Hey - recently posted this to the 'Beginner's' Google Group, but this may be a better place (thanks for making this, by the way!!)
I've been having trouble understanding how the intents system works in the Manifest, along with how file-types and locations on the filesystem are articulated in the code. Part of the confusion is that a lot of Google's example code assumes an app made by Google, so they use their namespace in the tutorials. But the entire framework was made by Google, so I have no idea when to replace 'google' with 'my_app_name', or how any of the lengthy this.that.that.other.... domains get formed.
Some of the many, many questions I was left with from their 'Intents' documentation (
http://code.google.com/android/referenc ... ntent.html):
1) vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.google.note is referred to as a file-type for the note application in intents-lingo. I have no idea what makes that a file-type, what items to replace in my own apps with what else (would a notes app called BonzaNotes use something like 'vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.bonzanote.note', for instance? What does 'vnd' mean, or 'android.cursor.item'?) It would be really helpful to take that apart and explain what each component means.
2) In the line "<action android:value="com.google.android.notepad.action.EDIT_TITLE" />"... Again, what does 'com' stand for? Do I replace 'google' or 'android' in my own apps? How did they come up with that exact string of items?
How do I?
3) In the following lines, what do 'DEFAULT', 'ALTERNATIVE', and 'SELECTED_ALTERNATIVE' mean? These seem like really ambiguous (to the point of useless) categories for much of anything, but they seem to be
important in how the system works.
Using xml Syntax Highlighting
<category android:value="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:value="android.intent.category.ALTERNATIVE" />
<category android:value="android.intent.category.SELECTED_ALTERNATIVE" />
Parsed in 0.001 seconds, using
GeSHi 1.0.8.4
It feels like there's a bit of a jump from the beginner-friendly tutorial to the hard-core programmer documentation, which is understandable - it's not Google job to teach us how to code. But a pointer on understanding some of this would be really helpful.
Thanks for any advice or tutorials anyone can provide.