How to Launch an Activity like LauncherPro does

[baudi]

I have been trying to figure out how LauncherPro is able to launch an
activity, such as starting Vlingo in listen mode rather than starting
on the "Tap & Speak" mode. When LauncherPro lists Vlingo activities,
one of the activities it lists is
"com.vlingo.client.asr.RecognizeActivity". And if you choose that for
your shortcut, it will start Vlingo in listen mode when you click it.

I had been trying to use Tasker's Action Intent with that as the
"Action," but that's wrong. If you look at the Vlingo Manifest, you'll
see the following:

name="com.vlingo.client.asr.RecognizeActivity"
configChanges="0xb0">
<intent-filter>
<action name="com.vlingo.client.actions.RECOGNIZE">
</action>
<category name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT">
</category>
</intent-filter>
</activity>

This lists the "action name" as "com.vlingo.client.actions.RECOGNIZE".
If you use that as the Tasker action, and "Default" as the category,
it works! Sort of obvious once you see it laid out this way.

To examine the manifest of .apk files on your phone, you'll need a
program called ManifestExplorer.apk, which you can find here.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2391622/launching-google-finance-and-display-graph-on-a-particular-stock-is-that-possibl

[dbs]

I'd very much like to be able to use tasker to launch Vlingo in listen
mode too but I don't know how to use action intents and can't
understand the little snippets that I've read in the various help
screens. Could you please share an annotated version of the the
profile and task that you are using? Thank you!

> program called ManifestExplorer.apk, which you can find here.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2391622/launching-google-finance-a...

[baudi]

Tasks | Misc | Action Intent
Action: com.vlingo.client.actions.RECOGNIZE
Cat: Default
Target: Activity

Case matters. You can make that action part of any profile you want.

[WPWoodJr]

OT, but why use VLingo when you have Google voice recognition?

[baudi]

We should discuss Vlingo v. Google Voice on a separate thread, since
this one is about how to launch activities the way LauncherPro does.

[short/y]

While I like and use ManifestExplorer, I just want to point out that
you can view the manifest by unzipping the APK and looking at
AndroidManifest.xml. Prior to ManifestExplorer, I used Astro to
inspect the APK and view the manifest.
--
Tony

> program called ManifestExplorer.apk, which you can find here.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2391622/launching-google-finance-a...

[baudi]

That works for some .apk files, but not all. In some, the
AndroidManifest.xml is in a compressed binary form even after it's
extracted. ManifestExplorer knows how to translate that binary format
to .xml. The Vlingo .apk is in this category: without ManifestExplorer
its manifest file is unreadable.

[short/y]

Hmm ... never encountered that myself but I guess maybe I haven't
looked at as many manifests as I thought. I wonder what type of
compression they're using?

You may be interested in the rest of the tools that iSec Partners has
(the authors of ManifestExplorer): https://www.isecpartners.com/mobile_application_tools.html.
They're all source -- no APKs.
--
Tony

[Ozgreg]

Yeah I seen binary encoded android manifests before, a compressed XML
takes up less room however I argue that diskspace is cheap, cpu cycles
are not, thus why add extra overheads for the sake of a 1kb or two..

[matthew.hewitson]

I like the possibilitys of using the intent function.
However I am trying to get an auto tweet based on context and i
thought it would be the easiest way but to no avail.
Both Twitter for Android and Touiteur have been tried and I just cant
get them to do anything via the intent option.
If anyone has any suggestions or advice....

[baudi]

The only suggestion I have is to contact the developer of the program
you want to interact with and ask him to provide an intent that will
do what you want. Sometimes the intent actually already exists, but
the developer hasn't documented it.

Some have said that it's sometimes possible to discover an
undocumented intent by looking at the logcat after causing a program
to do whatever it is you want it to do, but so far that hasn't worked
for me.

On Oct 23, 5:31 pm, "matthew.hewitson" <matthew.hewit...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Ozgreg]

I have been searching high and low for a better intent documenter that
what has already been posted but so far, that is about it..

Shame, as I am a massive fan of intents and I tend to use them a lot
when running apps

[Calvin]

Hi,

maybe one of you can help me with this.
Through LauncherPro I can start an activity to open de HTC Clock (HTC
Desire 2.2) in 'NightClock' mode.

When I try to accomplish this using a Tasker Action Intent I fail
every time.
What I found in the manifest file of com.htc.android.worldclock:
<activity
theme="@16973831"
label="Desk Clock"
icon="res/drawable-hdpi/ic_desk_clock.png"
name="NightClock"
launchMode="2"
screenOrientation="4">
<intent-filter>
<action
name="android.intent.action.MAIN">
</action>
<category
name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER">
</category>
</intent-filter>
</activity>

I can't get it to work with this information. (the LauncherPro
activity lists as com.htc.android.worldclock.NightClock)
The only actions I see here are android.intent actions, no info how to
start the NightClock.

Any ideas?

TIA!

On Oct 22, 1:07 am, baudi <dch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have been trying to figure out how LauncherPro is able to launch anactivity, such as starting Vlingo in listen mode rather than starting

> on the "Tap & Speak" mode. When LauncherPro lists Vlingo activities,
> one of the activities it lists is
> "com.vlingo.client.asr.RecognizeActivity". And if you choose that for
> your shortcut, it will start Vlingo in listen mode when you click it.
>
> I had been trying to use Tasker's Action Intent with that as the
> "Action," but that's wrong. If you look at the Vlingo Manifest, you'll
> see the following:
>
> name="com.vlingo.client.asr.RecognizeActivity"
> configChanges="0xb0">
>     <intent-filter>
>      <action name="com.vlingo.client.actions.RECOGNIZE">
>     </action>
>      <category name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT">
>     </category>
>    </intent-filter>
>   </activity>
>
> This lists the "action name" as "com.vlingo.client.actions.RECOGNIZE".
> If you use that as the Tasker action, and "Default" as the category,
> it works! Sort of obvious once you see it laid out this way.
>
> To examine the manifest of .apk files on your phone, you'll need a

> program called ManifestExplorer.apk, which you can find here.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2391622/launching-google-finance-a...

[baudi]

If that's all that's in the manifest, then no, I don't know how you
would start it.

[Hagure]

Perhaps ya'll here can help me with this issue?

http://groups.google.com/group/tasker/browse_thread/thread/707e98617f9e0dba