How to provide content for Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT

Question

The web and stackoverflow contain several examples how to get a file from another Android app (e.g., to use it as email attachment) using an ACTION_GET_CONTENT intent. But what kind of class do I have to implement to create an application providing content for the ACTION_GET_CONTENT event such as I can choose this app (e.g., for selecting an email attachment).

Is a ContentProvider the right solution? And what do I have to add to my AndroidManifest.xml?

Answer 1

After some hours of web search I found the following solution.

1. Implement an Activity handling intents. Within, use the following or more specific code:

   Uri resultUri = // the thing to return
   Intent result = new Intent();
   result.setData(resultUri);
   setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, result);
   finish();
   

2. Add the following to the Manifest:

   <activity
       android:name="ActivityName"
       android:label="Some label" >
       <intent-filter>
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.GET_CONTENT" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.OPENABLE" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
           <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
       </intent-filter>
       <intent-filter>
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.PICK" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
           <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
       </intent-filter>
   </activity>
   

Answer 2

starting from api level 18 incoming intent can also have EXTRA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE set to true and in this case you can send back in result more than one file. To do so you need to set it as ClipData:

resultIntent.setClipData(clipData)