In my android application, I create shortcuts by code to some activities within my application. I do this feature by using the broadcast:
intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
sendBroadcast(intent);
and that's cool, that really work!
Now I would like to do something different: I have seen that some actions can "register" somewhere to be added in the Android menu, when you long press on the Home like this one:
http://www.androidtapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/UltimateFaves-Add-Home-Screen-Shortcut.jpg
So my main question is the next one:
How is that possible to register for this menu. I guess there is some line to add in the manifest, but cannot see where to do that!
Thank a lot for any help!
BTW, there is a secondary question: once i will have succeed doing that, may I add a different number of shortcuts in my menu ( imagine That I would like to do that for a multi-account twitter client, I would like to see a different for each twitter account in this list.) So the number of shortcut is programmaticaly computed.
Just found my answer in the SDK samples:
<!-- This section of sample code shows how your application can add shortcuts to -->
<!-- the launcher (home screen). Shortcuts have a three step life cycle. -->
<!-- 1. Your application offers to provide shortcuts to the launcher. When -->
<!-- the user installs a shortcut, an activity within your application -->
<!-- generates the actual shortcut and returns it to the launcher, where it -->
<!-- is shown to the user as an icon. -->
<!-- 2. Any time the user clicks on an installed shortcut, an intent is sent. -->
<!-- Typically this would then be handled as necessary by an activity within -->
<!-- your application. -->
<!-- 3. The shortcut is deleted. There is no notification to your application. -->
<!-- In order provide shortcuts from your application, you provide three things: -->
<!-- 1. An intent-filter declaring your ability to provide shortcuts -->
<!-- 2. Code within the activity to provide the shortcuts as requested -->
<!-- 3. Code elsewhere within your activity, if appropriate, to receive -->
<!-- intents from the shortcut itself. -->
<activity android:name=".LauncherShortcuts"
android:label="launchers">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.SAMPLE_CODE" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<!-- It is recommended that you use an activity-alias to provide the "CREATE_SHORTCUT" -->
<!-- intent-filter. This gives you a way to set the text (and optionally the -->
<!-- icon) that will be seen in the launcher's create-shortcut user interface. -->
<activity-alias android:name=".CreateShortcuts"
android:targetActivity=".LauncherShortcuts"
android:label="test">
<!-- This intent-filter allows your shortcuts to be created in the launcher. -->
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.CREATE_SHORTCUT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
As for your secondary question:
I don't know how to achieve exactly what you are asking for, but one possible solution might be to have your CreateShortcuts activity (or equivalent) open up a dialog with the possible choices, from which your activity would return a shortcut corresponding to the selected item. Of course with some additional info (see Intent.putExtra()) detailing which item, in your case twitter user, the user selected.