CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidintentfilterandroid-package-managersexternal-application
Eydolol
Eydolol

Reputation: 242

Start external "invisible" app from another app

I created some little apps without icon and which are not launchable by the user directly in the app menu of Android. To dot that, i deleted the intent-filter part of the apps :

<intent-filter>
       <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
       <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

Now, i want to start these little apps from a big one (i have a listView listing all the little apps). When the user click on one of the apps, i start the activity of the corresponding app. But when i do that with the packageName of the little app, nothing happen.

I really want to keep this modularity by having a lot of little apps which are invisible for the user and only start it from a big app.

How can i do that if it's possible.

Thanks

public class MainActivity extends ListActivity {

 /**
 * This class describes an individual SoftFunction (the function title, and the activity class that
 * demonstrates this function).
 */
private class SoftFunction {
    private CharSequence title;
    private String packageName;

    public SoftFunction(int titleResId, int appPackageResId) {
        this.title = getResources().getString(titleResId);
        this.packageName = getResources().getString(appPackageResId);
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return title.toString();
    }
}
    /**
     * The collection of all Soft Functions in the app. This gets instantiated in {@link
     * #onCreate(android.os.Bundle)} because the {@link Sample} constructor needs access to {@link
     * android.content.res.Resources}.
     */
private static SoftFunction[] mSoftFunctions;

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

    // Instantiate the list of samples.
    mSoftFunctions = new SoftFunction[]{
            new SoftFunction(R.string.title_app_test1, R.string.app_test1_package_name),
            new SoftFunction(R.string.title_app_test2, R.string.app_test2_package_name),
            new SoftFunction(R.string.title_app_test3, R.string.app_test3_package_name),
            new SoftFunction(R.string.title_app_test4, R.string.app_test4_package_name),
    };

    setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<SoftFunction>(this,
            android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1,
            android.R.id.text1,
            mSoftFunctions));
}

    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView listView, View view, int position, long id) {
        // Launch the sample associated with this list position.
        Intent i = getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(mSoftFunctions[position].packageName);

        if (i != null)
        {
            startActivity(i);
        }
    }

}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 358

Answers (1)

Okas
Okas

Reputation: 2664

You have to set android:exported="true" for your "little app" activities. This is because by default activities without intent filter(s) are not exported.

Like this:

<activity
    android:name=".YourActivity"
...
    android:exported="true" />

Then you can launch this activity from external apps using package name and activity name.

Intent intent=new Intent();
intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.your.package.name", "com.your.package.name.YourActivity"));
startActivity(intent);

Upvotes: 1

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