Android ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE Intent

Question

We are trying to use the native camera app to let the user take a new picture  It works just fine if we leave out the EXTRA OUTPUT extra and returns the small Bitmap image  However  if we putExtra EXTRA OUTPUT      on the intent before starting it  everything works until you try to hit the  Ok  button in the camera app  The  Ok  button just does nothing  The camera app stays open and nothing locks up  We can cancel out of it  but the file never gets written  What exactly do we have to do to get ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE to write the picture taken to a file   Edit  This is done via the MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE intent  just to be clear

User · Answer

I ve been through a number of photo capture strategies  and there always seems to be a case  a platform  or certain devices  where some or all of the above strategies will fail in unexpected ways   I was able to find a strategy that uses the URI generation code below which seems to work in most if not all cases   mPhotoUri   getContentResolver   insert MediaStore Images Media EXTERNAL CONTENT URI               new ContentValues     Intent intent   new Intent MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE   intent putExtra MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  mPhotoUri   startActivityForResult intent CAPTURE IMAGE ACTIVITY REQUEST CODE CONTENT RESOLVER     To contribute further to the discussion and help out newcomers I ve created a sample test app that shows several different strategies for photo capture implementation   Contributions of other implementations are definitely encouraged to add to the discussion   https   github com deepwinter AndroidCameraTester

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The file needs be writable by the camera  as Praveen pointed out   In my usage I wanted to store the file in internal storage  I did this with   Intent i   new Intent MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE   if  i resolveActivity getPackageManager    null        try          cacheFile   createTempFile  img    jpg  getCacheDir             cacheFile setWritavle true false        catch IOException e        if cacheFile    null           i putExtra MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT Uri fromFile cacheFile            startActivityForResult i REQUEST IMAGE CAPTURE             Here cacheFile is a global file used to refer to the file which is written  Then in the result method the returned intent is null  Then the method for processing the intent looks like   protected void onActivityResult int requestCode int resultCode Intent data       if requestCode    RESULT OK           return            if requestCode    REQUEST IMAGE CAPTURE           try              File output   getImageFile                if output    null  amp  amp  cacheFile    null                   copyFile cacheFile output                      Process image file stored at output                  cacheFile delete                    cacheFile null                         catch IOException e              Here getImageFile   is a utility method to name and create the file in which the image should be stored  and copyFile   is a method to copy a file

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I created simple library which will manage choosing images from different sources  Gallery  Camera   maybe save it to some location  SD-Card or internal memory  and return the image back so please free to use it and improve it - Android-ImageChooser

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I know this has been answered before but I know a lot of people get tripped up on this  so I m going to add a comment    I had this exact same problem happen on my Nexus One  This was from the file not existing on the disk before the camera app started  Therefore  I made sure that the file existing before started the camera app  Here s some sample code that I used    String storageState   Environment getExternalStorageState            if storageState equals Environment MEDIA MOUNTED                  String path   Environment getExternalStorageDirectory   getName     File separatorChar    Android data     MainActivity this getPackageName       files     md5 upc      jpg                photoFile   new File path               try                   if  photoFile exists      false                         photoFile getParentFile   mkdirs                         photoFile createNewFile                                     catch  IOException e                    Log e TAG   Could not create file    e                             Log i TAG  path                 fileUri   Uri fromFile  photoFile               Intent intent   new Intent MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE                intent putExtra  MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT   fileUri               startActivityForResult intent  TAKE PICTURE               else               new AlertDialog Builder MainActivity this               setMessage  External Storeage  SD Card  is required  n nCurrent state      storageState               setCancelable true  create   show                I first create a unique  somewhat  file name using an MD5 hash and put it into the appropriate folder  I then check to see if it exists  shouldn t  but its good practice to check anyway   If it does not exist  I get the parent dir  a folder  and create the folder hierarchy up to it  therefore if the folders leading up to the location of the file don t exist  they will after this line  Then after that I create the file  Once the file is created I get the Uri and pass it to the intent and then the OK button works as expected and all is golden    Now when the Ok button is pressed on the camera app  the file will be present in the given location  In this example it would be  sdcard Android data com example myapp files 234asdioue23498ad jpg  There is no need to copy the file in the  onActivityResult  as posted above

User · Answer

To follow up on Yenchi s comment above  the OK button will also do nothing if the camera app can t write to the directory in question    That means that you can t create the file in a place that s only writeable by your application  for instance  something under getCacheDir    Something under getExternalFilesDir   ought to work  however   It would be nice if the camera app printed an error message to the logs if it could not write to the specified EXTRA OUTPUT path  but I didn t find one

User · Answer

You can use this code   private Intent getCameraIntent          PackageManager packageManager   mContext getPackageManager        List lt ApplicationInfo gt  list   packageManager getInstalledApplications PackageManager GET UNINSTALLED PACKAGES       Intent main   new Intent android provider MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE       List lt ResolveInfo gt  launchables   packageManager queryIntentActivities main  0       if  launchables size      1          return packageManager getLaunchIntentForPackage launchables get 0  activityInfo packageName       else         for  int n   0  n  lt  list size    n                  if   list get n  flags  amp  ApplicationInfo FLAG SYSTEM     1                    Log d  TAG    Installed Applications        list get n  loadLabel packageManager  toString                     Log d  TAG    package name        list get n  packageName                   String defaultCameraPackage   list get n  packageName                    if  launchables size    gt  1                      for  int i   0  i  lt  launchables size    i                              if  defaultCameraPackage equals launchables get i  activityInfo packageName                                 return packageManager getLaunchIntentForPackage defaultCameraPackage                                                                               return null

User · Answer

It is very simple to solve this problem with Activity Result Code Simple try this method   if  reqCode    RECORD VIDEO       if resCode    RESULT OK           if  uri    null               compress                   else if resCode    RESULT CANCELED  amp  amp  data  null          Toast makeText MainActivity this  No Video Recorded  Toast LENGTH SHORT  show

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protected void onActivityResult int requestCode  int resultCode  Intent data        super onActivityResult requestCode  resultCode  data       if  resultCode    RESULT CANCELED                  do not process data  I use return  to resume activity calling camera intent         enter code here

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I had the same issue and i fixed it with the following   The problem is that when you specify a file that only your app has access to  e g  by calling getFileStreamPath  file      That is why i just made sure that the given file really exists and that EVERYONE has write access to it   Intent intent   new Intent android provider MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE   File outFile   getFileStreamPath Config IMAGE FILENAME   outFile createNewFile    outFile setWritable true  false   intent putExtra android provider MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT Uri fromFile outFile    startActivityForResult intent  2     This way  the camera app has write access to the given Uri and the OK button works fine

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this is a well documented bug in some versions of android  that is  on google experience builds of android  image capture doesn t work as documented  what i ve generally used is something like this in a utilities class   public boolean hasImageCaptureBug             list of known devices that have the bug     ArrayList lt String gt  devices   new ArrayList lt String gt         devices add  android-devphone1 dream devphone dream        devices add  generic sdk generic        devices add  vodafone vfpioneer sapphire        devices add  tmobile kila dream        devices add  verizon voles sholes        devices add  google ion google ion sapphire         return devices contains android os Build BRAND         android os Build PRODUCT                     android os Build DEVICE        then when i launch image capture  i create an intent that checks for the bug   Intent i   new Intent android provider MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE   if  hasImageCaptureBug          i putExtra android provider MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  Uri fromFile new File   sdcard tmp        else       i putExtra android provider MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  android provider MediaStore Images Media EXTERNAL CONTENT URI     startActivityForResult i  mRequestCode     then in activity that i return to  i do different things based on the device   protected void onActivityResult int requestCode  int resultCode  Intent intent         switch  requestCode             case GlobalConstants IMAGE CAPTURE               Uri u               if  hasImageCaptureBug                       File fi   new File   sdcard tmp                     try                        u   Uri parse android provider MediaStore Images Media insertImage getContentResolver    fi getAbsolutePath    null  null                         if   fi delete                               Log i  logMarker    Failed to delete     fi                                             catch  FileNotFoundException e                         e printStackTrace                                      else                   u   intent getData                          this saves you having to write a new camera app  but this code isn t great either  the big problems are   you never get full sized images from the devices with the bug  you get pictures that are 512px wide that are inserted into the image content provider  on devices without the bug  everything works as document  you get a big normal picture  you have to maintain the list  as written  it is possible for devices to be flashed with a version of android  say cyanogenmod s builds  that has the bug fixed  if that happens  your code will crash  the fix is to use the entire device fingerprint

User · Answer

The workflow you describe should work as you ve described it  It might help if you could show us the code around the creation of the Intent  In general  the following pattern should let you do what you re trying   private void saveFullImage       Intent intent   new Intent MediaStore ACTION IMAGE CAPTURE     File file   new File Environment getExternalStorageDirectory     test jpg      outputFileUri   Uri fromFile file     intent putExtra MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  outputFileUri     startActivityForResult intent  TAKE PICTURE       Override protected void onActivityResult int requestCode  int resultCode  Intent data      if   requestCode    TAKE PICTURE   amp  amp   resultCode    Activity RESULT OK            Check if the result includes a thumbnail Bitmap     if  data    null                 TODO Do something with the full image stored          in outputFileUri  Perhaps copying it to the app folder               Note that it is the Camera Activity that will be creating and saving the file  and it s not actually part of your application  so it won t have write permission to your application folder  To save a file to your app folder  create a temporary file on the SD card and move it to your app folder in the onActivityResult handler

User · Answer

to have the camera write to sdcard but keep in a new Album on the gallery app I use this     File imageDirectory   new File   sdcard signifio              String path   imageDirectory toString   toLowerCase               String name   imageDirectory getName   toLowerCase                  ContentValues values   new ContentValues                 values put Media TITLE   Image                 values put Images Media BUCKET ID  path hashCode                 values put Images Media BUCKET DISPLAY NAME name                values put Images Media MIME TYPE   image jpeg                values put Media DESCRIPTION   Image capture by camera               values put   data     sdcard signifio 1111 jpg             uri   getContentResolver   insert  Media EXTERNAL CONTENT URI   values               Intent i   new Intent  android media action IMAGE CAPTURE                  i putExtra MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  uri                startActivityForResult i  0      Please note that you will need to generate a unique filename every time and replace teh 1111 jpg that I wrote  This was tested with nexus one  the uri is declared in the private class   so on activity result I am able to load the image from the uri to imageView for preview if needed

User · Answer

I had the same problem where the OK button in camera app did nothing  both on emulator and on nexus one   The problem went away after specifying a safe filename that is without white spaces  without special characters  in MediaStore EXTRA OUTPUT  Also  if you are specifying a file that resides in a directory that has not yet been created  you have to create it first   Camera app doesn t do mkdir for you

User · Answer

I recommend you to follow the android trainning post for capturing a photo  They show in an example how to take small and big pictures  You can also download the source code from here

[android] Android ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE Intent

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