[android-developers] Re: Home Screen Widget: Start Programmatically

Thanks Mark. Yes I was asking about doing an "auto start"

But Installing a short-cut is an interesting alternative. (Noting your
portability reservations)

I've found an intent for accomplishing this:
intent.setAction("com.android.launcher.action.INSTALL_SHORTCUT");

I'm now wondering if it is possible to detect if a particular short-
cut exists on the user's home screen.

My first thought is 'File' / 'exists'. But I don't think this will
work:

. We don't know the device's home screen path (or if the device has
a home screen -- if it does it will be platform dependent)
. We don't have permission to open the home screen application's
files

So I assume this is not possible which presents another problem...

On Jul 19, 4:15 pm, Mark Murphy <mmur...@commonsware.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Glen Cook <glenandr...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > My understanding is that it is not possible to auto start a home
> > screen widget. (There are many posts saying it cannot be done)
>
> If by "auto start" you mean "forcibly install an app widget on the
> user's home screen", then, you are correct -- this is not possible.
> For starters, you have no idea if the user's home screen even
> *supports* app widgets.
>
> > However, the boss claims that there is an application auto starting
> > their home screen widget:
> > "The OpenTable app (download from Android Market) prompts you when you
> > first launch to install a home screen widget. You click yes, and the
> > widget is automatically installed on the home screen with no
> > additional prompts."
>
> > I believe he's on the new Acer tablet running honeycomb. How are they
> > doing this?
>
> Your boss is confused, at best.
>
> When you first run Open Table, it prompts you to install a *shortcut*
> on the home screen. Even this, AFAIK, relies on undocumented features
> of certain home screen implementations. Moreover, a shortcut is not an
> app widget.
>
> --
> Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com|http://github.com/commonsguyhttp://commonsware.com/blog|http://twitter.com/commonsguy
>
> Warescription: Three Android Books, Plus Updates, One Low Price!

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