Android intent for playing video?

Question

Hi! I'm trying to play video's on Android, by launching an intent. The code I'm using is:

tostart = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
tostart.setDataAndType(Uri.parse(movieurl), "video/*");
startActivity(tostart);

This works on most phones, but not on the HTC Hero. It seems to load a bit different video player. This does play the first video thrown at it. However, every video after that it doesn't respond. (it keeps in some loop).

If I add an explicit

tostart.setClassName("com.htc.album","com.htc.album.ViewVideo");

(before the startactivity) it does work on the HTC Hero. However, since this is a HTC specific call, I can't run this code on other phones (such as the G1). On the G1, this works:

tostart.setClassName("com.android.camera","com.android.camera.MovieView"); //g1 version

But this intent is missing from the hero. Does anybody know a list of intents/classnames that should be supported by all Android devices? Or a specific one to launch a video? Thanks!

Answer 1

I have come across this with the Hero, using what I thought was a published API. In the end, I used a test to see if the intent could be received:

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

In use when I would usually just start the activity:

final Intent intent = new Intent("com.android.camera.action.CROP");
intent.setClassName("com.android.camera", "com.android.camera.CropImage");
if (isCallable(intent)) {
    // call the intent as you intended.
} else {
    // make alternative arrangements.
}

obvious: If you go down this route - using non-public APIs - you must absolutely provide a fallback which you know definitely works. It doesn't have to be perfect, it can be a Toast saying that this is unsupported for this handset/device, but you should avoid an uncaught exception. end obvious.

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I find the Open Intents Registry of Intents Protocols quite useful, but I haven't found the equivalent of a TCK type list of intents which absolutely must be supported, and examples of what apps do different handsets.