MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT renders data null, other way to save photos?

Question

Google offers this versatile code for taking photos via an intent:

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    // create Intent to take a picture and return control to the calling application
    Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);

    fileUri = getOutputMediaFileUri(MEDIA_TYPE_IMAGE); // create a file to save the image
    intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, fileUri); // set the image file name

    // start the image capture Intent
    startActivityForResult(intent, CAPTURE_IMAGE_ACTIVITY_REQUEST_CODE);
}

The problem is that if you're like me and you want to pass the photos as extras, using EXTRA_OUTPUT seemingly runs off with the photo data and makes subsequent actions think the intent data is null.

It appears this is a big bug with Android.

I'm trying to take a photo then display it as a thumbnail in a new view. I'd like to have it saved as a full sized image in the user's gallery. Does anyone know a way to specify the image location without using EXTRA_OUTPUT?

Here's what I have currently:

public void takePhoto(View view) {
    Intent takePictureIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);

    fileUri = getOutputMediaFileUri(MEDIA_TYPE_IMAGE);
//  takePictureIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, fileUri);

    startActivityForResult(takePictureIntent, CAMERA_REQUEST_CODE);
}

/** Create a file Uri for saving an image or video */
private static Uri getOutputMediaFileUri(int type){
      return Uri.fromFile(getOutputMediaFile(type));
}

/** Create a File for saving an image or video */
@SuppressLint("SimpleDateFormat")
private static File getOutputMediaFile(int type){

    File mediaStorageDir = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(
              Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES), "JoshuaTree");

    if (! mediaStorageDir.exists()){
        if (! mediaStorageDir.mkdirs()){
            Log.d("JoshuaTree", "failed to create directory");
            return null;
        }
    }

    // Create a media file name
    String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(new Date());
    File mediaFile;
    if (type == MEDIA_TYPE_IMAGE){
        mediaFile = new File(mediaStorageDir.getPath() + File.separator +
        "IMG_"+ timeStamp + ".jpg");
    } else {
        return null;
    }

    return mediaFile;
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (requestCode == CAMERA_REQUEST_CODE) {
        if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            handleSmallCameraPhoto(data);
        }
    }
}


private void handleSmallCameraPhoto(Intent intent) {
    Bundle extras = intent.getExtras();
    mImageBitmap = (Bitmap) extras.get("data");
    Intent displayIntent = new Intent(this, DisplayPhotoActivity.class);
    displayIntent.putExtra("BitmapImage", mImageBitmap);
    startActivity(displayIntent);
}

}

Answer 1

If you specified MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, the image taken will be written to that path, and no data will given to onActivityResult. You can read the image from what you specified.

See another solved same question here: Android Camera : data intent returns null

Answer 2

Basically, there are two ways to retrieve the image from Camera, if you use to send a captured image through intent extras you cannot retrieve it on ActivityResult on intent.getData() ' because it saves the image data through extras.

So the idea is:

Intent intent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(intent, CAPTURE_IMAGE_ACTIVITY_REQUEST_CODE);

And retrieving it on ActivityResults checking the retrieved intent:

    @Override  
    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent intent) {        
    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {            
        if (requestCode == CAPTURE_IMAGE_ACTIVITY_REQUEST_CODE) {                
            if (intent.getData() != null) {                    
                ParcelFileDescriptor parcelFileDescriptor = context.getContentResolver().openFileDescriptor(intent.getData(), "r");    
                      
                FileDescriptor fileDescriptor = parcelFileDescriptor.getFileDescriptor();                      
                Bitmap image = BitmapFactory.decodeFileDescriptor(fileDescriptor);                     
                parcelFileDescriptor.close();
            } else {                    
                Bitmap imageRetrieved = (Bitmap) intent.getExtras().get("data");              
            }           
        } 
    }
}