Android - opening camera a second time

Question

This is the first time I post something here, so I apologize in advance for any mistake what-so-ever.

This is the situation:

I'm currently developing my first android app, sort of like a tracker:
1. log in
2. select weather, temperature etc
3. press the start button that activates a background GPS service and shows you a list of other attendees
4. click on an attendee and it shows you a timeline where you can add pictures etc.

Here is where the fun starts. When I open the camera it works most of the time, but once in a while the activity that opens the camera gets destroyed and when reopening (to further progress) it opens a second camera.

When I take a picture like that it completely ignores the first picture, restarts the gps-service, messes up my timeline and shows the login dialog when I go back to the the main activity (which is programmed to only show up when starting the app).

I have read an similar topic and it might be the solution, but I can't get it to work.

The code for the camera activity:

public class AddPhotoActivity extends Activity {

private SharedPreferences savedValues;

private String mCurrentPhotoPath;
private String imageName;

private int id;

private String startRideDateTime;
private SimpleDateFormat dateInSQL = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
private Date date;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_add_photo);

    savedValues = this.getSharedPreferences("SavedValues",
            Context.MODE_PRIVATE);

    id = savedValues.getInt("RideId", 0);
    startRideDateTime = savedValues.getString("StartRideDateTime", "");

    try {
        date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss").parse(startRideDateTime);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    SimpleDateFormat dateInDir
            = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss");
    startRideDateTime = dateInDir.format(date);

    if (savedInstanceState == null) {
        dispatchTakePictureIntent();
    }
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();

    savedValues = this.getSharedPreferences("SavedValues",
            Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
}

private void dispatchTakePictureIntent() {
    Intent takePictureIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);

    if (takePictureIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
        File photoFile = null;
        try {
            photoFile = createImageFile();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
        if (photoFile != null) {
            takePictureIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT,
                    Uri.fromFile(photoFile));
            startActivityForResult(takePictureIntent, 1);
        }
    }
}

private File createImageFile() throws IOException {
    String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(new Date());
    String imageFileName = "IMG_" + timeStamp;
    File sdCard = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
    File storageDir = new File(sdCard.getAbsolutePath() + „/app/„ + id + "/" + startRideDateTime + "/photos");
    storageDir.mkdirs();
    File image = File.createTempFile(imageFileName, ".jpg", storageDir);

    mCurrentPhotoPath = "file:" + image.getAbsolutePath();
    imageName =  image.getName();

    return image;
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
        if (mCurrentPhotoPath != null) {
            addPhotoToDb();
            mCurrentPhotoPath = null;
        }
    } else if (resultCode == RESULT_CANCELED) {
        finish();
    } 
}

private void addPhotoToDb() {
    TimeLineDataSource timeLineDataSource = new TimeLineDataSource(this);
    timeLineDataSource.open();

    date = new Date();
    String dateString = dateInSQL.format(date);
    timeLineDataSource.createTimeLineItem(3, imageName, dateString);
    timeLineDataSource.close();

    finish();
}

public void onBackPressed() {
    finish();
}
}

If anybody knows a solution to this I would be eternally grateful!

Update:

although I had better code after the previous suggestion it still didn't solve the problem. It seems that devices with less memory can get terminated at DVM-level, causing them to quit without onDestroy(). My issue is more or less resolved, but includes a lot of patchwork that I feel can be done in other, more efficient ways.

Answer 1

The code below is what I usually use for taking a photo/picking a photo. I normally include the ability to pick a previous photo or take a new photo, and I don't run into this issue.

Intent takePicture = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(takePicture, 0);
//zero can be replced with any action code to pick photo from gallery

Intent pickPhoto = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK,
    android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI);
startActivityForResult(pickPhoto , 1);
//one can be replced with any action code

protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent imageReturnedIntent) { 
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, imageReturnedIntent); 
    switch(requestCode) {
        case 0:
            if(resultCode == RESULT_OK){  
                Uri selectedImage = imageReturnedIntent.getData();
                imageview.setImageURI(selectedImage);
            }
        break; 
        case 1:
            if(resultCode == RESULT_OK){  
                Uri selectedImage = imageReturnedIntent.getData();
                imageview.setImageURI(selectedImage);
            }
        break;
    }
}

Also, I agree with the solution from the other post, this in particular:

In the case of a destroyed activity, when the activity result needs to be processed, Android will recreate the Activity, passing a savedInstanceState to onCreate. So, the remedy is to check the value of savedInstanceState in your GetImageActivity.onCreate. If it is not null then don't make any calls to startActivity because your Activity is being recreated to call onActivityResult.

Optionally, if you need to preserve any state then override onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) and put data you need into outState.