Android Intent launch from browser

Question

This topic has been covered before, but I can't find an answer specific to what I'm asking.

Where I am: I followed hackmod's first piece of advice here: Make a link in the Android browser start up my app? and got this to work with a link in the webpage.

However, I'm having trouble understanding the second option (intent uri's). here's what I've got:

    <activity android:name="com.myapps.tests.Layout2"
        android:label="Auth Complete"
        >
        <intent-filter>
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
          <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
          <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
          <data android:scheme="http" android:host="mydomain.com"
                android:path="/launch" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

Now, with that I can go to "mydomain.com/launch" and it launches my activity. this all works well, except that I get the chooser. what I want is for it to just launch my activity without giving options.

From the explanation in the post I referenced it looks like thats what intent uris are for,but I can't find a straightforward example. what should my link in my webpage look like in order to launch this with no chooser?

I've seen a couple of examples that look something like this:

<a href="intent:#Intent;action=com.myapp.android.MY_ACTION;end">

However, that doesn't seem to work when I try it.

My test device is a Galaxy Tab 2.

any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I was also trying to launch the app in the recomended way. The following code worked for me.

Code inside the <activity> block of YourActivity in AndroidManifest.xml :

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="your.activity.namespace.CUSTOMACTION" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
</intent-filter>

Code in the activities onCreate() method :

Intent intent = getIntent();
if(intent != null && intent.getAction() == "your.activity.namespace.CUSTOMACTION") {
    extraValue = intent.getStringExtra("extraValueName");
    Log.e("AwseomeApp", "Extra value Recieved from intent : " + extraValue);
}

For the code in HTML, write an intent for launching the specific Activity, with the action your.activity.namespace.CUSTOMACTION , and your application package name your.activity.namespace . Your can also put some extra in the intent. For example intent.putExtra("extraValueName", "WOW") . Then get the required URL by printing the value of intent.toUri(Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME) in the Log. It should look like :

intent:#Intent;action=your.example.namespace.CUSTOMACTION;package=your.example.namespace;component=your.example.namespace/.activity.YourActivity;S.extraValueName=WOW;end

So your HTML code should look like :

<a href="intent:#Intent;action=your.example.namespace.CUSTOMACTION;package=your.example.namespace;component=your.example.namespace/.activity.YourActivity;S.extraValueName=WOW;end">
    Launch App
</a>

This is as per what @hackbod suggested in here and this page from developers.google.com.

Answer 2

Depending on your intent filter this link should work:

<a href="http://mydomain.com/launch">start my app</a>

But you should note that the android system will ask the user if your app or any other browser should be started.

If you want to avoid this implement a custom protcol handler. So just your app will listen for that and the user won't get the intent chooser.

Try to add this data intent:

<data android:scheme="mycoolapp" android:host="launch" />

With the code above this link should work:

<a href="mycoolapp://launch">start my app</a>

Answer 3

I needed a small change to abhishek89m'a answer to make this work.

<a href="intent:#Intent;action=your.example.namespace.CUSTOMACTION;package=your.example.namespace;component=your.example.namespace/.YourActivity;S.extraValueName=WOW;end">
    Launch App
</a>

I removed ".activity" after the slash in component name.

And I want to add, that custom action is probably the best answer to this problem if you don't want the app chooser to show up.

ps I would add this as comment, but I'm a new user and I don't have enough reputation points.

Answer 4

<a href="your.app.scheme://other/parameters/here">

This link on your browser will launch the app with the specific schema like that on your intent

<intent-filter>
<data android:scheme="your.app.scheme" />
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
</intent-filter>