android list

In this article we'll discuss how to provide facility to add shortcut to your activity to the launcher

Now let’s see how we can handle the stage 1.
Your application simply creates an "Intent" that the launcher will use to create the shortcut.A more interactive way such as a User interface can be provided to user to make a more customizable shortcut.For example, Your User Interface may provide the way to select the specific nature of the shortcut, i.e. contact, picture, URL, media item etc.

//This function creates a shortcut and returns it to the caller. There are actually two
//intents that you will send back.
private void setupShortcut() {
// First, set up the shortcut intent. For this example, we simply create an intent that
// will bring us directly back to this activity. A more typical implementation would use a
// data Uri in order to display a more specific result, or a custom action in order to
// launch a specific operation.

Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
shortcutIntent.setClassName(this, this.getClass().getName());
shortcutIntent.putExtra(SHTCT_KEY, "Example Shortcut provided");

// Then, set up the container intent (the response to the caller)

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "Name");
Parcelable iconResource = Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(
this, R.drawable.icon);
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, iconResource);

// Now, return the result to the launcher

setResult(RESULT_OK, intent);
}

This function provides the Intent that will be returned to launcher in the container Intent .

Intent shortcutIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
shortcutIntent.setClassName(this, this.getClass().getName());
shortcutIntent.putExtra(SHTCT_KEY, "Example Shortcut provided");

This is the intent that will be sent to your activity when user clicks Shortcut Icon.
First we are setting up the shortcut intent. Here in this example we are telling launcher that we need to handle “ACTION_MAIN” Action i.e. this intent will bring us directly back to this activity. However you can use data Uri with Action as “ACTION_VIEW” to display more specific result, or, a custom action to launch a specific operation provided your Activity handles that Action which you must specify in “AndroidManifest.xml” in “intent-filter” tag of “activity” tag.


Second we are setting up the class to call; in this case we are setting the class name for current activity but any other “class name” will also work provided that class can handle the Action specified in the intent.




Next we’ll create the container Intent that will have the Shortcut specific information.

// Then, set up the container intent (the response to the caller)

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, shortcutIntent);
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "Name");
Parcelable iconResource = Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(
this, R.drawable.icon);
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, iconResource);

Here, in second line we are specifying the Intent that will be sent back to the activity when user clicks the shortcut Icon.

Next we specify the name i.e. the text that’ll be displayed with the Icon.

And then the Icon itself.

Now, set the results for launcher to use.

// Now, return the result to the launcher

setResult(RESULT_OK, intent);

Now write the following code in onCreate method of your Activity

// Resolve the intent
final Intent intent = getIntent();
final String action = intent.getAction();

// If the intent is a request to create a shortcut, we'll do that and exit

if (Intent.ACTION_CREATE_SHORTCUT.equals(action)) {
setupShortcut();
finish();
return;
}