Question

Okay, here is my problem. I have a Service that receives Push notifications. Now, depending on the content of the push notification it should start the corresponding application, if clicked on it.

I got no problem receiving the push notifications or using the service, the only thing I can’t get to work, is the part where it has the open the right application.

What do I need to do, to open an application from a Service? This has to be dynamically, since there will be multiple apps working with this service.

It would be great if anyone could point me into the right direction.

PS. I am using GCM service, which I put into a library, so I can use it in multiple apps of mine. This is the GCMIntentService.onMessage() function in which I need to check the content of the url and then set the right intent for the notification:

@Override
protected void onMessage(Context arg0, Intent arg1)
{
    Log.i(TAG, "new message = " + arg1.getExtras());

    //Get a reference to the NotificationManager
    String ns = Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE;
    NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(ns);

    //Instantiate the Notification      
    int icon = getResourseIdByName(arg0.getApplicationContext().getPackageName(), "drawable", "notification_icon");
    CharSequence tickerText = arg1.getExtras().getString("tickertext");
    long when = System.currentTimeMillis();

    Notification notification = new Notification(icon, tickerText, when);

    //Define the notification's message and PendingIntent 
    Context context = getApplicationContext();
    CharSequence contentTitle = arg1.getExtras().getString("contentTitle");
    CharSequence contentText = arg1.getExtras().getString("contentText");

    Intent notificationIntent = null;

    if(arg1.getExtras().getString("url").isEmpty())
    {
        notificationIntent = new Intent(this, arg1.getExtras().getString("packageName").getClass());
    }
    else
    {
        notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MyWebView.class);
    }

    PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, notificationIntent, Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

    notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, contentTitle, contentText, contentIntent);
    notification.flags = Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL;

    //Pass the Notification to the NotificationManager
    int notificationId = Integer.parseInt(arg1.getExtras().getString("notificationId"));

    mNotificationManager.notify(notificationId, notification);
}

Answer 1

Applications can be launched using Intents. You need to construct correct PendingIntent object, like this:

Intent targetIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null);
targetIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
ComponentName cn = new ComponentName("target_app_package_name", "target_activity_class_name");
targetIntent.setComponent(cn);
PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, targetIntent, Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

If you didn’t know target package or target Activity, you can use following code:

Intent startingIntent = context.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("target_app_package_name");
context.startActivity(startingIntent);