Question

I’m trying to discern, during onStart(), whether my Activity was started from the home screen or “back” from another activity.

getIntent().hasCategory("android.intent.category.LAUNCHER")

does not work, as the activity’s intent stays the same.

I want to display a dialog box when the main activity starts, but I don’t want it popping up every time a user goes back to the main activity after visiting another.

Is there any way to accomplish this?

Thanks for any help!
-Chase

Answer 1

Yes it is possible to launch a dialog box only when the main activity starts the first time, but I save state on a soft kill. So if you save state in onSaveInstanceState on a soft kill you can look for a null bundle in onCreate. If the bundle is null, then this is the first launch. If the bundle is not null, then you are returning from a soft kill. If you save state in onRetainNonConfigurationState then the code looks like:

    // RESTORE STATE HERE
    // Save state in onStop (prefs) and onRetainNonConfigurationInstance (ConfuseTextState)
    state= (ConfuseTextState)getLastNonConfigurationInstance();
    if (state != null) {  // at least second pass, get non view state from onRetainNonConfigurationInstance
        try {               
            this.isShowCharCount= state.isShowCharCount;
                this.timeExpire= state.timeExpire;
                this.timeoutType= state.timeoutType;
                this.isValidKey= state.isValidKey;
                this.password= state.password;
                this.isAutoLaunch= state.isAutoLaunch;
                //Log.d(TAG,"restoredStateFromLastConfiguration");
        }
        catch(Exception e){
            Log.d(Utilities.TAG,"FailedToRestoreState",e);
        }
    }
    else { // first pass, get saved state from preferences on first pass if they exist
        // Restore preferences (8) on hard kill when USER hit back and killed us
        SharedPreferences prefs = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE); // singleton
        if (prefs  != null){...
        }   // else state is from xml files and default instance values
        // SUPPORT EASY LAUNCH
        if (isAutoLaunch){ // launch on first show only
            this.showDialog(DIALOG_EASY_LAUNCH); //<== SHOW YOUR ALERT HERE!
        }
    }