Allow user to select camera or gallery for image

Question

What I'm trying to do seems very simple, but after a few days of searching I can't quite figure it out.

I have an application that allows the user to select multiple(up to 5) images. I'm using an ImageView. When the user clicks on the ImageView, I'd like to allow them the option to

1. Select the image from the gallery, or
2. Use the camera to capture an image.

I started by using the ACTION_GET_CONTENT intent, and that works well for getting to the gallery. So then I tried using the ACTION_PICK_ACTIVITY intent to allow the user to choose camera or gallery:

Intent pickIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK_ACTIVITY);
Intent gallIntent=new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
gallIntent.setType("image/*"); 
Intent camIntent = new Intent("android.media.action.IMAGE_CAPTURE");
pickIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INTENT, camIntent);
pickIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INTENT, gallIntent)
pickIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TITLE, "Select Source");
startActivityForResult(pickIntent, IMAGE_SELECTOR);

But it appears I can only add one EXTRA_INTENT. The menu show up as expected, but the only options are Gallery and Files....no Camera).

Is there a better/easier way to do this that I'm missing? Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

How to launch a single Intent to select images from either the Gallery or the Camera, or any application registered to browse the filesystem.

Rather than creating a Dialog with a list of Intent options, it is much better to use Intent.createChooser in order to get access to the graphical icons and short names of the various 'Camera', 'Gallery' and even Third Party filesystem browser apps such as 'Astro', etc.

This describes how to use the standard chooser-intent and add additional intents to that.

private Uri outputFileUri;

private void openImageIntent() {

    // Determine Uri of camera image to save.
    final File root = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + File.separator + "MyDir" + File.separator);
    root.mkdirs();
    final String fname = Utils.getUniqueImageFilename();
    final File sdImageMainDirectory = new File(root, fname);
    outputFileUri = Uri.fromFile(sdImageMainDirectory);

    // Camera.
    final List<Intent> cameraIntents = new ArrayList<Intent>();
    final Intent captureIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
    final PackageManager packageManager = getPackageManager();
    final List<ResolveInfo> listCam = packageManager.queryIntentActivities(captureIntent, 0);
    for(ResolveInfo res : listCam) {
        final String packageName = res.activityInfo.packageName;
        final Intent intent = new Intent(captureIntent);
        intent.setComponent(new ComponentName(packageName, res.activityInfo.name));
        intent.setPackage(packageName);
        intent.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, outputFileUri);
        cameraIntents.add(intent);
    }

    // Filesystem.
    final Intent galleryIntent = new Intent();
    galleryIntent.setType("image/*");
    galleryIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);

    // Chooser of filesystem options.
    final Intent chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(galleryIntent, "Select Source");

    // Add the camera options.
    chooserIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, cameraIntents.toArray(new Parcelable[cameraIntents.size()]));

    startActivityForResult(chooserIntent, YOUR_SELECT_PICTURE_REQUEST_CODE);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
        if (requestCode == YOUR_SELECT_PICTURE_REQUEST_CODE) {
            final boolean isCamera;
            if (data == null) {
                isCamera = true;
            } else {
                final String action = data.getAction();
                if (action == null) {
                    isCamera = false;
                } else {
                    isCamera = action.equals(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
                }
            }

            Uri selectedImageUri;
            if (isCamera) {
                selectedImageUri = outputFileUri;
            } else {
                selectedImageUri = data == null ? null : data.getData();
            }
        }
    }
}