CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-intent
Lele
Lele

Reputation: 281

Call Back button from service Android (system-wide)

I need to remap the Honeycomb "Back" button to a button in my app (service) but after hours of search I'm still nowhere. The functionality must be there system-wise like the back button in ButtonSaviour (see market)

Most solutions for emulating the Back button are based on calling finish(). Not sure if it will work in my case since I have to call finish() from whatever activity I find on the foreground. I do manage to get the foreground application with the code 

ActivityManager am = (ActivityManager) getContext().getSystemService(getContext().ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
        List<RunningTaskInfo> T = am.getRunningTasks(5);
        System.out.println("top activity: "+T.get(0).topActivity);

but I'm not sure how I should send a finish() intent to that..

I also tried the solution posted here http://www.anddev.org/throwing-simulating_keystrokes_programatically-t717.html but I couldn't get around the IWindowManager (has it been removed in Honeycomb?). That solution, however, looks interesting because with that I could send KeyEvent.KEYCODE_BACK from anywhere, anytime.

Please let me know which is the best way to implement this functionality SYSTEM-WIDE, i.e. from a service rather than from a specific application of mine.

cheers

PS: The app is meant to run on my own rooted tablet rather than for distribution to others.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1073

Answers (3)

Big
Big

Reputation: 247

Why does people spam the thread with advises about designs and good practices when the question clearly states that this will not be used for the market?! Replacing android nav bar is sometimes required in some applications, even if no more than for own pleasure (or programmer satisfaction).

try from java Runtime exec input keyevent 4 4 means back

button savior most likely uses hidden api, I had encountered that somewere, but don't remember now. When I will find it, I will post back.

Upvotes: 1

aggregate1166877
aggregate1166877

Reputation: 3150

Will the activity be open when you want to simulate the back button? If so, you could set up a timer inside your activity that checks for an exit file every 5 seconds or so. Then, from your service, create the exit file when you want to simulate the back press. When the activity sees that the exit file was created, delete that file and call finish().

As others have suggested, though, doing things this way means that you might need to rethink the app's design. What exactly are you trying to achieve?

Upvotes: 0

Kristopher Micinski
Kristopher Micinski

Reputation: 7672

The reason you're not finding an answer to this is that this is a terribly hacky way to do things and it indicates that there is something majorly broken with the design of your app. You should not be able to "call the back button," that doesn't make any sense at all. In fact, you really shouldn't change the behavior of the back button at all, users get really upset when you do that. If you have a service, and you need to send messages to an Activity, then use a messenger. But you should certainly not (and certainly cannot) be changing the behavior of other apps from your service. (This would indicate a major security flaw in the system, and would let you hijack someone else's UI, doing potentially dangerous, or at least annoying, things.)

Upvotes: 0

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