Link to web with specific browser

Question

I want to fix my Android app up to show 12s clips of videos with the ability to click on a button to go to the webpage built for each specific clip. Then, revert back to the Starplayer (monoboom.co) app.

My question is...how to specify Firefox as the browser to use. Perhaps Explorer or Chrome.

Then there will be a Flash video and lots of fun stuff related to each specific preview, but that's beside the point.

When a jpeg sprite sheet containing 144 images at 12fps and a button is there to see more, then retreat, (and a "Next!" button, of course) how do I specify the browser?

Answer 1

In my opinion, it is better to let the user select which browser to use when opening a webpage or a link.

You can broadcast an intent(with the link that you want it to go to) like so:

String url = "";//your url
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
intent.setData(Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(intent);

Sources: Link1, Link2

Answering your question though, I think it is possible. I did some quick reasearch and I saw this answer. This answer is shorter but might fullfill your needs. Basically, you will create an intent like so:

Intent intent = getPackageManager()
    .getLaunchIntentForPackage("browser.package.name");
String url = "";//your url
intent.setData(Uri.parse(url));
startActivity(intent);

For the package names, firefox package name is:

org.mozilla.firefox

I got this from their Google Play page

Google Chrome's package name is:

com.android.chrome

Also from their Google Play page

Bonus: Opera Mini :D

com.opera.mini.android

From their Google Play page

For the default android Browser:

com.google.android.browser or com.android.browser

I got this from this answer.

Now before launching your intent, we must do a little checking if the browser is installed. We can do this like so: (I based this on from here too)

public void launchABrowserForUrl(String url) {
    PackageManager packageManager = getPackageManager();

    // Might be better declared as constants somewhere safer,
    // But for the sake of simplicty, declared here
    String[] browserPackageNames = {
        "org.mozilla.firefox",
        "com.android.chrome",
        "com.google.android.browser",
        "com.android.browser"
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < browserPackageNames.length; i++) {
        Intent intent = getPackageManager()
            .getLaunchIntentForPackage(browserPackageNames[i]);

        List<ResolveInfo> appsThatCanLaunchThisIntent = packageManager
            .queryIntentActivities(intent, 0);

        if (appsThatCanLaunchThisIntent.size() > 0) {
            intent.setData(Uri.parse(url));
            startActivity(intent);

            return;
        }
    }

    // Code reached here, meaning for some reason no browser was detected
    // Pop an error message or something
}

Answer 2

This answers your question.

Key/Relevant information:

To do this using opera mini as an example browser to open:

String packageName = "com.opera.mini.android";
String className = "com.opera.mini.android.Browser";
Intent internetIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
internetIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
internetIntent.setClassName(packageName, className);
startActivity(internetIntent);

For other browsers, you can find the package and class name by doing the following:

• connect android phone to pc
• open Android Logcat
• launch the browser from the mobile phone

In Android Logcat, you will see something like this:

07-22 14:06:14.662: INFO/ActivityManager(148): Starting activity: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10200000 cmp=com.opera.mini.android/.Browser }

The class name will be shown in the 'cmp' attribute: cmp=com.opera.mini.android/.Browser

In this case, the package name is com.opera.mini.android and the class name is com.opera.mini.android.Browser.

Example I (Karma Hunter) wrote of the activity's class if you are opening it by use of a button:

package com.company.name;

import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;


public class ActivityName extends Activity {

@Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        openOpera();
    }

    public void openOpera() {

        final Context context = this;

        button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonid);

        button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onClick(View argument1) {

                String packageName = "com.opera.mini.android";
                String className = "com.opera.mini.android.Browser";
                Intent internetIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
                internetIntent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER);
                internetIntent.setClassName(packageName, className);
                startActivity(internetIntent);   

            }

        });

    }