Allow user to select camera or gallery for image

Question

How to launch a single Intent to select images from either the Gallery or the Camera, or any application registered to browse the filesystem.

Rather than creating a Dialog with a list of Intent options, it is much better to use Intent.createChooser in order to get access to the graphical icons and short names of the various 'Camera', 'Gallery' and even Third Party filesystem browser apps such as 'Astro', etc.

This describes how to use the standard chooser-intent and add additional intents to that.

private Uri outputFileUri;

private void openImageIntent() {

    // Determine Uri of camera image to save.
    final File root = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + File.separator + "MyDir" + File.separator);
    root.mkdirs();
    final String fname = Utils.getUniqueImageFilename();
    final File sdImageMainDirectory = new File(root, fname);
    outputFileUri = Uri.fromFile(sdImageMainDirectory);

    // Camera.
    final List<Intent> cameraIntents = new ArrayList<Intent>();
    final Intent captureIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
    final PackageManager packageManager = getPackageManager();
    final List<ResolveInfo> listCam = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(captureIntent, 0);
    for(ResolveInfo res : listCam) {
        final String packageName = res.activityInfo.packageName;
        final Intent intent = new Intent(captureIntent);
        intent.setComponent(new ComponentName(packageName, res.activityInfo.name));
        intent.setPackage(packageName);
        intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, outputFileUri);
        cameraIntents.add(intent);
    }

    // Filesystem.
    final Intent galleryIntent = new Intent();
    galleryIntent.setType("image/*");
    galleryIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);

    // Chooser of filesystem options.
    final Intent chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(galleryIntent, "Select Source");

    // Add the camera options.
    chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, cameraIntents.toArray(new Parcelable[cameraIntents.size()]));

    startActivityForResult(chooserIntent, YOUR_SELECT_PICTURE_REQUEST_CODE);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
        if (requestCode == YOUR_SELECT_PICTURE_REQUEST_CODE) {
            final boolean isCamera;
            if (data == null) {
                isCamera = true;
            } else {
                final String action = data.getAction();
                if (action == null) {
                    isCamera = false;
                } else {
                    isCamera = action.equals(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
                }
            }

            Uri selectedImageUri;
            if (isCamera) {
                selectedImageUri = outputFileUri;
            } else {
                selectedImageUri = data == null ? null : data.getData();
            }
        }
    }
}

You'll have to create your own chooser dialog merging both intent resolution results.

To do this, you will need to query the PackageManager with PackageManager.queryIntentActivities() for both original intents and create the final list of possible Intents with one new Intent for each retrieved activity like this:

List<Intent> yourIntentsList = new ArrayList<Intent>();

List<ResolveInfo> listCam = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(camIntent, 0);
for (ResolveInfo res : listCam) {
    final Intent finalIntent = new Intent(camIntent);
    finalIntent.setComponent(new ComponentName(res.activityInfo.packageName, res.activityInfo.name));
    yourIntentsList.add(finalIntent);
}

List<ResolveInfo> listGall = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(gallIntent, 0);
for (ResolveInfo res : listGall) {
    final Intent finalIntent = new Intent(gallIntent);
    finalIntent.setComponent(new ComponentName(res.activityInfo.packageName, res.activityInfo.name));
    yourIntentsList.add(finalIntent);
}

(I wrote this directly here so this may not compile)

Then, for more info on creating a custom dialog from a list see https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/dialogs.html#AlertDialog

I found this. Using:

galleryIntent.setType("image/*");
galleryIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);

for one of the intents shows the user the option of selecting 'documents' in Android 4, which I found very confusing. Using this instead shows the 'gallery' option:

Intent pickIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI);

I also had this issue and what I did was create an AlertDialog and use the setItems() method along with the DialogInterface listener:

AlertDialog.Builder getImageFrom = new AlertDialog.Builder(Fotos.this);
getImageFrom.setTitle("Select:");
final CharSequence[] opsChars = {getResources().getString(R.string.takepic), getResources().getString(R.string.opengallery)};
getImageFrom.setItems(opsChars, new android.content.DialogInterface.OnClickListener(){

    @Override
    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
        if(which == 0){
            Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
            startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, CAMERA_PIC_REQUEST);
        }else
            if(which == 1){
                Intent intent = new Intent();
                intent.setType("image/*");
                intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
                startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent,
                    getResources().getString(R.string.pickgallery)), SELECT_PICTURE);
            }
        dialog.dismiss();
    }
});

I have merged some solutions to make a complete util for picking an image from Gallery or Camera. These are the features of ImagePicker util (also in a Github lib):

• Merged intents for Gallery and Camera resquests.
• Resize selected big images (e.g.: 2500 x 1600)
• Rotate image if necesary

Screenshot:

Edit: Here is a fragment of code to get a merged Intent for Gallery and Camera apps together. You can see the full code at ImagePicker util (also in a Github lib):

public static Intent getPickImageIntent(Context context) {
    Intent chooserIntent = null;

    List<Intent> intentList = new ArrayList<>();

    Intent pickIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK,
            android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI);
    Intent takePhotoIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
    takePhotoIntent.putExtra("return-data", true);
    takePhotoIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, Uri.fromFile(getTempFile(context)));
    intentList = addIntentsToList(context, intentList, pickIntent);
    intentList = addIntentsToList(context, intentList, takePhotoIntent);

    if (intentList.size() > 0) {
        chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(intentList.remove(intentList.size() - 1),
                context.getString(R.string.pick_image_intent_text));
        chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, intentList.toArray(new Parcelable[]{}));
    }

    return chooserIntent;
}

private static List<Intent> addIntentsToList(Context context, List<Intent> list, Intent intent) {
    List<ResolveInfo> resInfo = context.getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent, 0);
    for (ResolveInfo resolveInfo : resInfo) {
        String packageName = resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName;
        Intent targetedIntent = new Intent(intent);
        targetedIntent.setPackage(packageName);
        list.add(targetedIntent);
    }
    return list;
}

This should take care of Tina's null outputFileUri issue:

private static final String STORED_INSTANCE_KEY_FILE_URI = "output_file_uri";

@Override
public void onSaveInstanceState( Bundle outState ) {
    super.onSaveInstanceState( outState );

    if ( outputFileUri != null ) {
        outState.putString( STORED_INSTANCE_KEY_FILE_URI, outputFileUri.toString() );
    }
}

@Override
public void onViewStateRestored( Bundle savedInstanceState ) {
    super.onViewStateRestored( savedInstanceState );

    if ( savedInstanceState != null ) {
      final String outputFileUriStr = savedInstanceState.getString( STORED_INSTANCE_KEY_FILE_URI );
      if ( outputFileUriStr != null && !outputFileUriStr.isEmpty() ) {
          outputFileUri = Uri.parse( outputFileUriStr );
      }
    }
}

Note: I'm using this code inside android.support.v4.app.Fragment your overridden methods might change depending on what Fragment/Activity version you're using.

You can create option dialog

Open Camera:

Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
                        cameraIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT,
                                MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI.toString());
                        if (cameraIntent.resolveActivity(getActivity().getPackageManager()) != null) {
                            startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, CAMERA_IMAGE);
                        }

Open Gallery:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= 19) {
            Intent i = new Intent();
            i.setType("image/*");
            i.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
            i.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
            startActivityForResult(i, GALLARY_IMAGE);
        } else if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > 19) {
            Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI);
            startActivityForResult(intent, GALLARY_IMAGE);
        }

To get selection result

@Override
    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        if (resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            if (requestCode == GALLARY_IMAGE) {
                Uri selectedImageUri = data.getData();
                String selectedImagePath = getRealPathFromURI(selectedImageUri);
            } else if (requestCode == CAMERA_IMAGE) {
                Bundle extras = data.getExtras();
                Bitmap bmp = (Bitmap) extras.get("data");
                SaveImage(bmp);
            }
        }
    }

 public String getRealPathFromURI(Uri uri) {
        if (uri == null) {
            return null;
        }
        String[] projection = {MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA};
        Cursor cursor = getActivity().getContentResolver().query(uri, projection, null, null, null);
        if (cursor != null) {
            int column_index = cursor
                    .getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA);
            cursor.moveToFirst();
            return cursor.getString(column_index);
        }
        return uri.getPath();
    }

Method to save captured image

 private void SaveImage(final Bitmap finalBitmap) {
        Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                String root = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString();

                File myDir = new File(root + "/Captured Images/");
                if (!myDir.exists())
                    myDir.mkdirs();

                String fname = "/image-" + System.currentTimeMillis() + ".jpg";
                File file = new File(myDir, fname);
                try {
                    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);
                    finalBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, out);
                    out.flush();
                    out.close();
                    localImagePath = myDir + fname;
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }


        });
        t.start();

    }