CODEWITHSUNDEEP
android
jday
jday

Reputation: 149

Problem Attaching internal file to GMail in my android app

My app writes data to text files (on sd card and internal memory). Later the app emails the text files to a list of people. I am having trouble getting gmail to attach a file that is pulled from the internal application files area. 'Native Android mail' can attach a file from either internal or SD card area with no problem. Gmail will attach a file if it's from SD card, but won't attach a file if its located in internal storage.

// this sends a file from SD - works for android mail and gmail

Intent jj=new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);

String fileName = "file://" + Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()+"/aFolder/externalfile.txt"           

jj.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, Uri.parse(fileName));
jj.setType("text/plain");

Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(jj , "Select Sender");
startActivity(chooser);

// this sends an internal file-works for android mail, but no attachment sent with gmail

Intent jj=new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);

String fileName = "file://" + getFilesDir().toString() + "/internalfile.txt";

jj.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, Uri.parse(fileName));
jj.setType("text/plain");

Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(jj , "Select Sender");
startActivity(chooser);

Any suggestions? Do I need to give Gmail special permission somehow?
My attachments are all text files - written by the app.
Internal files were created with openFileOutput(myFile,32769)

Thanks John D

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6395

Answers (3)

Brock Gibson
Brock Gibson

Reputation: 41

Like Dhego, I used a content provider. Specifically, a FileProvider.

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/content/FileProvider.html

Using this only requires that you modify your Manifest and create an additional resource file. Also, you will need to obtain a validly formatted URI via a static method provided by FileProvider.

In your Manfiest:

    <provider
        android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider"
        android:authorities="com.example.authority.fileprovider"
        android:exported="false"
        android:grantUriPermissions="true">
        <meta-data
            android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
            android:resource="@xml/file_paths" />
     </provider>

The "com.example.authority.fileprovider" is your application authority with "fileprovider" appended.

In the res/xml folder, create a file_paths.xml file that contains the paths to the files you want to expose. In my case, I was exposing them from the application cache directory, so my XML looks like:

    <paths xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <cache-path name="reports" path="reports/"/>
    </paths>

In my case, "reports" is a folder within the application cache directory that I am writing files to.

The last thing to do is in your code:

  1. Write files you want to expose to the folders and storage areas specified in file_paths.xml.
  2. Generate a valid URI to set on the Intent you will invoke for sending an email (Intent.ACTION_SEND).

Here's some sample code:

emailIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, FileProvider.getUriForFile(getActivity(), "com.example.authority.fileprovider", fileToAttach));

Invoke startActivity on your Intent and that should be it!

Upvotes: 1

manu3d
manu3d

Reputation: 1081

It appears that there is indeed an issue with gmail. Unfortunately however, at the time of the writing it seems it hasn't been fixed.

Upvotes: 0

Dhego Vila
Dhego Vila

Reputation: 59

the only way I found around this was to make my own content provider and pass in the uri to my content provider as the attachment.

Upvotes: 2

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