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ShareActionProvider

public class ShareActionProvider
extends ActionProvider

java.lang.Object
   ↳ android.support.v4.view.ActionProvider
     ↳ android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider


Provides a share action, which is suitable for an activity's app bar. Creates views that enable data sharing. If the provider appears in the overflow menu, it creates a submenu with the appropriate sharing actions.

Adding a share action

To add a "share" action to your activity, put a ShareActionProvider in the app bar's menu resource. For example:

 <item android:id="@+id/action_share"
      android:title="@string/share"
      app:showAsAction="ifRoom"
      app:actionProviderClass="android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider"/>
 

You do not need to specify an icon, since the ShareActionProvider widget takes care of its own appearance and behavior. However, you do need to specify a title with android:title, in case the action ends up in the overflow menu.

Next, set up the intent that contains the content your activity is able to share. You should create this intent in your handler for onCreateOptionsMenu(), and update it every time the shareable content changes. To set up the intent:

  1. Get a reference to the ShareActionProvider by calling getActionProvider() and passing the share action's MenuItem. For example:
     MenuItem shareItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_share);
     ShareActionProvider myShareActionProvider =
         (ShareActionProvider) MenuItemCompat.getActionProvider(shareItem);
  2. Create an intent with the ACTION_SEND action, and attach the content shared by the activity. For example, the following intent shares an image:
     Intent myShareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
     myShareIntent.setType("image/*");
     myShareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, myImageUri);
  3. Call setShareIntent() to attach this intent to the action provider:
     myShareActionProvider.setShareIntent(myShareIntent);
     
  4. When the content changes, modify the intent or create a new one, and call setShareIntent() again. For example:
     // Image has changed! Update the intent:
     myShareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, myNewImageUri);
     myShareActionProvider.setShareIntent(myShareIntent);

Share target rankings

The share action provider retains a ranking for each share target, based on how often the user chooses each one. The more often a user chooses a target, the higher its rank; the most-commonly used target appears in the app bar as the default target.

By default, the target ranking information is stored in a private file with the name specified by DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME. Ordinarily, the share action provider stores all the history in this single file. However, using a single set of rankings may not make sense if the share action provider is used for different kinds of content. For example, if the activity sometimes shares images and sometimes shares contacts, you would want to maintain two different sets of rankings.

To set the history file, call setShareHistoryFileName() and pass the name of an XML file. The file you specify is used until the next time you call setShareHistoryFileName().

See also:

Summary

Nested classes

interface ShareActionProvider.OnShareTargetSelectedListener

Listener for the event of selecting a share target. 

Constants

String DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME

The default name for storing share history.

Public constructors

ShareActionProvider(Context context)

Creates a new instance.

Public methods

boolean hasSubMenu()

Determines if this ActionProvider has a submenu associated with it.

View onCreateActionView()

Factory method for creating new action views.

void onPrepareSubMenu(SubMenu subMenu)

Called to prepare an associated submenu for the menu item backed by this ActionProvider.

void setOnShareTargetSelectedListener(ShareActionProvider.OnShareTargetSelectedListener listener)

Sets a listener to be notified when a share target has been selected.

void setShareHistoryFileName(String shareHistoryFile)

Sets the file name of a file for persisting the share history which history will be used for ordering share targets.

void setShareIntent(Intent shareIntent)

Sets an intent with information about the share action.

Inherited methods

From class android.support.v4.view.ActionProvider
From class java.lang.Object

Constants

DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME

String DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME

The default name for storing share history.

Constant Value: "share_history.xml"

Public constructors

ShareActionProvider

ShareActionProvider (Context context)

Creates a new instance.

Parameters
context Context: Context for accessing resources.

Public methods

hasSubMenu

boolean hasSubMenu ()

Determines if this ActionProvider has a submenu associated with it.

Associated submenus will be shown when an action view is not. This provider instance will receive a call to onPrepareSubMenu(SubMenu) after the call to onPerformDefaultAction() and before a submenu is displayed to the user.

Returns
boolean true if the item backed by this provider should have an associated submenu

onCreateActionView

View onCreateActionView ()

Factory method for creating new action views.

Returns
View A new action view.

onPrepareSubMenu

void onPrepareSubMenu (SubMenu subMenu)

Called to prepare an associated submenu for the menu item backed by this ActionProvider.

if hasSubMenu() returns true, this method will be called when the menu item is selected to prepare the submenu for presentation to the user. Apps may use this to create or alter submenu content right before display.

Parameters
subMenu SubMenu: Submenu that will be displayed

setOnShareTargetSelectedListener

void setOnShareTargetSelectedListener (ShareActionProvider.OnShareTargetSelectedListener listener)

Sets a listener to be notified when a share target has been selected. The listener can optionally decide to handle the selection and not rely on the default behavior which is to launch the activity.

Note: If you choose the backing share history file you will still be notified in this callback.

Parameters
listener ShareActionProvider.OnShareTargetSelectedListener: The listener.

setShareHistoryFileName

void setShareHistoryFileName (String shareHistoryFile)

Sets the file name of a file for persisting the share history which history will be used for ordering share targets. This file will be used for all view created by onCreateActionView(). Defaults to DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME. Set to null if share history should not be persisted between sessions.

Note: The history file name can be set any time, however only the action views created by onCreateActionView() after setting the file name will be backed by the provided file. Therefore, if you want to use different history files for sharing specific types of content, every time you change the history file with setShareHistoryFileName(String) you must call supportInvalidateOptionsMenu() to recreate the action view. You should not call supportInvalidateOptionsMenu() from onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu).

 private void doShare(Intent intent) {
     if (IMAGE.equals(intent.getMimeType())) {
         mShareActionProvider.setHistoryFileName(SHARE_IMAGE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME);
     } else if (TEXT.equals(intent.getMimeType())) {
         mShareActionProvider.setHistoryFileName(SHARE_TEXT_HISTORY_FILE_NAME);
     }
     mShareActionProvider.setIntent(intent);
     supportInvalidateOptionsMenu();
 }
 

Parameters
shareHistoryFile String: The share history file name.

setShareIntent

void setShareIntent (Intent shareIntent)

Sets an intent with information about the share action. Here is a sample for constructing a share intent:

  Intent shareIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
  shareIntent.setType("image/*");
  Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(new File(getFilesDir(), "foo.jpg"));
  shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uri.toString());
 

Parameters
shareIntent Intent: The share intent.

See also:

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