BCI3283

Mobile Application Development

Lecture 5
Intent

By
Ts. Dr. Nabilah Radzuan
(Faculty of Computing)
Intent
• Aims
To learn how to passing and receive data between different activities.

• Expected Outcomes
• Ability to handle explicit Intent
• Ability to handle implicit Intent
• Passing data to other activity
• Returning data from launched activity

• References
• http://codetheory.in/
• http://www.techotopia.com/

2
Activities and AndroidManifest.xml
• An Android application can be composed of multiple Activities …
• Each activity should be declared in the file: AndroidManifest.xml
• Add a child element to the <application> tag:

<application>
<activity android:name=".MyActivity" />
<activity android:name=”.SecondActivity" />
</application>

3
Activities and AndroidManifest.xml
• Each activity has its
 Java class and
 layout file.
public class FirstActivity extends Activity {
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_first);
}

public class SecondActivity extends Activity {

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_two);
}

4
Intent
In order to launch another like B Activity from A Activity, programmer
have to use Intent.

• Activity A fires an Intent

• Android looks for capable activities

 By looking at the manifests

• When one is found, it is called

5
Intent Definition

Intent: facility for late run-time binding between

components in the same or different applications.

• Call a component from another component

• Possible to pass data between components
• Components: Activities, Services, Broadcast receivers …
• Something like:
 “Android, please do that with this data”
• Reuse already installed applications and components

6
Intent Definition
• We can think to an “Intent” object as a message containing a
bundle of information.
 Information of interests for the receiver (e.g. name)
 Information of interests for the Android system (e.g. category).

Component Name
Action Name
Structure
Data
of an Intent
Category
Extra Flags

7
Intent Types

INTENT TYPES

EXPLICIT IMPLICIT

The target receiver is specified The target receiver is specified

through the Component Name by data type/names.

Used to launch specific Activities The system chooses the receiver

that matches the request.

Used to launch specific Apps

8
Explicit Intent:
• Explicit Intent: Lunching an activity and
passing information from one to
another in the same application.

9
Implicit Intent:
Implicit Intent: In this case programmer can avoid coding his own
activity and let Android automatically handle the activity by firing up
the component from other applications that can do the job on our
app’s behalf.

10
Intents Capability
Programmer will be able to accomplish a lot of things using intent :
1. The ability of navigating from one activity to another Explicit intent
2. The ability to start a third party application (external app’s activity)
like using a camera, contact, pinning location, sending email and
etc.. Implicit intent

11
Intent types: Explicit Intents
Explicit Intent: Specify the name of the Activity that will handle the
intent.
Intent intent=new Intent(MainActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);

• Lunching the Second Activity.java from the MainActivity.java.,

• For that purpose we use the Intent class and passing the current context (intent) by
calling startActivity().
• This will simply launch the Second Activity from the same application right over MainActivity.

12
Passing Data to Other Activity
Add data to intent in key-value pairs then retrieve it by the receiving
activity.
Intent intent=new Intent(MainActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);
intent.putExtra("name","Ali")
intent.putExtra("age",21)
startActivity(intent)
String

Integer
Only a name

In this case, two pieces of data (String and integer) have been transferred by using putExtra.

13
Receiving Data in Other Activity
• To receive the data in B Activity by using Bundle object.
// We are currently in SecondActivity.java
Bundle extras =getIntent().getExtras();
if(extras !=null){
String name = extras.getString("name"); Only a name
Int age = extras.getInt("age")
}

• Calling getExtras() on our Intent object enables us to call various methods

like getString(), getInt(),getChar(), etc.
• Also we can use methods like getStringExtra() and getIntExtra() on the Intent
object instead of working with bundles.
// We are currently in SecondActivity.java
String name = getIntent().getStringExtra("name");
Int age = getIntent().getIntExtra("age")

14
Returning Data Launched Activity
• There is no way for transferred data to be returned from the Second
Activity to the first activity.
• However, launching the Second Activity as a sub-activity of the first
Activity can achieved returning the data.
• To do so, we have to start the first activity as a sub-activity by calling
startActivityForResult() method instead of using startActivity().
• This method enable us to identify the returned data from the sub-
activity by passing a REQUEST_CODE value.

startActivityForResult(intent, CHOOSE_ACTIVITY_CODE);

15
Returning Data Launched Activity
 Activities can return results (e.g. data)
 Sender side: invoke the startActivityForResult()
 onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
 startActivityForResult(Intent intent, int requestCode);

Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);

intent.putExtra("name","ali");
Intent.putExtra("age",21);
startActivityForResult(intent, CHOOSE_ACTIVITY_CODE);
…
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
{
// Invoked when SecondActivity completes its operations …
}

16
Intent with Results
• Activities can return results (e.g. data)
• Receiver side: invoke the setResult()
 void setResult(int resultCode, Intent data)

Intent intent=new Intent();

setResult(RESULT_OK, intent);
intent.putExtra("result", "coming from 2nd activity" );
finish();

• The result is delivered to the caller component only after invoking the
finish() method!

17
Intent with Results

Intent intent = new Intent(MainActivity.this, SecondActivity.class);

intent.putExtra("name","ali");
Intent.putExtra("age",21);
startActivityForResult(intent, CHOOSE_ACTIVITY_CODE);
…
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data)
{
if(requestCode==22 && resultCode==RESULT_OK)
{
textview.setText(data.getStringExtra("result"));
}
CHOOSE_ACTIVITY_CO
DE

18
Returning Data from Launched Activity
• Returning data to the first activity:
Calling the finish() method in the sub-activity.
finish() method creates a new intent object contains the returned data.
Calling the setResult() method of the enclosing activity to pass through it the
return data.
• The result code is typically
RESULT_OK: the result sent correctly
RESULT_CANCELED: will be received in the parent activity if the event of sub-
activity is crashed
May also be a custom value subject.

19
Java Code Example

Main Activity
Capturing information From the EditText, send it to the second activity,
then do listening

20
Java Code Example

Second Activity
Receiving the information and display it into TextView

21
Java Code Example

Second Activity
Capturing information From the EditText and send it to the main
activity (parent Activity)

22
Intent Types

INTENT TYPES

EXPLICIT IMPLICIT

The target receiver is specified

through the Component Name The target receiver is specified
by data type/names.
Used to launch specific Activities
The system chooses the receiver

23
Intent types: Implicit Intents
• Implicit Intents: do not name a target (component name is
left blank) …
• When an Intent is launched, Android checks out which
activies might answer to the Intent …
• If at least one is found, then that activity is started!
• Binding (connections) does not occur at compile time, nor at
install time, but at run-time …(late run-time binding)

24
Intent Components
• We can think to an “Intent” object as a message
containing a bundle of information.
 Information of interests for the receiver (e.g. data)
 Information of interests for the Android system (e.g. category).

Component Name A string naming the action to

be performed.
Action Name
Data Pre-defined, or can be
specified by the programmer.
Category
Extra Flags void setAction(String)

25
Intent Components
• Predefined actions (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html)
Action Name Description
ACTION_EDIT Display data to edit
ACTION_MAIN Start as a main entry point, does not expect to
receive data.
ACTION_PICK Pick an item from the data, returning what was selected.
ACTION_VIEW Display the data to the user
ACTION_SEARCH Perform a search

• Defined by the programmer

 it.example.projectpackage.FILL_DATA (package prefix + name action)

26
Intent Components
• Special actions (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html)

Action Name Description

ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTION Open the camera and receive a photo
ACTION_VIDEO_CAPTION Open the camera and receive a video

ACTION_DIAL Open the phone app and dial a phone number

ACTION_SENDTO Send an email (email data contained in the extra)
ACTION_SETTINGS Open the system setting
ACTION_WIRELESS_SETTINGS Open the system setting of the
wireless interfaces
ACTION_DISPLAY_SETTINGS Open the system setting of the display

27
Actions

Intent intent=new
Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,
Uri.parse("http://www.ump.edu.my”));
startActivity(intent);

Intent intent=new
Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,
Uri.parse("sms:006011111111"));
startActivity(intent);

Intent intent=new
Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL,
Uri.parse("tel:006011111111"));
startActivity(intent);

28
Intent Components
• Example of Implicit Intent that initiates a web search.
public void doSearch(String query) {
Intent intent =new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEARCH);
Intent.putExtra(SearchManager.QUERY,query);
if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) !=null)
startActivity(intent)
}

• Example of Implicit Intent that plays a music file.

public void playMedia(Uri file) {
Intent intent =new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
if (intent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) !=null)
startActivity(intent)
}

29
Intent types: Implicit Intents
Intent i = new
Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW,
Uri.parse("www.ump.edu.my"));
startActivity(i);
Data to perform the action on
Action to perform

Implicit intents are very useful to re-use code and to launch

external applications …
Android system will search for activities on the device that have
registered the ability to handle ACTION_VIEW requests.

30
Common Intents
• Setting an Alarm – ACTION_SET_ALARM
• Timer – ACTION_SET_TIMER
• Calendar Events – ACTION_INSERT and data
• Camera – ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE /
ACTION_VIDEO_CAPTURE
• Email – ACTION_SEND / ACTION_SENDTO
• Files – ACTION_GET_CONTENT
• Various meanings – ACTION_VIEW

More at: https://developer.android.com/guide/components/intents-common.html

31
3