pdf files in assets folder in Android application

Question

I am shipping PDF files by placing them in the assets folder of my android application. I am able to read the retieve the filenames using AssetManager . I need to display them on screen and I am able to do that. But I need to open them using a pdfviewer.

To write an intent on onclick() on each item, I need to pass the URI of the PDF file. And using the AssetManager I cannot get the URI of the file. Is there a better way I can handle this whole thing?

Even if we were able to retrieve the URI, can the PDF viewer be able to read the PDF file in the assets folder?

UPDATE:
Based on the suggestion below , I wrote the following code

  try {

                Uri path = Uri.parse("android.resource://com.csg.android.myproject/raw/csgsample")  ;
                Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
                intent.setDataAndType(path, "application/pdf");
                intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);

                try {
                    startActivity(intent);
                }
                catch (ActivityNotFoundException e){
                    Toast.makeText(FirstTab.this, "NO Viewer", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
            } catch (IOException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

It throws an ActivityNotFoundException with the following exception message:

android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=android.resource://com.csg.android.myproject/assets/pdf/csgsample typ=application/pdf flg=0x4000000 }

I queried the device using PackageManager and I found the Adobe reader installed. But I am not sure why it is throwing this error. I also tried placing this in assets folder instead and then changed the URI accordingly and ran the program but still I end up with the same error.

Answer 1

You can place them in the res/raw folder, and then create resource URIs to point to them. They are in the form of android.resource://com.example.myapp/raw/my_resource . What I do not know for sure is if other apps such as a PDF reader would be able to open them. Try it out!