Android - not able to attach a file in email

Question

By default, files saved to the internal storage are private to your application and other applications cannot access them (nor can the user).

I am able to see the file "/data/data/package_name/files/ in file explore in DDMS, but when i attached the above file URI using imageUri in email , then i saw that attached file is of 0kb. i have used the default email APIs of Android.

Can anyone suggest me ,how to attach a file in email that is private to the application?

although i am successful able to save the file in SD card and attaching the file from SD card , this is working fine.

But if SD card is not available and saving the file to the internal storage , then how can i attach them in email.

String FILENAME = "hello_file.txt";
String string = "hello world!";FileOutputStream fos = openFileOutput(FILENAME,     Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
fos.write(string.getBytes());
fos.close();

File imageFile = getFileStreamPath(FILENAME );
Uri imageUri = Uri.fromFile(imageFile);

final Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
emailIntent.setType("*/*");
emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_STREAM,imageUri);

this.startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(emailIntent, "Send mail..."),SUB_ACTIVITY);

Answer 1

When you try to attach file from internal storage, GMail writes an error to the log:

ERROR/Gmail(...): file:// attachment paths must point to file:///mnt/sdcard. 

E-mail application would show you the attached file even if it didn't physically exist.

As for an external storage, documentation says that:

Every Android-compatible device supports a shared "external storage" that you can use to save files. This can be a removable storage media (such as an SD card) or an internal (non-removable) storage.

That means you don't have to worry about device not having an external storage at all. Still, external storage can be unavailable at times. Refer to http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#filesExternal

Answer 2

Android: Attaching files from internal cache to Gmail




package com.stephendnicholas.gmailattach; 

import java.io.File; 
import java.io.FileNotFoundException; 

import android.content.ContentProvider; 
import android.content.ContentValues; 
import android.content.UriMatcher; 
import android.database.Cursor; 
import android.net.Uri; 
import android.os.ParcelFileDescriptor; 
import android.util.Log; 

public class CachedFileProvider extends ContentProvider { 

    private static final String CLASS_NAME = "CachedFileProvider"; 

    // The authority is the symbolic name for the provider class 
    public static final String AUTHORITY = "com.stephendnicholas.gmailattach.provider"; 

    // UriMatcher used to match against incoming requests 
    private UriMatcher uriMatcher; 

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() { 
        uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH); 

        // Add a URI to the matcher which will match against the form 
        // 'content://com.stephendnicholas.gmailattach.provider/*' 
        // and return 1 in the case that the incoming Uri matches this pattern 
        uriMatcher.addURI(AUTHORITY, "*", 1); 

        return true; 
    } 

    @Override
    public ParcelFileDescriptor openFile(Uri uri, String mode) 
            throws FileNotFoundException { 

        String LOG_TAG = CLASS_NAME + " - openFile"; 

        Log.v(LOG_TAG, 
                "Called with uri: '" + uri + "'." + uri.getLastPathSegment()); 

        // Check incoming Uri against the matcher 
        switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { 

        // If it returns 1 - then it matches the Uri defined in onCreate 
        case 1: 

            // The desired file name is specified by the last segment of the 
            // path 
            // E.g. 
            // 'content://com.stephendnicholas.gmailattach.provider/Test.txt' 
            // Take this and build the path to the file 
            String fileLocation = getContext().getCacheDir() + File.separator 
                    + uri.getLastPathSegment(); 

            // Create & return a ParcelFileDescriptor pointing to the file 
            // Note: I don't care what mode they ask for - they're only getting 
            // read only 
            ParcelFileDescriptor pfd = ParcelFileDescriptor.open(new File( 
                    fileLocation), ParcelFileDescriptor.MODE_READ_ONLY); 
            return pfd; 

            // Otherwise unrecognised Uri 
        default: 
            Log.v(LOG_TAG, "Unsupported uri: '" + uri + "'."); 
            throw new FileNotFoundException("Unsupported uri: "
                    + uri.toString()); 
        } 
    } 

    // ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 
    // Not supported / used / required for this example 
    // ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// 

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues contentvalues, String s, 
            String[] as) { 
        return 0; 
    } 

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String s, String[] as) { 
        return 0; 
    } 

    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues contentvalues) { 
        return null; 
    } 

    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) { 
        return null; 
    } 

    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String s, String[] as1, 
            String s1) { 
        return null; 
    } 
}




<provider android:name="CachedFileProvider" android:authorities="com.stephendnicholas





public static void createCachedFile(Context context, String fileName, 
            String content) throws IOException { 

    File cacheFile = new File(context.getCacheDir() + File.separator 
                + fileName); 
    cacheFile.createNewFile(); 

    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(cacheFile); 
    OutputStreamWriter osw = new OutputStreamWriter(fos, "UTF8"); 
    PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(osw); 

    pw.println(content); 

    pw.flush(); 
    pw.close(); 
}




public static Intent getSendEmailIntent(Context context, String email, 
            String subject, String body, String fileName) { 

    final Intent emailIntent = new Intent( 
                android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND); 

    //Explicitly only use Gmail to send 
    emailIntent.setClassName("com.google.android.gm","com.google.android.gm.ComposeActivityGmail"); 

    emailIntent.setType("plain/text"); 

    //Add the recipients 
    emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, 
                new String[] { email }); 

    emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, subject); 

    emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, body); 

    //Add the attachment by specifying a reference to our custom ContentProvider 
    //and the specific file of interest 
    emailIntent.putExtra( 
            Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, 
                Uri.parse("content://" + CachedFileProvider.AUTHORITY + "/"
                        + fileName)); 

    return emailIntent; 
}

    enter code here