How to detect shortcut in Home screen

Question

I have an app that allows you to create "shortcuts" in Home Screen. But can i detect if the "shortcuts" already exist, i didn't have to create it again. Thanks.

Answer 1

I was having the same issue. I don't think its possible for you to tell if it's there, but I think what I used will work for you as well.

Simply uninstall the shortcut before you add it!

intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT");
getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(intent);

intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
getApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(intent);

Just make sure you add the following to your manifest file.

<uses-permission android:name="com.android.launcher.permission.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT"/>    

Answer 2

I do not know whether it is possible to detect the shortcut or not, but instead of uninstalling and then installing, you can use the Extra field as

intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, appName);
...
intent.putExtra("duplicate", false);
...
sendBroadcast(intent);

Answer 3

I think I found a good way to make sure the shortcut is not add more than once and also the Toast message to go away. Make a int or boolean (I used a int) and put the following in onResume:

if(shortcut != 1) //or shortcut == true
{
    ...(shortcut code)...
    shortcut = 1;
    savePref("shortcut", shortcut); //overriding method to save int's or booleans
}

If user delete's the user data then it will add another shortcut to the home screen but I can live with that since most users don't delete that kind of stuff anyway unless they are uninstalling the app. Hope this helps!