A widget is a small gadget or control of your android application placed

on the home screen. Widgets can be very handy as they allow you to put your
favourite applications on your home screen in order to quickly access them.
You have probably seen some common widgets, such as music widget, weather
widget, clock widget e.t.c

Widgets could be of many types such as information widgets, collection

widgets, control widgets and hybrid widgets. Android provides us a complete
framework to develop our own widgets.

Widget - XML file

In order to create an application widget , first thing you need is
AppWidgetProviderInfo object, which you will define in a separate widget XML
file. In order to do that, right click on your project and create a new folder
calledxml. Now right click on the newly created folder and create a new XML
file. The resource type of the XML file should be set to AppWidgetProvider. In
the xml file, define some properties which are as follows −

<appwidget-provider

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

android:minWidth="146dp"

android:updatePeriodMillis="0"

android:minHeight="146dp"

android:initialLayout="@layout/activity_main">

</appwidget-provider>

Widget - Layout file

Now you have to define the layout of your widget in your default XML file. You
can drag components to generate auto xml.

Widget - Java file

After defining layout, now create a new JAVA file or use existing one, and
extend it with AppWidgetProvider class and override its update method as
follows.
In the update method, you have to define the object of two classes which are
PendingIntent and RemoteViews. Its syntax is −

PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, intent, 0);

RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.activity_main);

In the end you have to call an update method updateAppWidget() of the

AppWidgetManager class. Its syntax is −

appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(currentWidgetId,views);

A part from the updateAppWidget method, there are other methods defined in
this class to manipulate widgets. They are as follows −

Sr.N Method & Description

o

1 onDeleted(Context context, int[] appWidgetIds)

This is called when an instance of AppWidgetProvider is deleted.

2 onDisabled(Context context)
This is called when the last instance of AppWidgetProvider is
deleted

3 onEnabled(Context context)
This is called when an instance of AppWidgetProvider is created.

4 onReceive(Context context, Intent intent)

It is used to dispatch calls to the various methods of the class

Widget - Manifest file

You also have to declare the AppWidgetProvider class in your manifest file as
follows:

<receiver android:name="ExampleAppWidgetProvider" >

 <intent-filter>

<action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE" />

</intent-filter>

<meta-data android:name="android.appwidget.provider"

android:resource="@xml/example_appwidget_info" />

</receiver>

Example
Here is an example demonstrating the use of application Widget. It creates a
basic widget applications that will open this current website in the browser.

To experiment with this example, you need to run this on an actual device on
which internet is running.

Step Description
s

1 You will use Android studio to create an Android application under a

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication. While creating
this project, make sure you Target SDK and Compile With at the
latest version of Android SDK to use higher levels of APIs.

2 Modify src/MainActivity.java file to add widget code.

3 Modify the res/layout/activity_main to add respective XML

components

4 Create a new folder and xml file under res/xml/mywidget.xml to

add respective XML components

5 Modify the AndroidManifest.xml to add the necessary permissions

6 Run the application and choose a running android device and install
 the application on it and verify the results.

Following is the content of the modified MainActivity.java.

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication;

import android.app.PendingIntent;

import android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager;

import android.appwidget.AppWidgetProvider;

import android.content.Context;

import android.content.Intent;

import android.net.Uri;

import android.widget.RemoteViews;

import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends AppWidgetProvider{

public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager,int[]

appWidgetIds) {

for(int i=0; i<appWidgetIds.length; i++){

int currentWidgetId = appWidgetIds[i];

String url = "http://www.tutorialspoint.com";

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);

intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

intent.setData(Uri.parse(url));

PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0,intent, 0);

RemoteViews views = new

RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(),R.layout.activity_main);

views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.button, pending);

appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(currentWidgetId,views);

Toast.makeText(context, "widget added", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

}
 }

Following is the modified content of the xml res/layout/activity_main.xml.

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

tools:context=".MainActivity"

android:transitionGroup="true">

<TextView

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Tutorials point"

android:id="@+id/textView"

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

android:textColor="#ff3412ff"

android:textSize="35dp" />

<Button

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Widget"

android:id="@+id/button"

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

android:layout_marginTop="61dp"

android:layout_below="@+id/textView" />

&lr;/RelativeLayout>
Following is the content of the res/xml/mywidget.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<appwidget-provider

xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

android:minWidth="146dp"

android:updatePeriodMillis="0"

android:minHeight="146dp"

android:initialLayout="@layout/activity_main">

</appwidget-provider>

Following is the content of the res/values/string.xml.

<resources>

<string name="app_name">My Application</string>

<string name="hello_world">Hello world!</string>

<string name="action_settings">Settings</string>

</resources>

Following is the content of AndroidManifest.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

package="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication" >

<application

android:allowBackup="true"

android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"

android:label="@string/app_name"

android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

<receiver android:name=".MainActivity">

<intent-filter>

<action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE"></action>

</intent-filter>
 <meta-data android:name="android.appwidget.provider"

android:resource="@xml/mywidget"></meta-data>

</receive>

</application>

</manifest>

Let's try to run your application. I assume you have connected your actual
Android Mobile device with your computer. To run the app from Android studio,
open one of your project's activity files and click Run icon from the tool bar.
Before starting your application, Android studio will display following window to
select an option where you want to run your Android application.

Select your mobile device as an option and then check your mobile device
which will display your default screen −
Go to your widget section and add your created widget to the desktop or home
screen. It would look something like this −
Now just tap on the widget button that appears, to launch the browser. But
before that please make sure that you are connected to the internet. After
pressing the button , the following screen would appear −
Note. By just changing the url in the java file, your widget will open your
desired website in the browser.