• Navigator
• Intents

Table of contents:

Intents

An Intent provides a facility for performing late runtime binding between the code in different applications on Android platform. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities. It is basically a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an action to be performed.

Supported intents

• Intent	Category	Applications using it
  Open Navigator from menu/shortcut	LAUNCHER	System
  GEO intent	DEFAULT, BROWSABLE	Contact list, c:geo
  HTTP intent maps.google.com	DEFAULT	Yelp
  HTTPS intent maps.google.com	DEFAULT	?

Intent category

Intent category gives additional information about the action to execute. For example, CATEGORY_LAUNCHER means it should appear in the Launcher as a top-level application, while CATEGORY_ALTERNATIVE means it should be included in a list of alternative actions the user can perform on a piece of data.

• Category	Description
  BROWSABLE	Activities that can be safely invoked from a browser must support this category.
  DEFAULT	Set if the activity should be an option for the default action (center press) to perform on a piece of data.
  EMBED	Capable of running inside a parent activity container.
  HOME	This is the home activity, that is the first activity that is displayed when the device boots.
  LAUNCHER	Should be displayed in the top-level launcher.
  TAB	Intended to be used as a tab inside of a containing TabActivity.

How to open Navigator Intent from another application

Geo intent

To open Navigator using geo intent use following method

public void openGeoIntent(String address, float lat, float lon, boolean navigate)
{
  String ext = navigate ? "&navigate=yes" : "";
  Uri uri = Uri.parse("geo:" + Float.toString(lat) + "," + Float.toString(lon) + "?q=" + Uri.encode(address) + ext);
  Intent intent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
  startActivity(intent);
}

Navigator geo intent can be opened using by one of variant below

• Variant	Description
  openGeoIntent(address, lat, lon, false)	Open position defined by the coordinates and give place name from address
  openGeoIntent("", lat, lon, false)	Open position defined by the coordinates without name of place
  openGeoIntent(address, 0, 0, false)	Search for address online and open returned position
  openGeoIntent("", lat, lon, true)	Navigate to position defined by the coordinates without name of place

HTTP intent maps.google.com

To open Navigator using HTTP intent using the host maps.google.com use following method

public void openHttpIntent(String address, float lat, float lon, boolean navigate)
{
  String ext = navigate ? "&navigate=yes" : "";
  String host = "http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&daddr=";
  Uri uri = Uri.parse(host + Uri.encode(address) + "@" + Float.toString(lat) + "," + Float.toString(lon) + ext);
  Intent intent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
  startActivity(intent);
}

Navigator http intent can be opened using by one of variant below

• Variant	Description
  openHttpIntent(address, lat, lon, false)	Open position defined by the coordinates and give place name from address
  openHttpIntent("", lat, lon, false)	Open position defined by the coordinates without name of place
  openHttpIntent("", lat, lon, true)	Navigate to position defined by the coordinates without name of place

HTTPS intent maps.google.com

To open Navigator using HTTPS intent using the host maps.google.com use following method

public void openHttpsIntent(String address, float lat, float lon, boolean navigate)
{
  String ext = navigate ? "&navigate=yes" : "";
  String host = "https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&daddr=";
  Uri uri = Uri.parse(host + Uri.encode(address) + "@" + Float.toString(lat) + "," + Float.toString(lon) + ext);
  Intent intent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
  startActivity(intent);
}

This intent has same usage as HTTP intent.