README.md

Android Project

This project adds Explicit and Implicit Intents to the sample app for the Super Sweet Android Time course. The sample app is a candy store app called Candy Coded that displays a list of the store's candy and details about each candy. There is one Intent already implemented that launches the DetailActivity when a user selects a candy in the candy list in the MainActivity.

It's your job to add 4 more Intents to finish the functionality for the app!

What We're Building Overview Video

http://www.viddler.com/v/a2575089

Installing Android Studio

http://www.viddler.com/v/9e00d024

Download and Import the Android Studio Project

https://github.com/pluralsight-projects/AndroidProject

http://www.viddler.com/v/5fd51d49

Downloading the Project's Android SDK Version

TBD

How to Run the Android Studio Project on an Emulator

http://www.viddler.com/v/65700ff2

Task 1 - Show Store Information Activity

We have already added an Information MenuItem to the MainActivity. Now we'd like to launch the InfoActivy class when that MenuItem is selected.

1. We want to override the onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) method in MainActivity.java. This is where will create the Intent to open the InfoActivity. (Hint: Ctrl+O will list the Overrride methods. Then, type in the box to search and select the one you want.)
2. Our method needs to return a boolean, we will return the default call to the super class return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);.
3. On the first line of the onOptionsItemSelected() method, create the Intent for launching the InfoActivity. Call the Intent infoIntent and the two parameters to the new Intent() constructor will be this for the Context and InfoActivity.class for the Activity we want to start.
4. Next, call startActivity() with the infoIntent as a parameter to start our Intent.

Task 2 - Launch the Google Maps Activity

Our InfoActivy has a TextView with the address of our store. We want to launch Google Maps at that address when that TextView is clicked.

1. In InfoActivity.java, create a method called public void createMapIntent(View view). This is the method we'll attach to the Click Listener on the TextView later.
2. Create a Uri from the address by calling the Uri.parse() method and passing in the String with the geo location of our store "geo:0,0?q=618 E South St Orlando, FL 32801".
3. Create an Intent called mapIntent and pass two parameters to the constructor - first is the action which will be Intent.ACTION_VIEW, second is the Uri we just created.
4. Make the Intent explicit by setting the Google Maps package. We can do this with the Intent's setPackage() method and pass in the String "com.google.android.apps.maps".
5. We will attempt to start an activity that can handle the Intent. To do this create an if statement, inside call mapIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) and check that the result is not equal to null.
6. Inside the if statement we can call startActivity() with our mapIntent.
7. Now we need to connect this method to the TextView's click event. Go into the layout file activity_info.xml and add the following properties to the TextView with the id text_view_address - android:clickable="true" and android:onClick="createMapIntent".

Task 3 - Launch the Phone Activity

Our InfoActivity also has a TextView with the phone number of our store. We want to launch a dial Intent with that phone number when that TextView is clicked.

1. In InfoActivity.java, create a method called public void createPhoneIntent(View view). This is the method we'll attach to the Click Listener on the TextView later.
2. Create an Intent with action Intent.ACTION_DIAL.
3. Use the Intent setData() method and pass in a URI of the telephone number "tel:0123456789". You can create a URI with the Uri.parse() method.
4. Start the Activity with the Intent.
5. Now we need to connect this method to the button click. Go into activity_info.xml and add the following properties to the TextView with the id text_view_phone - android:clickable="true" and android:onClick="createPhoneIntent".

Task 4 - Share the Current Candy with an Intent

We have already added a Share MenuItem to the DetailActivity so that the user can share the selected Candy. Now we need to add the functionality to launch an Intent with action ACTION_SEND when that MenuItem is selected.

1. Override the public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) method and have it return the default call to the super class return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);. (Hint: Ctrl+O will list the Overrride methods. Then, type in the box to search and select the one you want.)
2. Since there is a big chunk of code to create the Intent let's do it in a separate method. Create a method called private void createShareIntent().
3. In onOptionsItemSelected(), let's call the method we just wrote createShareIntent().
4. Now inside our new createShareIntent() method, let's create an Intent called shareIntent with action ACTION_SEND.
5. Use the Intent's setType() method to set the type to "text/plain".
6. To create the String that we want to share, we can use the String variables created at the top of this file - SHARE_DESCRIPTION, mCandyImageUrl, and HASHTAG_CANDYCODED. We can concatenate them into one String variable set equal to SHARE_DESCRIPTION + mCandyImageUrl + HASHTAG_CANDYCODED.
7. Use the Intent's putExtra() method to add the text we want to share. The first parameter is the type of content Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, and the second is our concatenated String.
8. Finally, we can finish off the createShareIntent() method by calling startActivity() with our shareIntent.