Message objects passed between Android application components.

In Android, applications and application components cannot directly communicate with each other. In order to communicate with another application, use an intent. An intent is a message sent to the Android OS. Android directs the message to an application or application component based on the intent's settings.

To receive an intent, an application needs to declare an Intent Filter. An intent filter indicates to the Android OS that your application can handle certain data types or URIs. For details on using Intent Filters, see the Android Intent Filters guide.

Intents can be used to start an activity, start a service or start a broadcast.

• To create an intent to start an Activity, use the Titanium.Android.createIntent method.
• To create an intent to start a Broadcast, use the Titanium.Android.createBroadcastIntent method.
• To create an intent to start a Service, use the Titanium.Android.createServiceIntent method.

You can create either an implicit intent or an explicit intent.

An explicit intent specifies the application or application component to launch. To create an explicit intent, specify the Intent's className and packageName properties to specify the application component to launch or the url property to specify a JavaScript file to handle the data.

An implicit intent does not specify a particular application. Android will present the options to the user of which applications to launch if a default application was not selected to handle a particular data type or content URI. To create an implicit intent, do not specify the className, packageName or url properties.

Note that the parameters to create a Service Intent are different than the ones used to create an Activity or Broadcast. The properties and methods listed below are used for Activity and Broadcast Intents. See the Titanium.Android.createServiceIntent method for the parameters to create a Service Intent.

Action

The action property specifies the action you want the activity to perform, or in the case of broadcasts, the action that just completed you want to report.

Titanium exposes some of the Android Intent actions as the Titanium.Android.ACTION_* constants. Note that some of these actions are for system-level broadcasts that only Android can send. If Titanium has not exposed a particular constant, you can pass the string value listed in the Android API reference guide instead.

You can also define your own custom action names. Use a reverse domain scheme to name the action to avoid potential conflicts, for example, com.appcelerator.action.LINT. Custom actions are only useful to communicate between your applications and application activities using intents.

Data

The data property specifies a content URI you want the activity to handle.

The type property specifies a MIME type the activity can handle.

For Broadcast Intents, do not use the data or type properties. Use extras to pass data. See the Extras section below.

Category

Add a category to your Intent by invoking the addCategory() method on it. A category provides additional details about the purpose of the intent. Note that most categories are only useful for intent filters.

Titanium exposes some of the Android Intent categories as the Titanium.Android.CATEGORY_* constants. Note that some of these categories are for Notifications. If Titanium has not exposed a particular constant, you can pass the string value listed in the Android API reference instead.

You can also define your own custom category names. Use a reverse domain scheme to name the category to avoid potential conflicts, for example, org.foo.category.SUPER. Custom categories are only useful to communicate between your applications and application activities using intents.

Flags

Bitwise-OR flags with the Intent's flags property or pass a flag to the addFlags() method. Flags modify the behavior of the intent.

Titanium exposes some of the Android Intent flags as the Titanium.Android.FLAG_* constants. If Titanium has not exposed a particular constant, you can pass the constant value listed in the Android API reference instead.

Extras

Extras are key-value pairs that are useful to pass on extra data with the Intent that can be used by another application component.

• Use one of the get*Extra() methods to retrieve the data. Pass the method the extra key.
• Use the hasExtra() method to check if the intent contains an extra. Pass the method the key of the extra.
• Use the putExtra() method to add data to the intent. Pass the method the extra key and data.

Titanium exposes the Android-defined extra keys as the Titanium.Android.EXTRA_* constants. You can also define your own custom extra keys to use between your applications and application components.

Further Reading

• Android Intents guide
• Android Developer: Intent

Examples

Create an Intent for Launching an Activity

This example creates an intent and uses it to launch a new activity.

var intent = Ti.Android.createIntent({
    action: Ti.Android.ACTION_MAIN,
    url: 'activity1.js'
});
intent.addCategory(Ti.Android.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
Ti.Android.currentActivity.startActivity(intent);

Create an Intent to get a Contact URI

This example creates an intent to retrieve contact information from the user's contacts.

var intent = Ti.Android.createIntent({
    action: Ti.Android.ACTION_GET_CONTENT,
    type: "vnd.android.cursor.item/phone"
});

Pick a Photo from the Photo Gallery

This example creates an intent to pick an image from the photo gallery.

var intent = Ti.Android.createIntent({
    action: Ti.Android.ACTION_PICK,
    type: "image/*"
});
intent.addCategory(Ti.Android.CATEGORY_DEFAULT);

Create an ImageView from an Image Send Intent

This example requires that an intent filter be set up in the project's tiapp.xml file. After copying the default root activity of your application from the AndroidManifest.xml file to the Android manifest section of the tiapp.xml file, add an intent filter. For detailed instructions, refer to the Android Intent Filters guide.

You can trigger this intent filter by long pressing on an image in the Android gallery and selecting "share".

tiapp.xml:

<ti:app>
    <android>
        <manifest>
            <application>
                <activity android:name=".YourapplicationnameActivity">
                    <intent-filter>
                        <data android:mimeType="image/*"/>
                        <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"/>
                        <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
                    </intent-filter>
                </activity>
            </application>
        </manifest>
    </android>
</ti:app>

app.js:

 var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
     backgroundColor: '#fff',
     fullscreen: false,
     exitOnClose: true
 });
 win.addEventListener('open', function(e) {
     var intent = Ti.Android.currentActivity.getIntent();
     var iname = Ti.Android.EXTRA_STREAM;
     if (intent && intent.hasExtra(iname)) {
         // Create ImageView from TiBlob
         var blob = intent.getBlobExtra(iname);
         win.add(Ti.UI.createImageView({
             image: blob,
             height: 300,
             width: 300,
             left: 0,
             top: 0
         }));
     } else {
         Ti.API.info('No extra named "' + iname + '" found in Intent');
     }
 });
 win.open();

• 1.5

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