Android Intent Sender is a plugin which allows you to send intents with specified data and extras to android devices or emulators with adb command
"broadcast", "startactivity", "startservice".
Full readme: here
Typical use-cases of the plugin:
- Broadcast receivers testing (including intent filters testing for custom data schemes, mime-types and so on)
- Starting activities which are deep withing an app flow (even not exported ones)
- Launching services from the IDE
- Testing receivers, activities and services with different intent extras
- ...
!! Note:
- starting not exported activities may not work on some devices (basically it does not work on some Samsung devices)
- it is not possible to test broadcast receivers registered using LocalBroadcastManager. Use Context's register receiver instead
Install the plugin automatically from the JetBrains repository or download the latest zip (https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7945?pr=) and follow next steps:
- Open the plugin manager (File -> Settings -> Plugins (on the left pane) or by typing "plugin" in find action field (Help -> Find Action))
- Click "Install a plugin from disk...", select downloaded file and click the "install" button
- Restart the IDE (will be prompted automatically)
To open the plugin window click on the "Intent sender" button on the right side of the IDE or open it from the tool windows menu (View -> Tool Windows or from the icon in the bottom left corner of the IDE).
Specify intent parameters, select a component if needed, add extras and flags, and then just click on one of the "send intent" buttons. That's it.
To restore previously sent commands you can use the button next to the "Intent parameters" section header.
If you are adding any of the array extras, type items with the comma as a separator and do not place space symbols between items
- Broadcast receiver testing.
Just set up the Action and add extras you need and click the “Send Broadcast” button. Pretty easy, isn’t it?
For example the Receiver has a code inside onReceive as following:
@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
if (action.equals("simple_intent_action")){
Log.d("SimpleReceiver", "Got intent with action: " + action + " and string extra: " + intent.getStringExtra("string_extra"));
}
}The Receiver is registered with an IntentFilter like:
IntentFilter simpleFilter = new IntentFilter("simple_intent_action");
So to send a test broadcast message to a device we need to put “simple_intent_action” as the Action, add extra with “string_extra” as a Key and any text you like as a value and press the “Send Broadcast” button. After that logs will confirm an Intent receiving:
Got intent with action: simple_intent_action and string extra: Awesome string
- Activity or Service starting.
Imagine that the MessageActivity should be launched, and the MessageActivity picks up a message id from an intent inside its onCreate (id type is long and extra Key is “messge_id”).
The component picker can be used to get the MessageActivity’s full component name and fill the User field. The Component name should be like “com.some.package/.activities.MessageActivity” and the User field is “com.some.package”. After that required extra data should be added, and it is only left to press the “Start Activity” button and checkout launched MessageActivity on a device with the defined message opened.
Of course, it can be easily checked with logging like:
Log.d(LOG_TAG, "Message id: " + getIntent().getLongExtra("messageId", -1));
- Custom data scheme testing.
Let’s say that a custom scheme like http://myhost.com/... under development and should be tested.
The scheme can be registered in the manifest with following lines of code (note: everything will work with the scheme registered programmatically too):
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
<data android:scheme="http" android:host="myhost.com"/>
</intent-filter>Inside an activity for this scheme we can put logging like:
Log.d("TAG", "Intent data: " + getIntent().getDataString());
So for testing we just put “android.intent.action.VIEW” inside the Action field and set http://myhost.com/some_data as the Data and click on the “Start Activity” button.
The app chooser will be shown on a device and after clicking on the app we can check out logs:
Intent data: http://myhost.com/some_data
The same result will be achieved if we send a test sms message with text “Testing scheme: http://myhost.com/some_data” and click on a link there.
- Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) service testing
Imagine that a class GcmBroadcastReceiver is created for GCM messages handling and a json stored in a String with a Key “message” expected.
The GcmBroadcastReceiver will be registered in the manifest with the permission android:permission="com.google.android.c2dm.permission.SEND". Unfortunately this permission will block the ADB command, and we have to remove it during tests.
Intent-filter for the GcmBroadcastReceiver:
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE" />
<category android:name="com.your.package" />
</intent-filter>To send a test GCM we need to set the Action as “com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE” and Category as “com.your.package”, add a String extra with the key “message_type” and the value “gcm”, add one more String extra “message” with the expected json as the value and click on the “Send Broadcast” button. The app will handle broadcast message we sent as it will handle a real GCM message.
- Starting not exported activities may not work on some devices (basically it does not work on some Samsung devices)
- It is not possible to test broadcast receivers registered using LocalBroadcastManager. Use Context's register receiver instead
- For now, it is not possible to attach parcelable objects as extras, but I am working on it...
Contributions are highly welcome :)
To run plugin during development, execute "Run Plugin" run configuration.
To get a zip archive, use buildPlugin gradle task
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