CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-intent
jcdude
jcdude

Reputation: 3011

android: How to remember file passed via ACTION VIEW intent

I have an android app that is able to open a certain file type via a VIEW intent.

After a file is opened using my app for the first time, I would like the app to "remember" the file so that the user can choose to open it again from a list of "recent" files inside the app...

My question is: what is the best way to implement this kind of "remembering" - should I:

  1. Automatically copy any files passed to my app into my app's own storage area, and then list "recent/old" files there?

  2. Or, should I record a list of files that my app has been passed previously, and access them via the same path later if necessary? If that is recommended, is there any guarantee that I will be able to access them again later? (I guess not!)

Option 1. seems like more work and doubles the storage space needed for all files passed to my app, but will guarantee the files will be accessible in future. Option 2. is easy if the files are always readable by my app in future, and are not renamed/deleted for some reason - it seems there's no guarantee of that though...

If it helps, I expect most files passed to my app to come from "Downloads" via the user's browser, but some might come from email/other apps etc.

Thanks

Upvotes: 0

Views: 113

Answers (1)

CommonsWare
CommonsWare

Reputation: 1006614

I would go with Option #3: drop the proposed feature.

As DeeV pointed out in a now-deleted answer, Option #1 is not a great solution for a "recent files" list. It would be the right option for other verbs than "remember", such as "import".

Option #2 will not work much of the time. Your app needs to support the content scheme, in addition to (or even instead of) the file scheme. By default, you will only have rights to access the content at a content Uri until your process terminates (at best). You may be able to takePersistableUriPermission() to get durable access, but that will not work much of the time — it depends upon whether the other app is granting you such access. Hence, you might have a Uri that you can remember, but remembering will do you little good.

Upvotes: 1

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