Android Question Opening specified file

[microbox]

Hello everyone, I need to have an alternative way to open documents in a USB storage device...I've been using Polaris Office, but not really what I'm aiming for. I need a way to open it by folder name/ specified path. Can anyone suggest how can it be doable? I'm looking similar way done in vbnet
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("C:\path\filename.doc"). Is there any library available? I Appreciate any help.
BTW Just to make it clear, this is how I call Polaris Office in my program...
StartActivity(pm.GetApplicationIntent("com.infraware.office.link"))

Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

[Erel]

Android work with intents. You need to create an intent with the path to the specified file and send it to the system.

 

[microbox]

Hi Erel, I'm using this code below..

Sub OpenMsWord
Dim MyPath As String
Dim i As Intent 'Requires a reference to the Phone library
MyPath = "/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveA/MayMay.docx"
i.Initialize(i.ACTION_VIEW, MyPath)
i.SetType("application/vnd.ms-word")
StartActivity(i)
End Sub

It opens up the WPS Office application but does not open the specified file.

should be opening the MayMay.docx file.

 

[microbox]

No problem When trying to open from file explorer, just don't work as expected when trying with the code.
I don't know if its related to android version issue, right now I'm running the demo code in honeycomb. I appreciate if anyone can confirm if my code above is bad or something is missing.

Thanks in advance...

 

[microbox]

I test this code to open a text file and it works okay.

Dim MyPath As String
If File.Exists("/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB","Text.txt") Then
    Msgbox("File exist!","")
    Else
        Msgbox("Not found","")
End If
MyPath = "/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB/Text.txt"
i.Initialize(i.ACTION_VIEW, MyPath)
i.SetType("text/plain")
StartActivity(i)

But this don't work..

Dim MyPath As String
If File.Exists("/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB","MayMay.docx") Then
    Msgbox("File exist!","")
    Else
        Msgbox("Not found","")
End If
MyPath = "/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB/MayMay.docx"
i.Initialize(i.ACTION_VIEW, MyPath)
i.SetType("application/vnd.ms-word")
StartActivity(i)

What am I missing?
Really need to make this work..please help. Thanks for your valuable time.

 

[JonPM]

Try:

Dim MyPath As String
If File.Exists("/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB","MayMay.docx") Then
    Msgbox("File exist!","")
    Else
        Msgbox("Not found","")
End If
MyPath = "/mnt/sdcard/extStorages/UsbDriveB/MayMay.docx"
i.Initialize(i.ACTION_VIEW, MyPath)
i.SetType("application/msword")
StartActivity(i)

 

[microbox]

@JonPM
I tried it but unfortunately did not work. It opened the application (WPS Office) but did not open the MayMay.docx. I have 2 applications installed Polaris and WPS Office and I just select WPS Office. When using Polaris I have this error "Not a supported document type"
Thank you for taking the time to help.

 

[microbox]

Android work with intents. You need to create an intent with the path to the specified file and send it to the system.

Sorry if I don't really get all this but can you share a code how to do it or what I might be doing bad?

 

[Erel]

If you want to open a MS Word doc file with an app that supports such files:

Dim in As Intent
in.Initialize(in.ACTION_VIEW, "file://" & File.Combine(File.DirRootExternal, "somefile.doc"))
in.SetType("application/msword")
StartActivity(in)

 

[microbox]

@Erel
Thank you for the time. And my apology for the late reply...been busy with other things.

Dim in As Intent

in.Initialize(in.ACTION_VIEW, "file://" & File.Combine(File.DirRootExternal, "somefile.doc"))
in.SetType("application/msword")
StartActivity(in)

I was thinking the above code is simple ...so I just edit on the part of file path to point where my actual file is located.

Dim MyPath As String
If File.Exists("/storage/usb3host/AOFFICEFiles/","FinalProject.docx") Then
    Msgbox("File exist!","")
    MyPath = "/storage/usb3host/AOFFICEFiles/FinalProject.docx"
    i.Initialize(i.ACTION_VIEW, MyPath)
    i.SetType("application/msword")
    StartActivity(i)
    Else
    Msgbox("Not found","")
End If

When executing the code it displays the message box "File exist!" but says "document type not supported". I'm not sure if this is related to the file path.
I have only Polaris Office installed. My target application is to list all files(docx,ppt,xls and pdf) from my usb storage device in a listview and by selecting the intended file it would open up the application that supports it(e.g Polaris Office).

Again thank you for the time.

 

[Erel]

MyPath is wrong. It should start with file://.

 

[microbox]

MyPath is wrong. It should start with file://.

Thank you Erel...I'm very happy, now I can continue to develop my app.