Pick any kind file via an Intent on Android

Question

I would like to start an intentchooser for apps which can return any kind of file

Currently I use (which I copied from the Android email source code for file attachment)

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
intent.setType("*/*");
Intent i = Intent.createChooser(intent, "File");
startActivityForResult(i, CHOOSE_FILE_REQUESTCODE);

But it only shows "Gallery" and "Music player" on my Galaxy S2. There is a file explorer on this device and I would like it to appear in the list. I would also like the camera app to show in the list, so that the user can shoot a picture and send it through my app. If I install Astro file manager it will respond to that intent, too. My customers are Galaxy SII owners only and I don't want to force them to install Astro file manager given that they already have a basic but sufficient file manager.

Any idea of how I could achieve this ? I am pretty sure that I already saw the default file manager appear in such a menu to pick a file, but I can't remember in which app.

Answer 1

this work for me on galaxy note its show contacts, file managers installed on device, gallery, music player

private void openFile(Int  CODE) {
    Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
    i.setType("*/*");
    startActivityForResult(intent, CODE);
}

here get path in onActivityResult of activity.

protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
     String Fpath = data.getDataString();
    // do somthing...
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

}

Answer 2

Samsung file explorer needs not only custom action (com.sec.android.app.myfiles.PICK_DATA), but also category part (Intent.CATEGORY_DEFAULT) and mime-type should be passed as extra.

Intent intent = new Intent("com.sec.android.app.myfiles.PICK_DATA");
intent.putExtra("CONTENT_TYPE", "*/*");
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_DEFAULT);

You can also use this action for opening multiple files: com.sec.android.app.myfiles.PICK_DATA_MULTIPLE Anyway here is my solution which works on samsung and other devices:

public void openFile(String minmeType) {

        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
        intent.setType(minmeType);
        intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);

        // special intent for Samsung file manager
        Intent sIntent = new Intent("com.sec.android.app.myfiles.PICK_DATA");
         // if you want any file type, you can skip next line 
        sIntent.putExtra("CONTENT_TYPE", minmeType); 
        sIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_DEFAULT);

        Intent chooserIntent;
        if (getPackageManager().resolveActivity(sIntent, 0) != null){
            // it is device with samsung file manager
            chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(sIntent, "Open file");
            chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, new Intent[] { intent});
        }
        else {
            chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(intent, "Open file");
        }

        try {
            startActivityForResult(chooserIntent, CHOOSE_FILE_REQUESTCODE);
        } catch (android.content.ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
            Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "No suitable File Manager was found.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    }

This solution works well for me, and maybe will be useful for someone else.

Answer 3

Not for camera but for other files..

In my device I have ES File Explorer installed and This simply thing works in my case..

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
intent.setType("file/*");
startActivityForResult(intent, PICKFILE_REQUEST_CODE);

Answer 4

If you want to know this, it exists an open source library called aFileDialog that it is an small and easy to use which provides a file picker.

The difference with another file chooser's libraries for Android is that aFileDialog gives you the option to open the file chooser as a Dialog and as an Activity.

It also lets you to select folders, create files, filter files using regular expressions and show confirmation dialogs.

Answer 5

Turns out the Samsung file explorer uses a custom action. This is why I could see the Samsung file explorer when looking for a file from the samsung apps, but not from mine.

The action is "com.sec.android.app.myfiles.PICK_DATA"

I created a custom Activity Picker which displays activities filtering both intents.