Question

I try to create a small file explorer on Android, and I want the system to open files when an existing application, as the default file explorer does.

For instance, if you click on a MP3 file, I want to open the media player, and the pdf reader for the PDFs, and so on.

I wasn’t able to find any source on Internet. I’m currently using this:

try {
                    Intent myIntent = new Intent(
                            android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri
                                    .parse("file://"
                                            + myFile.getAbsolutePath()));

                    startActivity(myIntent);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    Log.e(TAG, "Not possible to resolve this intent.");
                    Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
                            "This file cannot be opened from here.",
                            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

                }

But it only works for a PDFs… Any ideas about how I can have the same behavior than the file explorer without setting the right MIME type ‘manually’ in the intent?

Here is the code source of the whole project: https://github.com/rbochet/Rhizome-Retriever

Answer 1

I try to create a small file explorer on Android, and I want the system to open files when an existing application, as the default file explorer does.

Android does not have a “file explorer”, let alone a “default” one.

Any ideas about how I can have the same behavior than the file explorer without setting the right MIME type ‘manually’ in the intent?

You can’t. Add the MIME type.