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How to open a file in external storage from an application? (Android)

I've added a button to my application which is supposed to open the download folder of the phone, and from there you should be able to click on files that were stored there, from the same app. Right now im saving some data there.
Problem is; I cant open the saved files in the folder.
I can see the files stored right there, but when I press one of them you immediatley go back to the app and not the file that you pressed.
Is there something I'm missing? Are you not supposed to open files stored in external storage from another app?
I've tried adding permissions in manifest and checkSelfpermission for checks in runtime, but with no success.
Here's the button for opening download folder:
private void openSavedLocation(){
if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(ExportAndImport.this, Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED)
{
ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(ExportAndImport.this, new String[] {Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE}, 1);
}
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
Uri uri = Uri.parse(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS).getPath());
intent.setDataAndType(uri, "text/xml");
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Open Folder"));}
I can open the file perfectly when Im opening it outside the app, not via this "createChooser". What could i be missing?
Any help is appreciated.

but when I press one of them you immediatley go back to the app and not the file that you pressed
That is what your code does. ACTION_GET_CONTENT says "let the user pick a piece of content". It does not say "open that piece of content in some other app". There is no single Intent action for saying "let the user pick a piece of content, then open that piece of content in some other app".
Is there something I'm missing?
If you want to try to open the XML in some other app:
Use startActivityForResult(), not startActivity(), for your ACTION_GET_CONTENT request (and get rid of the createChooser() bit)
Override onActivityResult() to get the result of the user's choice
If the user chose something (i.e., you get RESULT_OK in onActivityResult()), create an ACTION_VIEW Intent wrapped around the Uri that you get from the Intent passed into onActivityResult(), and call startActivity() on the ACTION_VIEW Intent
If, instead, your objective is to open this XML in your app, you would:
Use startActivityForResult(), not startActivity(), for your ACTION_GET_CONTENT request (and get rid of the createChooser() bit)
Override onActivityResult() to get the result of the user's choice
If the user chose something (i.e., you get RESULT_OK in onActivityResult()), get the Uri of the content from the Intent passed into onActivityResult(), then use ContentResolver to do something useful with that Uri (e.g., openInputStream() to read in the content)
Here's the button for opening download folder
ACTION_GET_CONTENT uses the MIME type. It will not necessarily honor your supplied starting Uri.

Take picture and name it afterwards

I want to take a picture with the standart system service
Intent takePictureIntent = new Intent(MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(takePictureIntent, REQUEST_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
and AFTERWARDS I want to give it a custom name and directory or path (which should happen in another activity after I've taken the photo with the camera activity)
The problem is that if I create a file with all the attributes (name, path) and give it to the intent I cant do it in the activity after having taken the photo instead I would need to determine its attributes before I open the Intent(take the photo).
(as suggested in the Google article:https://developer.android.com/training/camera/photobasics#TaskPath)
Should I just get the fullsize Bitmap then open the other activity and then save it and determine its attributes?
Is there a way to do it as suggested in the article but somehow the other way around?(create the File afterwards)
Let me know if you have any idea.
I apreceate any help.
Thank you!

I want to take a picture with the standart system service
Your code is launching any one of hundreds of possible camera apps. The specific app might have been pre-installed by a device manufacturer, or it might be an app that the user installed.
The problem is that if I create a file with all the attributes (name, path) and give it to the intent I cant do it in the activity after having taken the photo instead I would need to determine its attributes before I open the Intent(take the photo).
Correct.
Should I just get the fullsize Bitmap then open the other activity and then save it and determine its attributes?
There is no means of having ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE give you a "fullsize Bitmap" directly. You can either get a thumbnail-sized Bitmap or have it write a full-sized photo to a location of your choice.
Is there a way to do it as suggested in the article but somehow the other way around?(create the File afterwards)
No. However, there is nothing stopping you from opening the photo via its file in your activity, then modifying that photo and writing it back out. You could overwrite the original file, or you could write to some new location.
So, for example, if your concern is that you do not want the photo to be in a user-accessible location until your activity is done with it, you could pass a Uri to ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE that points to a private location in getCacheDir(), then have your activity write the final version of the photo to a file on external storage.

Android open external IMDB application from my app

I have a button in my application which opens the imdb application in the phone with a imdb id I received from https://developers.themoviedb.org/3/getting-started/introduction
But I couldnt find anyway(using intents) to make my app recognize the imdb app and open it and if imdb app do not exist then I want to open the web site. How can I accomplish this?

I think I may be able to point you in the right direction. Just to be sure, you seem to be using TMDB but wish to open in the IMDB app?
The code below is from the Android documentation.
It will start your intent if the package manager can find an app with the appropriate intent filter installed on your device. If multiple apps are able to open this intent then an app chooser should pop up, unless the user has previously set a default for this kind of URI.
Intent sendIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
// Always use string resources for UI text.
// This says something like "Share this photo with"
String title = getResources().getString(R.string.chooser_title);
// Create intent to show the chooser dialog
Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(sendIntent, title);
// Verify the original intent will resolve to at least one activity
if (sendIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null) {
startActivity(chooser);
}
If you add an else onto that then you can use a view intent like this :
Intent internetIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(movieUrl));
//Watch out here , There is a URI and Uri class!!!!
if (internetIntent.resolveActivity(getPackageManager()) != null){
startActivity(internetIntent);
}
I also found this (rather old) post about calling an explicit imdb uri
Imdb description
startActivity(android.intent.action.VIEW, imdb:///title/<titleID>);
// take note of the Uri scheme "imdb"
I hope this helps. If you post some more detail , code, links , I might be able to work through this with you.
If my answer is way off base then please be kind and set me right. We are all learning every day!
Good Luck.

Published app making 2 shortcuts and debug 1

I have published my app now and found that it is creating two shortcut icons where as when I install through android studio it creates only one shortcut. I have added duplicate false and sharedpreference has also been used to check once icon is created. Why the app behaving different and how can I fix it now? This is my code for creating shortcut.
public void createShortCut() {
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(StartupActivity.this).edit();
editor.putBoolean("shortcut", true).apply();
Intent shortcutintent = new Intent("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");
shortcutintent.putExtra("duplicate", false);
shortcutintent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_NAME, "Smart App");
Parcelable icon = Intent.ShortcutIconResource.fromContext(getApplicationContext(), R.mipmap.ic_launcher);
shortcutintent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_ICON_RESOURCE, icon);
shortcutintent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT, new Intent(getApplicationContext(), SplashScreen.class));
sendBroadcast(shortcutintent);
}
and before calling above method I have below code which runs on activity start.
if (!sharedPreferences.getBoolean("shortcut", false)) {
createShortCut();
}

When you install from Android Studio (directly from an .apk), no shortcut is made. However, apps installed from the Google Play Store will automatically sometimes create a shortcut after installation.
So when a user installs your app from the play store, two shortcuts are made, one from your app and one from the installation.
EDIT: This solution might prove useful to you: How to detect shortcut in Home screen

Android direct shared

I am trying to share a link from my app with direct share. The share dialog must be like the image below with the most used contacts from messaging apps, like WhatsApp contacts.
This is the Intent structure which I am using for share the link:
Intent shareIntent = ShareCompat.IntentBuilder
.from(getActivity())
.setType("text/plain")
.setText(sTitle+ "\n" + urlPost)
.getIntent();
if (shareIntent.resolveActivity(
getActivity().getPackageManager()) != null)
startActivity(shareIntent);
And this is what my app shows:
Any idea how to achieve that?

You should use .createChooserIntent() instead of .getIntent()

Like this code below, you can use Intent.createChooser
Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
Uri screenshotUri = Uri.parse("file://" + filePath);
sharingIntent.setType("image/png");
sharingIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, screenshotUri);
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent, "Share image using"));

You should use .createChooserIntent() instead of .getIntent()
Docs: This uses the ACTION_CHOOSER intent, which shows
an activity chooser, allowing the user to pick what they want to before proceeding. This can be used as an alternative to the standard activity picker that is displayed by the system when you try to start an activity with multiple possible matches, with these differences in behavior:
You can specify the title that will appear in the activity chooser.
The user does not have the option to make one of the matching activities a preferred activity, and all possible activities will
always be shown even if one of them is currently marked as the
preferred activity.
This action should be used when the user will naturally expect to
select an activity in order to proceed. An example if when not to use
it is when the user clicks on a "mailto:" link. They would naturally
expect to go directly to their mail app, so startActivity() should be
called directly: it will either launch the current preferred app, or
put up a dialog allowing the user to pick an app to use and optionally
marking that as preferred.
In contrast, if the user is selecting a menu item to send a picture
they are viewing to someone else, there are many different things they
may want to do at this point: send it through e-mail, upload it to a
web service, etc. In this case the CHOOSER action should be used, to
always present to the user a list of the things they can do, with a
nice title given by the caller such as "Send this photo with:".