Question

I have created an app with a button and wrote onClickListener for that button. I have tried several sample code examples and none of them worked. They all bring up the Android camera app and don’t take photographs. I want some code which I can put in my onClickListener so when I press the button on the screen, a picture will be taken.

How can I make the camera take a picture when I press a button in an Android activity?

Answer 1

Look at following demo code.

Here is your XML file for UI,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnCapture"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Camera" />

</LinearLayout>

And here is your Java class file,

public class CameraDemoActivity extends Activity {
    int TAKE_PHOTO_CODE = 0;
    public static int count = 0;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        // Here, we are making a folder named picFolder to store
        // pics taken by the camera using this application.
        final String dir = Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES) + "/picFolder/";
        File newdir = new File(dir);
        newdir.mkdirs();

        Button capture = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnCapture);
        capture.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(View v) {

                // Here, the counter will be incremented each time, and the
                // picture taken by camera will be stored as 1.jpg,2.jpg
                // and likewise.
                count++;
                String file = dir+count+".jpg";
                File newfile = new File(file);
                try {
                    newfile.createNewFile();
                }
                catch (IOException e)
                {
                }

                Uri outputFileUri = Uri.fromFile(newfile);

                Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
                cameraIntent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, outputFileUri);

                startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, TAKE_PHOTO_CODE);
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

        if (requestCode == TAKE_PHOTO_CODE && resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            Log.d("CameraDemo", "Pic saved");
        }
    }
}

Note:

Specify the following permissions in your manifest file,

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA"/>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>