Android: Share zip file via Gmail

Question

I'm working on an Android application that should allow the users to share their content via Gmail. I'm using android version 2.2(Froyo). The problem is that I can't find any working solution for this, I tried almost everything ,but with no luck. this is the code I'm using:

Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);;
sharingIntent.setType("application/zip");

sharingIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT,
getString(R.string.share_subject));
sharingIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, getString(R.string.share_body));

String zipFile = FileProvider.URI_AUTHORITY + File.separator + mItemSelected.getLibraryName() + File.separator + mItemSelected.getZipFileName();

sharingIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, android.net.Uri.parse(zipFile));
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent, (getString(R.string.share_chooser))));
}

The problem in this case is that the Gmail app, for no obvious reason, is replacing the mime type of the file, and show the file as text/html, and then my application is not shown in the application list that can deal with this kind of file. Another restriction is that I don't want to use text/html in my intent filter, because I want it to be focused as much as possible, and if it were possible I would define my own mime type...

I did a little research and found this question, but with no answers...

More mime types I tried:

application/x-compressed, application/x-zip-compressed
multipart/x-zip and application/octet-stream

Is there any solution for this problem ??

Thanks.

Answer 1

I improve my previous answer for the part concerning "zipping". Now the are no problems with .zip attachments sent via GMail or whatever. Try this:

 {  
              int lung;  
              FileInputStream in;  
              FileOutputStream out;  
              byte[] buffer = new byte[DIM_BUFFER];  
    // compress the file to send  
              String inPath = ctx.getApplicationContext().getFilesDir().getAbsolutePath();  
              outFile = new File(outPath,TestEdit.ZIPNAME);  
              // outFile = new File(outPath,filename + ".vip");  
              in = new FileInputStream(inFile);  
              ZipEntry entry = new ZipEntry(filename + ".csv");  
              try{  
                  out = new FileOutputStream(outFile);  
              // GZIPOutputStream zos;  
                  ZipOutputStream zos;  
                  zos = new ZipOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(out) );  
                  zos.putNextEntry(entry);  
                  try {  
                      while ((lung=in.read(buffer)) > 0) {  
                          Log.v(TAG, "Lunghezza di in=" + lung + ". Lungh di buffer=" + buffer.length );  
                          if (buffer.length == lung) {  
                              zos.write(buffer);  
                          } else {  
                              // Gestione del caso in cui il buffer non sia pieno  
                              for (int b = 0; b < lung; b++) {  
                                  zos.write(buffer[b]);  
                              }  
                          }  
                      }  
                  } finally {  
                      zos.closeEntry();  
                      zos.close();  
                      in.close();  
                      out.close();  
                  }  
    }  
  }  

Answer 2

after a lot of trouble, I discovered that Gmail, launched via Intent, does not like attachments whose prefix is .zip. So, I succeeded in sending the attachments after renaming it ".vip". Here is a piece of code (outFile is a zipped file renamed as ".vip"):

enter 
   private void sendMail(File outFile) {
        Uri uriToZip = Uri.fromFile(outFile);
        String sendText = "Dear friend,\n\n...";

        Intent sendIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
        sendIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL,
            new String[] { "checcodotti@gmail.com" });
        sendIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, sendText);
        sendIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT,"Log of the test " +  expFilename);

    //   sendIntent.setType("image/jpeg");
    //   sendIntent.setType("message/rfc822");
         sendIntent.setType("*/*");
         sendIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uriToZip);
         startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sendIntent, "Send Attachment !:"));
    }

Please let me know if it helps. Regards FD