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1page.title=Getting a Result from an Activity
2page.tags=intents
3helpoutsWidget=true
4
5trainingnavtop=true
6
7@jd:body
8
9<div id="tb-wrapper">
10  <div id="tb">
11
12<h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
13<ol>
14  <li><a href="#StartActivity">Start the Activity</a></li>
15  <li><a href="#ReceiveResult">Receive the Result</a></li>
16</ol>
17
18<h2>You should also read</h2>
19<ul>
20    <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/sharing/index.html">Sharing Simple Data</a></li>
21    <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/secure-file-sharing/index.html">Sharing Files</a>
22</ul>
23
24  </div>
25</div>
26
27<p>Starting another activity doesn't have to be one-way. You can also start another activity and
28receive a result back. To receive a result, call {@link android.app.Activity#startActivityForResult
29startActivityForResult()} (instead of {@link android.app.Activity#startActivity
30startActivity()}).</p>
31
32<p>For example, your app can start a camera app and receive the captured photo as a result. Or, you
33might start the People app in order for the user to select a
34contact and you'll receive the contact details as a result.</p>
35
36<p>Of course, the activity that responds must be designed to return a result. When it does, it
37sends the result as another {@link android.content.Intent} object. Your activity receives it in
38the {@link android.app.Activity#onActivityResult onActivityResult()} callback.</p>
39
40<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> You can use explicit or implicit intents when you call
41{@link android.app.Activity#startActivityForResult startActivityForResult()}. When starting one of
42your own activities to receive a result, you should use an explicit intent to ensure that you
43receive the expected result.</p>
44
45
46<h2 id="StartActivity">Start the Activity</h2>
47
48<p>There's nothing special about the {@link android.content.Intent} object you use when starting
49an activity for a result, but you do need to pass an additional integer argument to the {@link
50android.app.Activity#startActivityForResult startActivityForResult()} method.</p>
51
52<p>The integer argument is a "request code" that identifies your request. When you receive the
53result {@link android.content.Intent}, the callback provides the same request code so that your
54app can properly identify the result and determine how to handle it.</p>
55
56<p>For example, here's how to start an activity that allows the user to pick a contact:</p>
57
58<pre>
59static final int PICK_CONTACT_REQUEST = 1;  // The request code
60...
61private void pickContact() {
62    Intent pickContactIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, Uri.parse("content://contacts"));
63    pickContactIntent.setType(Phone.CONTENT_TYPE); // Show user only contacts w/ phone numbers
64    startActivityForResult(pickContactIntent, PICK_CONTACT_REQUEST);
65}
66</pre>
67
68
69<h2 id="ReceiveResult">Receive the Result</h2>
70
71<p>When the user is done with the subsequent activity and returns, the system calls your activity's
72{@link android.app.Activity#onActivityResult onActivityResult()} method. This method includes three
73arguments:</p>
74
75<ul>
76  <li>The request code you passed to {@link
77android.app.Activity#startActivityForResult startActivityForResult()}.</li>
78  <li>A result code specified by the second activity. This is either {@link
79android.app.Activity#RESULT_OK} if the operation was successful or {@link
80android.app.Activity#RESULT_CANCELED} if the user backed out or the operation failed for some
81reason.</li>
82  <li>An {@link android.content.Intent} that carries the result data.</li>
83</ul>
84
85<p>For example, here's how you can handle the result for the "pick a contact" intent:</p>
86
87<pre>
88&#64;Override
89protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
90    // Check which request we're responding to
91    if (requestCode == PICK_CONTACT_REQUEST) {
92        // Make sure the request was successful
93        if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
94            // The user picked a contact.
95            // The Intent's data Uri identifies which contact was selected.
96
97            // Do something with the contact here (bigger example below)
98        }
99    }
100}
101</pre>
102
103<p>In this example, the result {@link android.content.Intent} returned by
104Android's Contacts or People app provides a content {@link android.net.Uri} that identifies the
105contact the user selected.</p>
106
107<p>In order to successfully handle the result, you must understand what the format of the result
108{@link android.content.Intent} will be. Doing so is easy when the activity returning a result is
109one of your own activities. Apps included with the Android platform offer their own APIs that
110you can count on for specific result data. For instance, the People app always returns a result
111with the content URI that identifies the selected contact, and the
112Camera app returns a {@link android.graphics.Bitmap} in the {@code "data"} extra (see the class
113about <a href="{@docRoot}training/camera/index.html">Capturing Photos</a>).</p>
114
115
116<h4>Bonus: Read the contact data</h4>
117
118<p>The code above showing how to get a result from the People app doesn't go into
119details about how to actually read the data from the result, because it requires more advanced
120discussion about <a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/providers/content-providers.html">content
121providers</a>. However, if you're curious, here's some more code that shows how to query the
122result data to get the phone number from the selected contact:</p>
123
124<pre>
125&#64;Override
126protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
127    // Check which request it is that we're responding to
128    if (requestCode == PICK_CONTACT_REQUEST) {
129        // Make sure the request was successful
130        if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
131            // Get the URI that points to the selected contact
132            Uri contactUri = data.getData();
133            // We only need the NUMBER column, because there will be only one row in the result
134            String[] projection = {Phone.NUMBER};
135
136            // Perform the query on the contact to get the NUMBER column
137            // We don't need a selection or sort order (there's only one result for the given URI)
138            // CAUTION: The query() method should be called from a separate thread to avoid blocking
139            // your app's UI thread. (For simplicity of the sample, this code doesn't do that.)
140            // Consider using {@link android.content.CursorLoader} to perform the query.
141            Cursor cursor = getContentResolver()
142                    .query(contactUri, projection, null, null, null);
143            cursor.moveToFirst();
144
145            // Retrieve the phone number from the NUMBER column
146            int column = cursor.getColumnIndex(Phone.NUMBER);
147            String number = cursor.getString(column);
148
149            // Do something with the phone number...
150        }
151    }
152}
153</pre>
154
155<p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Before Android 2.3 (API level 9), performing a query
156on the {@link android.provider.ContactsContract.Contacts Contacts Provider} (like the one shown
157above) requires that your app declare the {@link
158android.Manifest.permission#READ_CONTACTS} permission (see <a
159href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/security/security.html">Security and Permissions</a>). However,
160beginning with Android 2.3, the Contacts/People app grants your app a temporary
161permission to read from the Contacts Provider when it returns you a result. The temporary permission
162applies only to the specific contact requested, so you cannot query a contact other than the one
163specified by the intent's {@link android.net.Uri}, unless you do declare the {@link
164android.Manifest.permission#READ_CONTACTS} permission.</p>
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