Android Developer Fundamentals V2

Activities and
Intents
Lesson 2

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2.3 Implicit Intents

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Contents

● Intent—recap
● Implicit Intent overview
● Sending an implicit Intent
● Receiving an implicit Intent

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Recap: Intent

Android Developer Fundamentals V2 4

What is an Intent?
An Intent is:
● Description of an operation to be performed
● Messaging object used to request an action from another
app component via the Android system.
Originator App component

Intent Action
Android
System

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What can an Intent do?
An Intent can be used to:
● start an Activity
● start a Service
● deliver a Broadcast

Services and Broadcasts are covered in other lessons

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Explicit vs. implicit Intent

Explicit Intent — Starts an Activity of a specific class

Implicit Intent — Asks system to find an Activity class with a

registered handler that can handle this request

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Implicit Intent
overview

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What you do with an implicit Intent
● Start an Activity in another app by describing an action
you intend to perform, such as "share an article", "view a
map", or "take a picture"
● Specify an action and optionally provide data with which
to perform the action
● Don't specify the target Activity class, just the intended
action
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What system does with implicit Intent
● Android runtime matches the implicit intent request with
registered intent handlers
● If there are multiple matches, an App Chooser will open to
let the user decide

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How does implicit Intent work?
1. The Android Runtime keeps a list of registered Apps
2. Apps have to register via AndroidManifest.xml
3. Runtime receives the request and looks for matches
4. Android runtime uses Intent filters for matching
5. If more than one match, shows a list of possible matches
and lets the user choose one
6. Android runtime starts the requested activity

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App Chooser

When the Android runtime finds

multiple registered activities that can
handle an implicit Intent, it displays an
App Chooser to allow the user to
select the handler

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 Sending an
implicit Intent

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Sending an implicit Intent
1. Create an Intent for an action
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL_BUTTON);

User has pressed Call button — start Activity that can make
a call (no data is passed in or returned)

2. Start the Activity

if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivity(intent);
}
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Avoid exceptions and crashes
Before starting an implicit Activity, use the package manager
to check that there is a package with an Activity that matches
the given criteria.

Intent myIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CALL_BUTTON);

if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivity(intent);
}

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Sending an implicit Intent with data URI
1. Create an Intent for action
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL);

2. Provide data as a URI

intent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:8005551234"));

3. Start the Activity

if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivity(intent);
}
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Providing the data as URI

Create an URI from a string using Uri.parse(String uri)

● Uri.parse("tel:8005551234")
● Uri.parse("geo:0,0?q=brooklyn%20bridge%2C%20brooklyn%2C%20ny")
● Uri.parse("http://www.android.com");

Uri documentation

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Implicit Intent examples
Show a web page
Uri uri = Uri.parse("http://www.google.com");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,uri);
startActivity(it);
Dial a phone number
Uri uri = Uri.parse("tel:8005551234");
Intent it = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL, uri);
startActivity(it);
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Sending an implicit Intent with extras
1. Create an Intent for an action
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_WEB_SEARCH);

2. Put extras
String query = edittext.getText().toString();
intent.putExtra(SearchManager.QUERY, query));

3. Start the Activity

if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivity(intent);
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Category
Additional information about the kind of component to
handle the intent.
● CATEGORY_OPENABLE
Only allow URIs of files that are openable
● CATEGORY_BROWSABLE
Only an Activity that can start a web browser to display
data referenced by the URI
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Sending an implicit Intent with type and category

1. Create an Intent for an action

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CREATE_DOCUMENT);

2. Set mime type and category for additional information

intent.setType("application/pdf"); // set MIME type
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);

continued on next slide...

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Sending an implicit Intent with type and category
3. Start the Activity
if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivityForResult(myIntent,ACTIVITY_REQUEST_CREATE_FILE);
}

4. Process returned content URI in onActivityResult()

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Common actions for an implicit Intent
Common actions include:
● ACTION_SET_ALARM
● ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE
● ACTION_CREATE_DOCUMENT
● ACTION_SENDTO
● and many more
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Apps that handle common actions
Common actions are usually handled by installed apps (both
system apps and other apps), such as:

● Alarm Clock, Calendar, Camera, Contacts ➔ List of common

● Email, File Storage, Maps, Music/Video actions for an im
plicit intent
● Notes, Phone, Search, Settings
➔ List of all availab
● Text Messaging and Web Browsing le actions

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 Receiving an
Implicit Intent

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Register your app to receive an Intent
● Declare one or more Intent filters for the Activity in
AndroidManifest.xml
● Filter announces ability of Activity to accept an implicit
Intent
● Filter puts conditions on the Intent that the Activity
accepts

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 Intent filter in AndroidManifest.xml
<activity android:name="ShareActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<data android:mimeType="text/plain"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>

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 Intent filters: action and category

● action — Match one or more action constants

○ android.intent.action.VIEW — matches any Intent with ACTION_VIEW
○ android.intent.action.SEND — matches any Intent with ACTION_SEND

● category — additional information (list of categories)

○ android.intent.category.BROWSABLE—can be started by web browser
○ android.intent.category.LAUNCHER—Show activity as launcher icon

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 Intent filters: data

● data — Filter on data URIs, MIME type

○ android:scheme="https"—require URIs to be https protocol
○ android:host="developer.android.com"—only accept an Intent from
specified hosts
○ android:mimeType="text/plain"—limit the acceptable types of documents

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 An Activity can have multiple filters
<activity android:name="ShareActivity">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
...
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action
android:name="android.intent.action.SEND_MULTIPLE"/>
...
</intent-filter> An Activity can have several filters
</activity> Android Developer Fundamentals V2 Implicit Intents
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 A filter can have multiple actions & data
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND_MULTIPLE"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<data android:mimeType="image/*"/>
<data android:mimeType="video/*"/>
</intent-filter>

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Learn more

Android Developer Fundamentals V2 32

Learn more
● Intent class documentation
● Uri documentation
● List of common apps that respond to implicit intents
● List of available actions
● List of categories
● Intent Filters
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What's Next?

● Concept Chapter: 2.3 Implicit Intents

● Practical: 2.3 Implicit Intents

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END

Android Developer Fundamentals V2 35