How to start android activity from eclipse with custom Intent
adb, android, android-intent, eclipse
Solution
If your still using eclipse you probably need need to create a simple ant script with a custom task to execute the test. ADB shell has a command to start activities where you can also specify extra's
am [start|instrument]
am start [-a <action>] [-d ]
[-t <mime_type>] [-c <category> [-c <category>] ...]
[-e <extra_key> <extra_value>
[-e <extra_key> <extra_value> ...]
[-n <component>] [-D] [<uri>]
am instrument [-e <arg_name> <arg_value>] [-p <prof_file>] [-w] <component>
You would pass them like this:
am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -c android.intent.category.DEFAULT -e foo bar -e bert ernie -n org.package.name/.MyCustomActivity
P.S. don't forget the dot before the activity.
This can be translated to an ant target which you should put in the ant script.
<target name="run">
<exec executable="adb">
<arg value="shell"/>
<arg value="am"/>
<arg value="start"/>
<arg value="-a"/>
<arg value="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<arg value="-e"/>
<arg value="extra_key extra_value"/>
<arg value="-n"/>
<arg value="{package.name}/{activity}"/>
</exec>
</target>
which you can execute like this: `ant debug install run`
How to run ant files from eclipse see:
- Eclipse Help ant
- Eclipse Help Application launcher
Problem
I would like, for multiple testing purposes, start my android activity from Eclipse with specific data on the intent (e.g. extra data like a file name to load). Where in the menus can I provide this? - In the run configuration, there are nothing in the 3 tabs to provide any arguments - I could change some parameters in the resources files but I am afraid I might leak resources which will go to the final application. - It is possible to do it in adb: See here but it is not currently associatable with the F11 launch command in Eclipse that is useful for recompiling and relaunching at the same time.