Launch Main Activity with Implicit Intent in Service

Question

I have an implicit intent in a service that sends information to my main activity, as well as to another class. I also now want that intent to launch my main activity. I've looked at the myriad posts related to this, and tried lots of different things-- addCategory , setAction(MAIN; the activity's name; you name it, I've tried it...) , category.DEFAULT in the manifest, and several other things that either resulted in ActivityNotFoundExceptions (most commonly) or behavior that was otherwise undesirable.

Here's where the intent is set up and the relevant part of the manifest. The receiver for the intent is registered in the main activity.

final String NEW_DOSES = "changed to protect the innocent";
Intent bluetoothBroadcast = new Intent();
several putExtra lines here
bluetoothBroadcast.setAction(NEW_DOSES);
sendBroadcast(bluetoothBroadcast);

<activity
   android:name=".AsthmaAppActivity"
   android:label="@string/app_name" >
   <intent-filter>
       <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
       <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
   </intent-filter>
</activity>

Is it possible to get this intent to launch my main activity with relatively minor changes? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yes it is possible but no with sendBroadcast(bluetoothBroadcast); sendBroadcast does not launch an activity. You must use startActivity to achieve this. For example here is what a launcher application will do in order to launch an application:

public static void LaunchApplication(Context cx, String packagename) {
    PackageManager pm = cx.getPackageManager();
    Intent i = pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(ai.packageName);
    if (i != null) cx.startActivity(i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK));
}

You can easily adjust the extras and the data needed in order to launch the activity. For example if your activity is named myActivity then you can go like this:

Intent i = new Intent(cx, myActivity.class);
//Put the extras and the data you want here...
//If you are launching the activity from a receiver component you must use
//i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
cx.startActivity(i);

Hope this helps...