Launch app with URL
There is a method in the Browser app source code, :
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) { ... }
After a url clicked and it's not yet starting to load:
converts the url to intent
Intent intent; // perform generic parsing of the URI to turn it into an Intent. try { intent = Intent.parseUri(url, Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME); } catch (URISyntaxException ex) { Log.w("Browser", "Bad URI " + url + ": " + ex.getMessage()); return false; }
if it don't start with market:// (or some predefined schemes), try startActivityIfNeeded()
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_BROWSABLE); intent.setComponent(null); try { if (startActivityIfNeeded(intent, -1)) { return true; } } catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) { // ignore the error. If no application can handle the URL, // eg about:blank, assume the browser can handle it. }
It's very useful information! I re-play the situation in some simple code:
Intent intent = Intent.parseUri("mycam://http://camcorder.com", Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_BROWSABLE);
intent.setComponent(null);
System.out.println(intent);
The result will provide clues for me to write an activity with the intent-filter:
<activity android:name=".MyCamActivity" android:label="@string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="mycam" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
PS. don't forget the android.intent.category.DEFAULT
.
Finally, your Activity can invoke by mycam://yourscheme
.
mycam://http://camcorder.com isn't a valid URI, and making up schemes is kind of scary if two apps pick the same one. It would be better for you to register your activity as a handler for a particular URI (for example http://www.example.com/camcorder, substituting your own domain of course). You do that with the <data> tag in your <intent-filter> tag in the AndroidManifest.xml. When the user clicks the link, they'll be taken to your application. That way, you can also put a real page there on the web, instructing people to install your app or whatever.