Android: Start Activity from preferences.xml

Question

I would like to start an Activity from a default preferences.xml, with < intent > tag. The Activities are well tested, the problem is not with that. (I'm extending PreferenceActivity in my app, so the preferences.xml is "comes" with that) Please look at the code, what's wrong?

preferences.xml:

.... 
<PreferenceCategory 
    android:title="@string/titleEtcSetup">
    <PreferenceScreen
        android:key="renameCourses"
        android:title="@string/titleRenameCourses"
        android:summary="@string/textRenameDisplayedCoursesNames">
        <intent
             android:action="android.intent.action.VIEW"
             android:targetPackage="my.notifier.ui"
             android:targetClass="my.notifier.ui.EditCoursesNamesActivity" />         
    </PreferenceScreen>
.....
</PreferenceCategory>
..... 

manifest.xml:

....
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="my.notifier.ui"....
....
<activity android:name=".EditCoursesNamesActivity" android:label="@string/titleRenameCourses">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
 .....

The Activity isn't calling when I press the "renameCourses item", nothing happens. The LogCat is "clear", no errors or warnings. I was searching a lot, and I didn't find a solution, maybe I just missed something... Please help!

Answer 1

I was having the same issue. I got this working by only declaring the action in my AndroidManifest.xml, as such:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      package="com.example.myapp" android:versionName="1.3" android:versionCode="4">

...

    <activity android:name=".activities.MyActivity" 
              android:label="@string/my_activity_title"
              android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar">
        <intent-filter>
           <action android:name="com.example.myapp.activities.MyActivity" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
       </intent-filter>
    </activity>

Then in my Preferences xml file:

<PreferenceCategory
        android:title="@string/my_activity_title">
    <PreferenceScreen
        android:title="@string/my_activity_title" 
        android:summary="@string/my_activity_title">
        <intent android:action="com.example.myapp.activities.MyActivity"/>
    </PreferenceScreen>
</PreferenceCategory>

Answer 2

I believe <intent> tag must be inside <Preference>, not <PreferenceScreen>.

<PreferenceCategory 
    android:title="@string/titleEtcSetup">
    <Preference
        android:key="renameCourses"
        android:title="@string/titleRenameCourses"
        android:summary="@string/textRenameDisplayedCoursesNames">
        <intent
             android:action="android.intent.action.VIEW"
             android:targetPackage="my.notifier.ui"
             android:targetClass="my.notifier.ui.EditCoursesNamesActivity" />         
    </Preference>
.....
</PreferenceCategory>

Answer 3

Caution! The value of targetPackage should be the package id of the app, as declared in the root element of your AndroidManifest.xml file (which you define in your Gradle build file). It is not necessary the same as the Java package of your Activity class (people usually put them in a subpackage of "ui").

So in your specific case, I bet you the targetPackage should be "my.notifier", not "my.notifier.ui" (I would have to see the manifest to be sure).

Answer 4

No need to add IntentFilter. You can refer to activity by fully qualified name:

<intent android:targetPackage="my.notifier.ui"
    android:targetClass="my.notifier.ui.EditCoursesNamesActivity"/>

Answer 5

When I had this problem it was because I had made a sub-package for my activities. When I moved it into the root package the Preference screen could launch it.