Develop Reference

Android Badge number on launcher icon for all mobile manufacturer

I need a badge counter on my application launcher icon.
I know the solution to get Badge counter inside the app, using TextView, But I need a solution to get the badge counter external to the app on the launcher icon.
In iOS we get the badge number count by
UIApplication.sharedApplication().applicationIconBadgeNumber
I am wondering why Android has not included anything like this with their SDK which every developer need.
Try 1 : Working only on sony mobiiles :
Intent badgeIntent = new Intent();
badgeIntent.setAction("com.sonyericsson.home.action.UPDATE_BADGE");
badgeIntent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.PACKAGE_NAME", this.getPackageName());
badgeIntent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.ACTIVITY_NAME", this.getClass().getName());
badgeIntent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.SHOW_MESSAGE", ShwMsgBulVar);
badgeIntent.putExtra("com.sonyericsson.home.intent.extra.badge.MESSAGE", "10");
context.sendBroadcast(badgeIntent);
Try 2 :
I tried the library :
https://github.com/leolin310148/ShortcutBadger
It works only for few manufacturers and not common for all android mobiles.
ShortCutBadger is not working on OPPO, VIVO, Xiomi, Reliance LYF default launchers.
After couple of research, I came to know that, badge number depends on launcher manufacturer and listed as below :
ShortCutBadger Suported :
Samsung : "com.sec.android.app.launcher"
Sony : "com.sonyericsson.home"
HTC : "com.htc.launcher"
Asus : "com.asus.launcher"
ShortCutBadger not Suported :
Oppo :"com.oppo.launcher"
Xiomi : "com.miui.home"
Vivo : "com.bbk.launcher2"
Lyf : "com.android.launcher3"
Go Launcher : "com.gau.go.launcherex"
So is there any other general method which can work on all manufacturer mobiles?
Read so many posts and did lot of search but Many tell there is no such generic solution which is applicable for all launchers.
But I feel there is a solution because whatsapp and facebook app display the badge number in all the above mentioned launcher.

There is no such function in Android as badge numbers are not a part of the platform.
A few libraries exist that try to achieve this such as https://github.com/leolin310148/ShortcutBadger but you should understand that it does not work for every manufacturer's device. Also as far as I understand the badges only appear over the icon when it is on a home screen and not in the app drawer.

Start app over "Always on Display" and lock screen

I have an app, that starts on it's own, if it recieves a message.
For this I use this start parameter:
BackgroundService.java:
Intent intent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK)
.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DISMISS_KEYGUARD)
.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SHOW_WHEN_LOCKED)
.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TURN_SCREEN_ON)
.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);
startActivity(intent);
MainActivity.java --> onCreate:
getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SHOW_WHEN_LOCKED);
getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DISMISS_KEYGUARD);
getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON);
getWindow().addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_TURN_SCREEN_ON);
Now I received from a user of my app a message, that this is not working with his "Samsung Galaxy S7", and he noticed, that he uses the "Always On Display" function.
I searched for a while in the Web, but I doesn't find a solution.
Are there some more "Tags" to add?

I ran in a similar problem. The flags that you add to the Intent are not meant for an Intent, but for a Window - there is no need to add them there.. You use them correctly in the onCreate(). But the issue is not due to flags.
In my case the problem was that the Activity I was trying to launch uses a Theme, that has <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item> in it. I reworked my logic, so I don't have to use it.
Another workaround that works if you absolutely must use the "android:windowIsFloating" is to use
PowerManager powerManager = (PowerManager) getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
screenWakeLock = powerManager.newWakeLock(PowerManager.ACQUIRE_CAUSES_WAKEUP | PowerManager.SCREEN_DIM_WAKE_LOCK, "TEST");
and then you can call
screenWakeLock.acquire(5000);
before you set the flags. You can edit the timeout of course.
This is a bit of a hack, because PowerManager.SCREEN_DIM_WAKE_LOCK is deprecated. But it does work on Samsung with Android 8.0 and Samsung Experience Version 9.0.
The whole thing is clearly some Samsung issue, because the same code, without the workarounds works like a charm with Pixel Ambient display with Always on.

Offline SpeechRecognizer on Android is not working

I am working with SpeechRecognizer. The problem was if there is no active internet connection SpeechRecognizer will throw error SpeechRecognizer.ERROR_NETWORK or SpeechRecognizer.ERROR_SERVER.
This is my RecognizerIntent
final Intent recognizerIntent;
recognizerIntent = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE, "en");
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_CALLING_PACKAGE, this.getPackageName());
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL, RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM);
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_MAX_RESULTS, 5);
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PARTIAL_RESULTS, true);
recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PREFER_OFFLINE, true);
And I put recognizerIntent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PREFER_OFFLINE, true);
But no luck. again it will throw the same error.
And I got these 2 errors frequently.
SpeechRecognizer.ERROR_RECOGNIZER_BUSY
SpeechRecognizer.ERROR_NO_MATCH
Please help me.

First of all, you need to make sure if you have offline package of language you put to EXTRA_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE installed on the device.
To enable Offline Speech input in supported devices, follow below steps:
Go to Settings
Click on “Language and input”
On-screen keyboard
Select Google voice typing
Select Offline speech recognition
Install desired language
If it still does not work offline, try to change your EXTRA_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE value to something more specific, "en-US" for example (That did the trick for me)
And also, if you want to tell SpeechRecognizer wich language it should recognize, I guess you should use EXTRA_LANGUAGE parameter instead of EXTRA_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE
Hope it will help

How to get 'correct' default launcher programmatically? Shortcuts lose their title

What have I done so far:
I am currenctly facing some problems with the launchers.
My application adds shortcuts to the workspace of the launcher (homescreen).
But on some devices (Samsum Duos) for example, the titles and /or icons
are changed back after reboot to my default application one.
So I am currently going through 1000s of lines code in the android
source to identify the problem, but was not able to find it.
I saw in InstallShortcutReceiver
a comment in line 183 that the "name" provided by Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME can in
some situations be used only for comparison etc and will be replaced
with the applications default name.
// This name is only used for comparisons and notifications, so fall back to activity name
// if not supplied
But (my Samsum Duos is rooted) I could find the complete information's
about the cell position and shortcutInfo's inside of the launcher.db.
So it was not gone, after reboot, but maybe only not correct initialized!
First Question:
Does anybody know the reason for a custom, programmatically created shortcut to change the title and or icon back to the application's one that created it?
Next story:
I noticed that this issue was reproducible on my Samsum Duos, so I decided
to exclude the Devices Launcher from my "save launcher" list.
To receive the default launcher I am doing the following:
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN);
intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME);
ResolveInfo resolveInfo = null;
try {
resolveInfo = context.getPackageManager().resolveActivity(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY); //can return null!
}catch(RuntimeException e){
ExceptionHandler.logAndSendException(e);//package manager has died
return false;
}
But the problem now is, that it always returns that the default launchers
package is: com.android.launcher2.Launcher, which would be the standard
android stock launcher. But I know that Samsum uses the TouchWiz home
launcher, whos Package is located under com.sec.android.app.launcher!
That is also where I found the launcher.db and all its ShortcutInfo's.
2. Second Question
How do I get reproducible the correct default launcher package to identify
which launcher is used?
edit:
I kind of fixed the second problem. Somehow the ResolveInfo I get from
the PackageManager seems to be not reliable.
For the Samsum Duos I get:
resolveInfo.activityInfo.name = com.android.launcher2.Launcher
resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName = com.sec.android.app.launcher //this is what I need
But for the Redmi MIUI:
resolveInfo.activityInfo.name = com.miui.home.launcher.Launcher //this time I would need this
resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName = com.miui.home //the packageName is not complete!
I need an unique identifier for the launcher! So I thought activityInfo.name would be the
way to go, but it isn't in some situations. And the packageManager seems to apply to too many devices. Any suggestions?
Cheers!

Android: custom Facebook integration

I need some advice for this matter...
I used the facebook android sdk to create an integration with facebook from my application...I followed this tutorial:
http://www.integratingstuff.com/2010/10/14/integrating-facebook-into-an-android-application/
I would need to implement authentication in one activity and the function postToWall in another.... after authentication i want to send post simply by pressing a button but in other activity, different from that where i do authentication.
is it possible? or with the SDK I'm forced to do everything together in the same activity?
thanks in advance

Yes it is possible. You will get a access token which you can send to the next activity. Use getAccessToken() and setAccessToken().
Here is an example that even saves the needed data: Contact-Picture-Sync

you need to install an extension, similar to the core Android SDK, but no, here is what you need to do:
1.) go to github.com/facebook/facebook-android-sdk
2.) download the facebook directory ONLY! The other directories are only examples.
3.) Put the files from the src (you can copy the drawables too, if you want to) in the package, you are currently working with
4.) You are good to go, you can use the facebook "SDK"
see also this example https://github.com/facebook/facebook-android-sdk/tree/master/examples/Hackbook download it , it is working example provided by facebook

just to provide an alternative answer, there's other ways of implementing sharing on Android.
It allows for more sharing options (like Twitter, QR-Barcodes, blogging and whatnot) without having to deal with the facebook android sdk.
What you would use is a "share" intent, like so:
String title = "My thing"; // used if you share through email or channels that require a headline for the content, always include this or some apps might not parse the content right
String wallPost = "Hey - check out this stuff: http://link.com "; // the content of your wallpost
String shareVia = "Share this stuff via"; // the headline for your chooser, where the phones avaliable sharing mechanisms are offered.
Intent shareIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
shareIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
shareIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, title);
shareIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, wallPost);
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(shareIntent, shareVia));
This is by far the preferred solution on Android if you're looking for simple sharing, as it makes your app future-compatible with new services. And more lean and flexible for the user too, as there's little to no friction from hitting the share button to posting content.
It can also be seen in this blog post: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/02/share-with-intents.html
I hope you can use this for your project.