Calling PICK_CONTACT Intent not from an Activity

Question

So I can display Android's contact selecton activity by calling

startActivityForResult(intent, PICK_CONTACT); 

and i can get the selected contact by overriding onActivityResult

public void onActivityResult(int reqCode, int resultCode, Intent data) { 
  super.onActivityResult(reqCode, resultCode, data); 
}

Trouble is onActivityResult is only available when I am calling from an Activity myself. If I am in a DialogPreference for instance how would i get at the selected contact because I do not have an onActivityResult to override ?

TIA

Pat Long

Answer 1

I know you want to create a custom DialogPreference to Pick a Contact as proposed in the other question, you indeed need to launch the intent to pick the contact and get the result.

I see you need to create a private class that extends Activity in your own DialogPreference class. And you will use that class and the onActivityResult.

You are doing a great job, keep up the good work.

Answer 2

So I know this problem is old and has been answered, but I was having the same problems mentioned in the comments. I had this problem trying to launch an ACTION_GET_CONTENT intent from a class I derived from Preference. Using Pentium10's suggestion, I created a new class derived from Activity to launch the intent and grab the result. I called this class SurrogateActivity and it looks like this:

public class SurrogateActivity extends Activity {

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstance){
    super.onCreate(savedInstance);
    Intent chooseFileIntent = new Intent();
    chooseFileIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
    // In my case I need an audio file path
    chooseFileIntent.setType("audio/*");
    startActivityForResult(chooseFileIntent, 0);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if(resultCode == RESULT_OK){
         Uri audioPath = data.getData();
         // Use SharedPreferences.Editor to update preference value
         SharedPreferences.Editor prefsEditor = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this).edit();
         prefsEditor.putString(Keys.PREF_ALERT, audioPath.toString());
         prefsEditor.commit();
    }
    // finish this "hidden" activity on any result
    finish();
}

}

In my custom Preference class, I wanted the picker to launch when the use taps the preference. I set onClick() to launch my SurrogateActivity class which then in turn launches the intent I really need in its onCreate method.

    @Override
protected void onClick(){
    super.onClick();
    Intent launchHiddenActivity = new Intent(getContext(), SurrogateActivity.class);
    getContext().startActivity(launchHiddenActivity);
}

Pentium10 suggested a private class inside your Preference class, but when I tried this, Android couldn't instantiate it. Also, remember to add your "surrogate activity" to your manifest.