What's the easiest way to pass string variables from one application to another and also return values back? I have access to the source code of both apps, but it has to be two different applications.
I tried with startActivityForResult, but this only seems to work between activies of the same application. When calling an activity from a different package, startActivityForResult returns immediately with RESULT_CANCELED. There seems to be the possibility to solve this with a Service, but isn't that a bit oversized for just some string vars?
Is there an easy and clean way to do this?
Here the code i tried to use for startActivityForResult:
//App A:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction("com.example.testapp.MESSAGE");
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putString("loginToken", "263bhqw3jhf6as4yf8j0agtz8h2hj2z9j3hg3g3ggh34uzh2h2ui78h3i9wdnj89x");
intent.putExtra("MyData", b);
startActivityForResult(intent, TEST_REQUEST);
@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
Log.d("pairing", "onActivityResult called");
// Check which request we're responding to
if (requestCode == TEST_REQUEST) {
// Make sure the request was successful
Log.d("pairing", "got result, resultCode: " + resultCode);
if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
// The Intent's data Uri identifies which contact was selected.
if (data.hasExtra("returnMessage")) {
Toast.makeText(this, data.getExtras().getString("returnMessage"), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
}
}
// App B:
Intent result = new Intent();
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putString("returnValue", "this is the returned value");
result.putExtra("MyData", b);
setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, result);
Log.d("pairing", "RESULT_OK set");
finish();
//App B Manifest
<activity
android:name="com.example.testapp"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="com.example.testapp.MESSAGE" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
</intent-filter></activity>
Anybody seeing the mistake? App B always returns immediately with RESULT_CANCELED
EDIT:
Right now I'm getting a android.content.activitynotfoundexception no activity found to handle intent { act=com.example.testapp.MESSAGE (has extras) } error. What am I doing wrong?
you can use ContentProvider.This is a better way than others.
AIDL is one means of communication between two different applications using Interfaces
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/aidl.html
You can find a working sample in the below tutorial
http://manishkpr.webheavens.com/android-aidl-example/
SharedPreferences
might help you in this regard.
I have two apps that i pass data to/from.
App1...
Intent i = new Intent("com.xxx.yyy.MESSAGE");
Bundle b = new Bundle();
b.putString("AAA", getAAA());
i.putExtra("MyData", b);
startActivityForResult(i, "myProcess");
nothing fancy there...
App2...in onResume()
...
Intent i = getIntent();
if (i != null && i.getAction().equals("com.xxx.yyy.MESSAGE") {
...get the data from the bundle
}
note that the AndroidManifest.xml (for App2) has the following entries for one of the activities
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="com.xxx.yyy.MESSAGE"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<data android:mimeType="text/plain"/>
</intent-filter>
You can exchange messengers between two services that belong to those apps (even if the apps are from two different packages) and communicate using those messengers.
public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
// You can include parcel data types
private int mData;
private String mName;
// We can also include child Parcelable objects. Assume MySubParcel is such a Parcelable:
private MySubParcelable mInfo;
// This is where you write the values you want to save to the `Parcel`.
// The `Parcel` class has methods defined to help you save all of your values.
// Note that there are only methods defined for simple values, lists, and other Parcelable objects.
// You may need to make several classes Parcelable to send the data you want.
@Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
out.writeInt(mData);
out.writeString(mName);
out.writeParcelable(mInfo, flags)
}
// Using the `in` variable, we can retrieve the values that
// we originally wrote into the `Parcel`. This constructor is usually
// private so that only the `CREATOR` field can access.
private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
mData = in.readInt();
mName = in.readString();
mInfo = in.readParcelable(MySubParcelable.class.getClassLoader());
}
public MyParcelable() {
// Normal actions performed by class, since this is still a normal object!
}
// In the vast majority of cases you can simply return 0 for this.
// There are cases where you need to use the constant `CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR`
// But this is out of scope of this tutorial
@Override
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
// After implementing the `Parcelable` interface, we need to create the
// `Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR` constant for our class;
// Notice how it has our class specified as its type.
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
= new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
// This simply calls our new constructor (typically private) and
// passes along the unmarshalled `Parcel`, and then returns the new object!
@Override
public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
return new MyParcelable(in);
}
// We just need to copy this and change the type to match our class.
@Override
public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyParcelable[size];
}
};
}
READ HERE