How to launch implicit intent from a QR Code result?

Question

I have built a QR scanning application (written in Kotlin, for Android). It scans for a QR code and then returns the URL after its scanned like so.

However, I wish to take it a step further and actually launch the return value of the QR code into a search engine of an internet application and have it display the results of what the QR code had intended. How would I get the application to get the returned URL and redirect the user to the intended place?

Here is my MainActivity.kt for reference:

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private lateinit var codeScanner: CodeScanner

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        val scannerView = findViewById<CodeScannerView>(R.id.scanner_view)

        codeScanner = CodeScanner(this, scannerView)

        codeScanner.camera = CodeScanner.CAMERA_BACK
        codeScanner.formats = CodeScanner.ALL_FORMATS

        codeScanner.autoFocusMode = AutoFocusMode.SAFE
        codeScanner.scanMode = ScanMode.SINGLE

        codeScanner.isAutoFocusEnabled = true
        codeScanner.isFlashEnabled = false

        codeScanner.decodeCallback = DecodeCallback {
            runOnUiThread {
                Toast.makeText(this, "Scan result: ${it.text}", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()}
        }
        scannerView.setOnClickListener {
            codeScanner.startPreview()
        }
    }

    override fun onResume() {
        super.onResume()
        codeScanner.startPreview()
    }

    override fun onPause() {
        codeScanner.releaseResources()
        super.onPause()
    }
}

If I've understood correctly, you'll need to start an Activity with an implicit Intent as in this [example](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3004515/sending-an-intent-to-browser-to-open-specific-url). I suggest looking at implicit Intents because they are very powerful. I can't answer your question specifically because I don't know Kotlin. — Nicola Fanelli, Jan 04 '22 at 19:13
Old, but almost certainly still just as easy: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2051953/608312 — Jake Lee, Jan 04 '22 at 20:40
@JakeLee While this is a solution that works, it's mainly rooted in the ZXing project library. In my case, I'm using [this library](https://github.com/yuriy-budiyev/code-scanner), albeit it is based on the ZXing library. Also, how exactly would I carry this out in Kotlin? — RunMildew, Jan 05 '22 at 16:05

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '22 at 15:13

I used this answer to build a searchWeb function within my MainActivity.kt class like so;

fun searchWeb(query: String) {

        val url = "http://www.google.com"
        val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
        intent.setData(Uri.parse(url))
        startActivity(intent)
        
    }

I then called the function within my codeScanner.decodeCallback like so;

codeScanner.decodeCallback = DecodeCallback {
            runOnUiThread {
                Toast.makeText(this, "Scan result: ${it.text}", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show()
            }
            searchWeb(it.text)
        }

After doing this, the implicit intent was launched and the QR application launched the internet browser.

the function searchWeb has an argument query however it has not being used. I believe you were trying to use the query to build the url or use it as the url itself. In addition, you are assuming that every data you receive from the scan is a url. But there are QR codes that return number, address or sometime the profile of a person. Do it address it to? — ShresthaGanesh, Dec 19 '22 at 11:06

How to launch implicit intent from a QR Code result?

1 Answers1