If you are building a professional Android application with Delphi XE5 Firemonkey one thing you will want to do is create a shortcut on the Android homescreen so users can find your app after the first launch. Here is some sample code that allows you to do that using some calls to the Android SDK API. If you want to see the Java code for Android which does the same thing you can check out this and this. Keep in mind that in order for this code to work you will need to have the INSTALL_SHORTCUT permission set.
Here is the sample code but keep in mind you will need to customize the StringToJString(โcom.embarcadero.HeaderFooterApplicationโ) section to match the ID of your own application.
Uses
Androidapi.JNI.GraphicsContentViewText, FMX.Helpers.Android,
Androidapi.JNI.JavaTypes, FMX.Platform.Android, AndroidApi.JniBridge, AndroidApi.Jni.App,
AndroidAPI.jni.OS;
{$IFDEF ANDROID}
var
ShortcutIntent: JIntent;
addIntent: JIntent;
wIconIdentifier : integer;
wIconResource : JIntent_ShortcutIconResource;
{$ENDIF}
begin
{$IFDEF ANDROID}
ShortcutIntent := TJIntent.JavaClass.init(SharedActivityContext, SharedActivityContext.getClass);
ShortcutIntent.setAction(TJIntent.JavaClass.ACTION_MAIN);
addIntent := TJIntent.Create;
addIntent.putExtra(TJIntent.JavaClass.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, TJParcelable.Wrap((shortcutIntent as ILocalObject).GetObjectID));// here we need to cast the intent as it's not done in delphi by default, not like java
addIntent.putExtra(TJIntent.JavaClass.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, StringToJString(Application.Title));
addIntent.setAction(StringToJString('com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT'));
// get icon resource identifier
wIconIdentifier := SharedActivity.getResources.getIdentifier(StringToJString('ic_launcher'), StringToJString('drawable'), StringToJString('com.embarcadero.HeaderFooterApplication')); // if the app name change, you must change the package name
wIconResource := TJIntent_ShortcutIconResource.JavaClass.fromContext(SharedActivityContext, wIconIdentifier);
// set icon for shortcut
addIntent.putExtra(TJIntent.JavaClass.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, TJParcelable.Wrap((wIconResource as ILocalObject).GetObjectID));
SharedActivityContext.sendBroadcast(addIntent);
{$ENDIF}
When you application is uninstalled I believe it will remove the shortcuts from the homescreen that point to it so you donโt have to worry about cleaning them out. However, there is also an UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT permission and you can remove shortcuts that your app has created as well.
And finally you can download a full demo application which creates a shortcut.
hey,, it works ๐
(make sure to put into the onactivate and not oncreate if you want to do this auto (e.g if checking if not been done already from a settings file or similar)
It works but it creates a new shortcut each time it runs. How do you check if the shortcut is already there so it is only created once?
Save a setting to an INI file and check it next time.