Start activity without showing it

Question

I have an activity A, which starts activity B and activity B starts activity C. Is there a way not to show activity B. I want this behavour because if there is no content (eg for ListView) for activity B, show activity C on which I select some data, and then press back button to go back to activity B. The point is that I would like to have activity B on activity stack, but not to show it in certain cases.

Answer 1

I found the solution:

• Activity A starts activity B with extra parameter (intent.putExtra("something", true))
• Activity B:

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    if (getIntent().hasExtra("something") && getIntent().getBooleanExtra("something", false) {
            //show activity B
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_B);
    } else {
            //don't show activity B, start activity C
        startActivityForResult(activity_C, ACTIVITY_NOT_INITIALIZED); //start activity C
    }
}

//when came back from activity C, check if activity B was already initialized

protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (requestCode == ACTIVITY_NOT_INITIALIZED) {
        //show activity B
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_B);
  }
}

Answer 2

In your manifest set

android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoDisplay"

for your activity.