Can I build an app works for phones with & without google maps capability (allow users to use the map and others to exclude this functionality)

Question

I am building an app that has multiple useful functionalities. One activity uses google maps. Can I make it so that users can use this functionality if they wish, but exclude it from older phones that cant use it (similar to how a video game can be played online or offline)? The real reason im confused is because i have to declare this in the manifest for the entire app (is there a way for me to just exclude a certain activity if users dont have map functionality?). I also will be requiring gps for the map activity, but i dont want to limit this app to only phones with these advanced functionalities since the other activities are much less complex.

Answer 1

The real reason im confused is because i have to declare this in the manifest for the entire app (is there a way for me to just exclude a certain activity if users dont have map functionality?)

You can put android:required="false" in your <uses-library> element. Then, at runtime, check to see if MapActivity exists. If it does, you have the Google Maps SDK add-on, and you can launch your MapActivity subclass. If MapActivity does not exist, do something else.

Here is a sample project that demonstrates this: https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-omnibus/tree/master/Maps/NooYawkMapless

The manifest has:

<uses-library android:name="com.google.android.maps" android:required="false" />

and the launcher activity is:

package com.commonsware.android.maps;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MapDetector extends Activity {
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle instanceState) {
    super.onCreate(instanceState);

    try {
      Class.forName("com.google.android.maps.MapActivity");
      startActivity(new Intent(this, NooYawk.class));
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
      Toast
            .makeText(this,
                       "Google Maps are not available -- sorry!",
                       Toast.LENGTH_LONG)
            .show();
    }

    finish();
  }
}

Answer 2

Yes is the short answer. You can inspect whether a handler is available for a certain intent (e.g. google maps), and if not disable the button that would open that screen.

I'l try to find the code I've used for this before...

Edit:

private boolean isCallable(Intent intent) {  
    List<ResolveInfo> list = getPackageManager().queryIntentActivities(intent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);  
    return list.size() > 0;  
}