Intent android studio explicit how to#

Resolve the Intent with the system before calling startActivity() or startActivityforResult().Add an Intent action or Intent categories (or both).Do not specify the specific Activity or other component to launch.When you create an implicit Intent object, you: Send the Intent with startActivity() (to just start the Activity) or startActivityforResult() (to start the Activity and expect a result back).

Add information about the request to the Intent object, such as data or extras.

In the sending Activity, create a new Intent object.

Starting an Activity with an implicit Intent, and passing data from one Activity to another, works much the same way as it does for an explicit Intent: The Android system uses this information to match an implicit Intent request with an Activity or other component that can handle that Intent. Intent actions, categories, and data types are used both by the Intent object you create in your sending Activity, as well as in the Intent filters you define in the AndroidManifest.xml file for the receiving Activity. Usually, the data type is inferred from the URI in the Intent data field, but you can also explicitly define the data type with the setType() method.

The data type, which indicates the MIME type of data the Activity should operate on.

You can add categories to the Intent with the addCategory() method. Intent categories are also defined as constants in the Intent class and begin with the word CATEGORY_. Intent categories are optional, and you can add more than one category to an Intent.

An Intent category, which provides additional information about the category of component that should handle the Intent.

You can specify the action for an Intent in the Intent constructor, or with the setAction() method. A common Intent action is ACTION_VIEW, which you use when you have some information that an Activity can show to the user, such as a photo to view in a gallery app, or an address to view in a map app. The available Intent actions are defined as constants in the Intent class and begin with the word ACTION_.

The Intent action, which is the generic action the receiving Activity should perform.

In addition to the parts of an Intent you learned about in an earlier chapter (such as the Intent data and extras), these fields are used by an implicit Intent: This Intent filter is how the Android system knows to start that specific Activity in your app when the user taps the icon for your app on the device home screen.Īn implicit Intent, like an explicit Intent, is an instance of the Intent class. For example, the main Activity (and only the main Activity) for your app has an Intent filter that declares it the main Activity for the launcher category. Rather than implementing an entire video player in your own app, you can launch an Intent that specifies the task as 'play an object of type video.' The Android system then matches your request with an Activity that has registered itself to play objects of type video.Īn Activity registers itself with the system as being able to handle an implicit Intent with Intent filters, declared in the AndroidManifest.xml file. If the user touches an item in the list, you want to play that video snippet. If more than one activity matches the intent, the user is presented with an app chooser and picks which app they would like to perform the task.įor example, you have an app that lists available snippets of video. If there's only one activity that matches, that activity is launched. The Android system matches the information in your request intent with any activity available on the device that can perform that task. You don't specify the exact activity (or other component) to run-instead, you include just enough information in the intent about the task you want to perform. This is the most basic way to use an intent: To start an Intent or other app component and pass data to it (and sometimes receive data).Ī more flexible use of an Intent is the implicit intent.

Intent android studio explicit how to#

In an earlier chapter you learned how to start an activity from an activity by specifying the class name of the activity to start in an explicit intent. You also learn more about Android tasks, and how you can configure your apps to associate new activities with different tasks. In an implicit intent, you declare a general action to perform, and the system matches your request with an activity. In this chapter you learn how to send and receive an implicit intent. In a previous chapter you learned how to launch a specific activity in your app with an explicit intent. Sharing data with ShareCompat.IntentBuilder.

Lesson 3: Testing, debugging, and using support libraries