FPT Software

ANDROID TRAINING
LESSON 6
Version 0.1

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 Agenda

• Android Intents
• Using Intents to call Activities
• Defining Intent Filters
• Intents as event triggers
• Share Intent and ShareActionProvider
• Finding out if an Intent is available

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 Intents

• Intents are asynchronous messages which

allow Android components to request
functionality from other components of the
Android system.
• For example an Activity can send an Intents to
the Android system which starts another
Activity.

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 Intents

• Intent Object Structure Is Made Of

– Component name
– Action
– Data
– Category
– Extras
– Flags

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 Intents

• Component name Field

– Specifies the name of the component (name of the activity
if the component is activity) that should handle the intent
• >Class name of the target component (for example
"com.javapassion.ForwardTargetActivity")
– Setting component name is optional
• If it is set, the Intent object is delivered to an instance of the
designated class.
• If it is not set, Android uses other information in the Intent object
to locate a suitable target

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 Intents

• Action Field
– A string naming the action to be performed
– The Intent class defines a number of pre-defined action
constants, including
• ACTION_CALL, ACTION_EDIT, ACTION_MAIN, ACTION_SYNC,
ACTION_BATTERY_LOW, etc.
– You can also define your own action strings for activating
the components in your application
– The action largely determines how the rest of the intent is
structured - particularly the data and extras fields - much
as a method name determines a set of arguments and a
return value.

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 Intents

• Data Field
– The URI of the data to be acted on and the MIME type of
that data.
– Different actions are paired with different kinds of data
specifications.
• If the action field is ACTION_EDIT, the data field would contain the
URI of the document to be displayed for editing.
• If the action is ACTION_CALL, the data field would be a tel: URI
with the number to call.
• If the action is ACTION_VIEW and the data field is an http: URI, the
receiving activity would be called upon to download and display
whatever data the URI refers to.

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 Intents

• Category Field
– A string containing additional information about
the kind of component (activity, service, or
broadcast receiver) that should handle the intent.
– Any number of category descriptions can be
placed in an Intent object
– Android provides a set of predefined categories
(We will see them in the following slide)
– You can define your own categories

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 Intents

• CATEGORY_BROWSABLE - The target activity can be invoked

within the browser to display data referenced by a link — for
example, an image or an e-mail message.
• CATEGORY_GADGET - The activity can be embedded inside of
another activity that hosts gadgets
• CATEGORY_HOME - This is the home activity, that is the first
activity that is displayed when the device boots.
• CATEGORY_LAUNCHER - The activity can be the initial activity
of a task and is listed in the top-level application launcher.
• CATEGORY_PREFERENCE - The target activity is a preference
panel.
• Many more

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 Intents

• Extras Field
– Key-value pairs for additional information that should be
delivered to the component handling the intent.
– Just as some actions are paired with particular kinds of
data URIs, some are paired with particular extras.
• ACTION_TIMEZONE_CHANGED action has a "time-zone" extra that
identifies the new time zone
• ACTION_HEADSET_PLUG action has a "state" extra indicating
whether the headset is now plugged in or unplugged , as well as a
"name" extra for the type of headset
• If you were to invent a SHOW_COLOR action, the color value
would be set in an extra key-value pair.

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 Intents

• Flags Field
– Flags of various sorts.
– Many instruct the Android system how to launch
an activity (for example, which task the activity
should belong to) and how to treat it after it's
launched (for example, whether it belongs in the
list of recent activities).

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 Intents

• Types of Intents
– Explicit intents
– Implicit intents

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 Explicit Intents

• Explicit Intents explicitly names the component

which should be called by the Android system, by
using the Java class as identifier.
Intent i = new Intent(this, ActivityTwo.class);
i.putExtra("Value1", "This value one for ActivityTwo ");
i.putExtra("Value2", "This value two ActivityTwo");

• Explicit Intents are typically used within on

application as the classes in an application are
controlled by the application developer.

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 Implicit Intents

• Implicit Intents do not specify the Java class

which should be called. They specify the
action which should be performed and
optionally an URI which should be used for
this action.
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,
Uri.parse("http://www.google.com"));

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 Data Transfer

• An implicit Intent contains the Action and

optional the URI. The receiving component
can get this information via the getAction()
and getData() methods.
• Explicit and implicit Intents can also contain
additional data. This data call be filled by the
component which creates the Intent. It can
and can get extracted by the component
which receives the Intent.

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 Data Transfer

• Creates the Intent can add data to it via the

overloaded putExtra() method
• For example you can trigger all components which
have been registered to send some data via the new
Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND). This Intent determines
possible receivers via the type. What is send it
defined via the putExtra method. You can use any
String as key, the following uses the keys which are
predefined for the ACTION_SEND intent.

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 Data Transfer

Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);

sharingIntent.setType("text/plain");
sharingIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT,
"News for you!");
// createChooser is a convenience method to create
// an Chooser Intent with a Title
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent,"Share this
using"));

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 Data Transfer

• The component which receives the Intent can

use the getIntent().getExtras() method call to
get the extra data.
Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras();
if (extras == null) { return; }
// Get data via the key
String value1 = extras.getString(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT);
if (value1 != null) {
// Do something with the data
}

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  Calling Activities

• To start an Activity use the method

startActivity(Intent). This method is defined on
the Context object and available in every
Activity object.

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 Calling Sub-Activities
for result data

• If you need some information from the called Activity

use the startActivityForResult() method.
public void onClick(View view) {
Intent i = new Intent(this, ActivityTwo.class);
i.putExtra("Value1", "This value one for ActivityTwo ");
i.putExtra("Value2", "This value two ActivityTwo");
// Set the request code to any code you like, you can identify the
// callback via this code
startActivityForResult(i, REQUEST_CODE);
}

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 Calling Sub-Activities
for result data

• If you use the startActivityForResult() method

then the started Activity is called a Sub-
Activity.
• If the Sub-Activity is finished it can send data
back to its caller via Intent. This is done in the
finish() method.

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 Calling Sub-Activities
for result data
@Override
public void finish() {
// Prepare data intent
Intent data = new Intent();
data.putExtra("returnKey1", "Swinging on a star. ");
data.putExtra("returnKey2", "You could be better then you
are. ");
// Activity finished ok, return the data
setResult(RESULT_OK, data);
super.finish();
}

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 Calling Sub-Activities
for result data
• Once the Sub-Activity finished, the onActivityResult() method in the
calling Activity will be called.
@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
{
if (resultCode == RESULT_OK && requestCode == REQUEST_CODE)
{
if (data.hasExtra("returnKey1"))
{
Toast.makeText(this, data.getExtras().getString("returnKey1"),
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
}

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 Intent Filters

• What are Intent Filters?

– Filters informs the system which implicit intents a
component can handle
– If a component does not have any intent filters, it
can receive only explicit intents.
– A component with filters can receive both explicit
and implicit intents.
– A component has separate filters for each job it
can do

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 Intent Filters

• IntentFilters are typically defined via the

AndroidManifest.xml file. For
BroadcastReceiver it is also possible to define
them in coding. An IntentFilters is defined by
its category, action and data filters. It can also
contain additional metadata.

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 Intent Filters

• An implicit Intent object are tested against an intent

filters (of target components) in three areas
– Action
– Category
– Data (both URI and data type)
• To be delivered to the target component that owns
the filter, it must pass all three tests
• If an intent can pass through the filters of more than
one activity or service, the user may be asked which
component to activate.
• If no target can be found, an exception is raised

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 Life Cycle

• Each application runs in its own process.

• Each activity of an app is run in the apps process
• Processes are started and stopped as needed to
run an apps components.
• Processes may be killed to reclaim needed
resources.
• Killed apps may be restored to their last state
when requested by the user

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 Activity

• Most management of the life cycle is done

automatically by the system via the activity stack.
• The activity class has the following method
callbacks to help you manage the app:
– onCreate()
– onStart()
– onResume()
– onPause()
– onStop()
– onRestart()
– onDestroy()

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 Activity

• There are three "phases" of the activity life

cycle: Start- Up, Normal Execution and Shutdown.
– In the Start - Up phase, the system calls onCreate(),
onStart/ onRestart() , possibly onRestoreInstanceState() ,
and onResume().
– During the Normal Execution phase, it is common for
onSaveInstanceState() and onPause() to be called.
– In the Shutdown phase, onStop() and onDestroy() may
be called.

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 Homework

• Create Notification
• Click on Notification to start active with extra
data

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 Homework

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Thank you!

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