare.
The first answer I received was that I should add an #Override onNewIntent() so I added the following code to my MainActivity:
#Override
protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
super.onNewIntent(intent);
Log.d("MainActivity", "onNewIntent()...");
String action = intent.getAction();
String type = intent.getType();
if (Intent.ACTION_SEND.equals(action) && type != null) {
if ("text/plain".equals(type)) {
handleSendText(intent, "onNewIntent"); // Handle text being sent
}
}
}
Upon adding that code and running and attempting the copy and then second copy of the new word, I still saw the following in logcat:
It doesn't even look as if the onNewItent() method is even called.
EDIT 2
I altered the emulator Settings...Developer Options... and turned off the "Don't keep activities" setting. It was previously turned on (checked).
After that, I ran the app which contains the onNewIntent() override but now it shows just the one onCreate() gone (which makes sense because the activity is still loaded) but still does not show the onNewIntent() call.
In this sample, I captured the word "remnants".
Edit 3
I built the app and created an APK and deployed it to my Samsung Galaxy Core Prime and I ended up with the same results. onNewIntent() is never called.
I just looked up onNewIntent in Google docs and it states:
onNewIntent(Intent intent) This is called for activities that set
launchMode to "singleTop" in their package, or if a client used the
FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP flag when calling startActivity(Intent).
I haven't set singleTop so I will try it now. Hmm....
EDIT 4
I have now tried the singleTop variation. I was previously testing on API 15 (v4.0.4)on an emulator so I switched to API 21 (v5.0) to see if there'd be any different.
Here's what the addition of singleTop did to my AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity android:name=".MainActivity" android:launchMode="singleTop">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Notice I also collapsed the two intent-filter nodes into the one.
Selected Text Did Change
On Android API Level 21 the Intent text was now coming in different each time I selected text in the browser.
onNewIntent Is Never Called
However, onNewIntent is NEVER called. I don't ever see it fire.
Share Menu Displayed Every Time
Also, now (on API 21) I see the Share menu every time I select text.
However, I also see an interesting thing when I switch to the browser. You can see multiple copies of the Activity in the list. What?!
Notice also that I implemented the MainActivity as a ListView (scrollable) so I could see the entries even without logcat (for running on real device). That made something else apparent: that the ListView was being updated on each newly shown Activity. But really, it should be the original Activity being appended to.
Creates Numerous GrabText Activities
Yes, now it creates a new GrabText Activity window each time I select text. I thought maybe that was because I had the singleTop set so I removed it but they still appear even after removing singleTop on API LEVEL 21.
Now that I saw it work -- provide different text each time on API 21 I decided to switch back to API Level 15 emulator and try it.
I will report back after I try some things back on API Level 15 again.
API Level 15 : Test Again
I started my other emulator running API Level 15 again and ran the app and even with singleTop set the value is never updated.
You can see this in the logcat and on the updated ListView:
You can also see that the code acts completely different, though I've not changed anything since it appends to the ListView of the one running Activity on api level 15.
I've written a book on this terribly documented thing. I hope this helps someone and that a Google Android dev sees this and explains it.

If your activity already exists, it will be called with onNewIntent() instead of onCreate(). onNewIntent() will be passed the Intent that you need to use for your message.

Try changing the android:launchMode of your activity in the manifest.xml to
singleTop
this way if the activity is already launched, new intents will be received in onNewIntent() method

There is only one answer that actually works, but it could cause other problems.
You just have to decide to call finish() whenever the Activity goes into onPause().
Here's the exact code I implemented which works on all API LEVELS.
#Override
public void onPause(){
super.onPause();
finish();
}
Destroy the Activity
When you add that code then every time you switch back to the app you are sharing from (the web browser in our case) then the onPause will fire on your MainActivity and the finish() method will set the Activity for destruction.
Share Menu Displayed Every Time After This
With this solution every time you select text from your sharing app (web browser) then the Share menu will be displayed and will display GrabText as one of the choices (instead of automatically forcing GrabText to the front again).
Shared Text Is Always the New Text
Since the MainActivity is completely destroyed it then has to be completely loaded (onCreate()) again and so it receives the new Intent text which was sent.
Not A Great Workaround
This isn't a great workaround however, because I believe dialog boxes in your app would also create onPause() to be called and your Activity would be destroyed. Obviously destroying your Activity onPause() just isn't great either because you are beginning to manage "memory" in a way that really should be left to the OS. However, in this case it seems to be the only way around the issue.

Why can't I kill an Activity I started using killBackgroundProcesses?

OK, I'm stumped :-(
As an experiment, I've been trying to start an Activity and then sometime later shut it down using killBackgroundProcesses from the ActivityManager package. I'm not getting any errors. It just doesn't seem to do anything.
The code below is narrowed down about as much as I can get it. Just as a test, I start the Activity (successfully) and then when my onPause method gets called, I try and and stop what I had just started (in my real code, this happens much later).
Typing this up, it occurred to me that perhaps using killBackgroundProcesses on an Activity that is currently on-screen may not be meaningful. If so, is there any other way to stop this Activity? I do not have source to this other app, I started it up, and now I just want it to go away. And I also realize that this is not a normal Activity lifecycle behavior, but at least for now, this is a special case for me.
I'd appreciate any insight or solutions.
Thanks!
Manifest:
...
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES"/>
...
Code:
public class MainActivity extends Activity
{
static String PACKAGE = "com.abc.def";
...
Intent i = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage( PACKAGE );
startActivity( i );
...
#Override
protected void onPause()
{
// just to see if we can, kill the activity we just started
ActivityManager manager = (ActivityManager)getApplicationContext().getSystemService( Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE );
manager.killBackgroundProcesses( PACKAGE );
}
}

Calling killBackgroundProcesses is allowed for Android framework (internal system or partner rom developers like HTC, Samsung, etc) only and not the third-party applications. Instead, you should call finish(); on your activity's onPause or onStop method to destroy it automatically when its gone from screen.

Android Application onCreate not called for homescreen launcher app during reboot

I am having a strange problem in an Android application that I am building, the application is basically a Homescreen replacement app which will be put as a default homescreen in a device. To do some initialization work I have extended Android Application class and in the onCreate() method I am basically registering some observer and starting a service, here's the code:
public class MyApplication extends Application implements ExternalStorageListener {
private ExternalStorageObserver externalStorageObserver;
public void onCreate() {
Log.i("MyApplication", "Starting application");
super.onCreate();
externalStorageObserver = new ExternalStorageObserver(this);
if(externalStorageObserver.isExternalStorageAvailable()) {
// this builds a list of files present in the SD card
// which is being used through the application to do
// some work
buildData();
File externalFileDir = getApplicationContext().getExternalFilesDir(null);
if(externalFileDir != null && externalFileDir.isDirectory()) {
// do something...
}
}
//Register listener to observe external storage state
registerExternalStorageObserver();
Log.i("SyncService", "Starting sync service...");
ComponentName cmp = startService(new Intent(getApplicationContext(), SyncService.class));
Log.i("SyncService", cmp.toString());
}
private void registerExternalStorageObserver() {
IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter();
filter.addAction(Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_MOUNTED);
filter.addAction(Intent.ACTION_MEDIA_REMOVED);
registerReceiver(externalStorageObserver, filter);
}
private void buildData() {
// builds a list
}
}
Content of Manifest file:
<application android:persistent="true" android:icon="#drawable/icon"
android:label="#string/app_name" android:name="com.webgyani.android.MyApplication"
android:debuggable="true">
<activity android:name=".HomeTabActivity" android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:stateNotNeeded="true" android:theme="#style/LightTabsTheme"
android:screenOrientation="landscape" android:label="#string/app_name">
<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>
</application>
This works fine when I install the app either using Eclipse or manually installing the apk onto the device. Once the app is installed things work fine, I mean the above onCreate() method gets called and service is also started normally, but if I reboot the device this time the onCreate() method does not get called(none of the log statements appear and also the services are not started). After some debugging I noticed that this only happens if I set my app as the default launcher/homescreen app and thereafter reboots the device, because once you set the app as the default launcher, Android should automatically launch your app as the homescreen after reboot. In my case the app is launched but that code is not executed.
I tried to use debugger but that didn't work because when I reboot the device the debugger gets disconnected and by the time USB debugging gets enabled my app is already started.
I even double checked the Logcat but didn't see any error. I thought of having a BOOT_COMPLETED intent to initialize that part, but that will require some code refactoring which I am not willing to do at this point of time unless there is a solution.
So I am curious to know that whether this is a standard behavior, or is there a known bug which causes this, because my assumption is the onCreate method of the Application will always get called whenever the app is started. I have tried whatever I could since morning, but nothing worked, couldn't pinpoint the issue, if any of you could shed some light into this then that would be highly appreciated.
Thanks

Well, finally I figured out the problem, and it was in my code itself. I initially suspected that the MyApplication's onCreate() method was not getting called, I had that assumption because I was not able to see any logs. To know whether the method is getting called or not, instead of using Log.i() I was also appending some additional log messages in an ArrayList and printing them later, this revealed that the methods were indeed getting called and even the Service was instantiating properly but the data or filelist is not being populated because the SDCard was not ready by that time. I am also pretty sure that the logs were not available on Logcat due to the fact that the USB debugger becomes ready after my app is started(as it's a homescreen app).
The actual problem becomes obvious when you see that my overridden MyApplication class implements a listener called ExternalStorageListener which basically extends BroadcastReceiver, I have created that class to receive SDCard related Intents for example ACTION_MEDIA_MOUNTED, ACTION_MEDIA_REMOVED to rebuild the data(file list). In my case the ExternalStorageListener class was not receiving the Intents because I forgot to add this filter.addDataScheme("file") in the registerExternalStorageObserver method above in the code sample.
I do agree that my question was based on a false assumption and the code example I posted it's kind of hard to figure out the actual issue. I am not sure what to do with the question whether to mark this as answer or leave it as it is.

Remove from launcher BUT keep enabled / startable

i tried coding it, i tried solving it with google and stackoverflow, nothing found :=) so hopefully someone else has a better idea, im not sure if i get everything right:
i have 2 applications: ad (main app) / adfree-pro (just license starts ad app without ads ;P)
so the problem is, i want to have a pro version (with pro icon) in the launcher, which starts the normal-ad app, which is (the normal ad-app) not in the launcher.
i tried removing the ad-app from the launcher (which due to my research should JUST remove it from the launcher)
pkgMgr.setComponentEnabledSetting(new ComponentName(PACKAGE_NAME, PACKAGE_NAME + ".Main"),
PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED, PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);
which results to: the icons in the launcher are correct ;) BUT the application can't be found on the phone, launched, started, even not with a launcher pro activity shortcut. it seems to be there (shortcuts can be created) but i crashes with an activity exception when i try to launch it.
02-18 14:38:59.237: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(9941): Caused by: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: Unable to find explicit activity class {PACKAGE_NAME/PACKAGE_NAME.Main}; have you declared this activity in your AndroidManifest.xml?
which doesnt seem to belong (the error message)
it looks like there has happened more to the application than just simply removed the entry in the launcher.
thanks a lot guys,
every workaround for this situation appreciated :)
best regards :)

You can't have app installed and hide it's launcher icon. The way I'm addressing it with my application which works similar to yours that I don't try to fight icons but instead the app can be launched using ether icon. Obviously you don't have to do in the main (free) app and the code that launches app from your pro icon will look something like the following:
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle bundle) {
super.onCreate(bundle);
// check if main app is installed. If yes then start it
if (appExists()) {
Log.d(TAG, "Started main app from Pro");
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("myapp://com.myapp.main"));
startActivity(intent);
finish();
} else {
// display view with link back to Market
onAppNotExists();
}
}
It's up to you to implement appExists() which is probably some sort of license check
Of course, alternatively you can develop your app's common code as library project and then distribute it in 2 flavors without duplicating the code

BUT the application can't be found on the phone, launched, started,
even not with a launcher pro activity shortcut.
Not application, but activity.
So, if your LAUNCHER activity is BaseActivity, you may create something like BaseFakeActivity (don't forget to set it as LAUNCHER in your manifest instead of your BaseActivity) and which only function is to start your BaseActivity and then finish() itself.
Now you may hide your BaseFakeActivity but you'll still be possible to interact with your BaseActivity.
P.S.: Don't forget to test your app's behaviour after doing things this way ;)