Launch Activity on System/Emulator Startup

by plusminus » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:41 pm

[align=center]Launch Activity on System/Emulator Startup[/align]

What you will learn: You will learn how to launch your Activity when the Emulator/Device gets started (when the Boot-Process has finished).

Problems/Questions: Write it right below...

Difficulty: 2 of 5

What it will look like:
[align=center][/align]

Description:
0.) We will create a simple IntentReceiver that will receive the android.content.Intent.BOOT_COMPLETED_ACTION ( "android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" ).

We will have to add an Intent-Filter to a Receiver-Tag in the AndroidManifest.xml which will cause a MyStartupIntentReceiver we define in step 1.) to be started. This IntentReceiver will then launch the acutal Main-Activity.
So we will add the following code to the AndroidManifest.xml:

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1.         <receiver class=".MyStartupIntentReceiver">
2.  
3.             <intent-filter>
4.  
5.                  <action android:value="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
6.  
7.                  <category android:value="android.intent.category.HOME" />
8.  
9.             </intent-filter>
10.  
11.         </receiver>

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that it looks finally like this:

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1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2.  
3. <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
4.  
5.    package="org.anddev.launchonstartup">
6.  
7.     <application android:icon="@drawable/icon">
8.  
9.         <activity class=".LaunchOnStartup" android:label="@string/app_name">
10.  
11.             <intent-filter>
12.  
13.                 <action android:value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
14.  
15.                 <category android:value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
16.  
17.             </intent-filter>
18.  
19.         </activity>
20.  
21.         <receiver class=".MyStartupIntentReceiver">
22.  
23.             <intent-filter>
24.  
25.                  <action android:value="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
26.  
27.                  <category android:value="android.intent.category.HOME" />
28.  
29.             </intent-filter>
30.  
31.         </receiver>
32.  
33.     </application>
34.  
35. </manifest>

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1.) This is the actual MyStartupIntentReceiver-Class:

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1. package org.anddev.launchonstartup;
2.  
3.  
4.  
5. import android.content.Context;
6.  
7. import android.content.Intent;
8.  
9. import android.content.IntentReceiver;
10.  
11.  
12.  
13. public class MyStartupIntentReceiver extends IntentReceiver {
14.  
15.  
16.  
17.         @Override
18.  
19.         public void onReceiveIntent(Context context, Intent intent) {
20.  
21.                 /* Create intent which will finally start the Main-Activity. */
22.  
23.                 Intent myStarterIntent = new Intent(context, LaunchOnStartup.class);
24.  
25.                 /* Set the Launch-Flag to the Intent. */
26.  
27.                 myStarterIntent.setLaunchFlags(Intent.NEW_TASK_LAUNCH);
28.  
29.                 /* Send the Intent to the OS. */
30.  
31.                 context.startActivity(myStarterIntent);
32.  
33.         }
34.  
35. }

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2.) This is the output, when you start the emulator:
[align=center]

Thats it [/align]

Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by cabernet1976 » Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:41 am

by puyopuy » Sat Feb 09, 2008 6:12 am

by plusminus » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:32 am

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:56 pm

by plusminus » Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:45 pm

Hello puyopuy,

I definitely think the reason for this weird behavior is, that your application(the intent-receiver) got registered with the system and not really updated with the following builds/pushes.

Try running your app after running the emulator-image once with "-wipe-data" under your projects Run-Configurations in Eclipses. That should fix it.

Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:15 am

Hello plusminus,

I'm not sure is that what you mean. I put -wipe-data in command line options in Debug Configurations window. But the result still the same. I tried to put two break points one in LaunchOnStartup and the other in MyStartupIntentReceiver. I can see that LaunchOnStartup also called before MyStartupIntentReceiver.

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1.  
2. public class LaunchOnStartup extends Activity {
3.  
4.     /** Called when the activity is first created. */
5.  
6.     @Override
7.  
8.     public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) {
9.  
10.         super.onCreate(icicle);  <span style="font-weight: bold"><=break point</span>
11.  
12.         setContentView(R.layout.main);
13.  
14.     }
15.  
16. }
17.  
18.  

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1.  
2. public class MyStartupIntentReceiver extends IntentReceiver {
3.  
4.  
5.  
6.         @Override
7.  
8.         public void onReceiveIntent(Context context, Intent intent) {
9.  
10.                 boolean showLaunchOnStartup = false;  <span style="font-weight: bold"><=break point</span>
11.  
12.                
13.  
14.         if(showLaunchOnStartup){
15.  
16.              /* Create intent which will finally start the Main-Activity. */
17.  
18.              Intent myStarterIntent = new Intent(context, LaunchOnStartup.class);
19.  
20.              /* Set the Launch-Flag to the Intent. */
21.  
22.              myStarterIntent.setLaunchFlags(Intent.NEW_TASK_LAUNCH);
23.  
24.              /* Send the Intent to the OS. */
25.  
26.              context.startActivity(myStarterIntent);
27.  
28.         }
29.  
30.  
31.  
32.         }
33.  
34.  
35.  
36. }
37.  
38.  
39.  
40.  

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Thanks again for your help

Attachments

Debug options settings

options.JPG (17.27 KiB) Viewed 39917 times

by plusminus » Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:12 pm

Hello puyopuy,

yes, that was what I was talking about. But even more weird that it still appears. Perhaps use the Logger (Log.d(..,..)) to ensure that the emulator is running the code you posted

What happens if you delete everything within onReceiveIntent

Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:56 am

Attachments

LaunchOnStartup.zip

My LaunchOnStartup source code

(33.11 KiB) Downloaded 701 times

by plusminus » Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:19 pm

Hello

I altered the code to give some debug-output:

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1.           boolean showLaunchOnStartup = false;  
2.  
3.           Log.d("DEBUGTAG", "Outside: showLaunchOnStartup=" + showLaunchOnStartup);
4.  
5.         if(showLaunchOnStartup){
6.  
7.                 Log.d("DEBUGTAG", "Inside: showLaunchOnStartup=" + showLaunchOnStartup);
8.  
9.              /* Create intent which will finally start the Main-Activity. */
10.  
11.              Intent myStarterIntent = new Intent(context, LaunchOnStartup.class);
12.  
13.              /* Set the Launch-Flag to the Intent. */
14.  
15.              myStarterIntent.setLaunchFlags(Intent.NEW_TASK_LAUNCH);
16.  
17.              /* Send the Intent to the OS. */
18.  
19.              context.startActivity(myStarterIntent);
20.  
21.         }

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And it only shows and therefore everything is as it should be:

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1. D/DEBUGTAG(590): Outside: showLaunchOnStartup=false

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Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:44 am

Hi Plusminus,

The log only shown "Outside: showLaunchOnStartup=false", the problem is the main Activity(LaunchOnStartup) already created before onReceiveIntent. As I told you in Sun Feb 10, LaunchOnStartup's onCreate always called before onReceiveIntent. Just want to know do you have the same problem in your environment.

Thank you very much.
puyopuy

by plusminus » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:43 am

Hello puyopuy,

are you hitting the -Button in Eclipse

That happens because of , of couse.

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1.         <activity class=".LaunchOnStartup" android:label="@string/app_name">
2.  
3.             <intent-filter>
4.  
5.                 <action android:value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
6.  
7.                 <category android:value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
8.  
9.             </intent-filter>
10.  
11.         </activity>

Parsed in 0.001 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:06 pm

by plusminus » Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:45 pm

Hello puyopuy,

you implemented a IntentReceiver that reacts to the BOOT_COMPLETED_ACTION, which will cause your application to be started when your Emulator is started. The reason for that is the following part in AndroidManifest.xml:

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1.         <receiver class=".MyStartupIntentReceiver">
2.  
3.             <intent-filter>
4.  
5.                  <action android:value="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
6.  
7.                  <category android:value="android.intent.category.HOME" />
8.  
9.             </intent-filter>
10.  
11.         </receiver>

Parsed in 0.001 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

When you hit this will cause your application to start directly, because of:

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Using xml Syntax Highlighting

1.         <activity class=".LaunchOnStartup" android:label="@string/app_name">
2.  
3.             <intent-filter>
4.  
5.                 <action android:value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
6.  
7.                 <category android:value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
8.  
9.             </intent-filter>
10.  
11.         </activity>

Parsed in 0.001 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

Hope things are clearer now.

Regards,
plusminus

| Android Development Community / Tutorials

by puyopuy » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:19 am

Thanks for your detailed explanation, I will test it again this week.