Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context

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I have implemented a ListView in my Android application. I bind to this ListView using a custom subclass of the ArrayAdapter class. Inside the overridden ArrayAdapter.getView(...) method, I assign an OnClickListener. In the onClick method of the OnClickListener, I want to launch a new activity. I get the exception:

Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity  context requires the  
FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag. Is this really what you want?

How can I get the Context that the ListView(the current Activity) is working under?

28 Answers

If you got error because of using create chooser like below:

Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
sharingIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
sharingIntent.setData(Uri.parse("http://google.com"));
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent, "Open With"));

Set the flag to create chooser like this :

Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
sharingIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
sharingIntent.setData(Uri.parse("http://google.com"));

Intent chooserIntent = Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent, "Open With");
chooserIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

startActivity(chooserIntent);

At the Android 28(Android P) startActivity

if ((intent.getFlags() & Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK) == 0
        && (targetSdkVersion < Build.VERSION_CODES.N
                || targetSdkVersion >= Build.VERSION_CODES.P)
        && (options == null
                || ActivityOptions.fromBundle(options).getLaunchTaskId() == -1)) {
    throw new AndroidRuntimeException(
            "Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity "
                    + " context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK flag."
                    + " Is this really what you want?");
}

So the best way is add FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK

Intent intent = new Intent(context, XXXActivity.class);
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.P) {
    intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
}
context.startActivity(intent);

Use this code in your Adapter_Activity and use context.startActivity(intent_Object) and intent_Object.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

Like this:

Intent n_act = new Intent(context, N_Activity.class);
n_act.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(n_act);

It Works....

In your Activity (where you're calling the adapter) just change getActivityContext() with YourActivity.this. Here's an exemple:

yourAdapter = new YourAdapter(yourList, YourActivity.this); // Here YourActivity.this is the Context instead of getActivityContext()
recyclerView.setAdapter(yourAdapter);

Since adding flags affect event_flow and stack_history it is better to pass the 'application context' to the non-activity from where you need to call an activity class in the following way:

"ActivityClassName.this" (While you pass the context in this manner it will contain all the detail and info that you need to call an Activity from a non-activity scenario)

So there is no need to set or add flags, this will work fine in every case.

If you are invoking share Intent in Cordova plugin, setting the Flag will not help. Instead use this -

cordova.getActivity().startActivity(Intent.createChooser(shareIntent, "title"));

My situation was a little different, I'm testing my app using Espresso and I had to launch my Activity with ActivityTestRule from the instrumentation Context (which is not the one coming from an Activity).

fun intent(context: Context) = 
    Intent(context, HomeActivity::class.java)
        .addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP)

I had to change the flags and add an or bitwise ( | in Java) with Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK

So it results in:

fun intent(context: Context) = 
    Intent(context, HomeActivity::class.java)
        .addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)

Kotlin version

val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT, ContactsContract.Profile.CONTENT_URI)
intent.flags = Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK
this.startActivity(intent)

If you use databinding, just get your context with

binding.root.context

This solved my problem.

Calling startActivity() from outside of an Activity context get from your view

Don't

val context = activity.applicationContext
openBrowser(context, MenuUrl.TERM_CONDITION)

Do

   1. val context = binding.root.context // If you are using view binding
   2. val context = yourView.context // If you are not use view binding
    openBrowser(context, MenuUrl.TERM_CONDITION)

Thank You.

For people coming from Xamarin.Forms or Xamarin.Android, In your Xamarin.Android project, use:

Xamarin.Essentials.Platform.CurrentActivity.StartActivity(intent);

Note that this might require Xamarin.Essentials v1.5 or above

As @Alex Volovoy mentioned, setting flags should be avoided as it will interfere with normal flow of event and history stack.

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