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<title>Intent (Android)</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Intent (Android)</span></span>

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<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p>An <b>Intent</b> in the <a href="Android_(operating_system)" title="Android (operating system)">Android operating system</a> is a <a href="Software" title="Software">software</a> mechanism that allows <a href="End-user_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="End-user (computer science)">users</a> to coordinate the functions of different activities to achieve a task. An Intent is a messaging object<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> which provides a facility for performing <a href="Late_binding" title="Late binding">late runtime binding</a> between the code in different applications in the Android <a href="Development_environment_(software_development_process)" class="mw-redirect" title="Development environment (software development process)">development environment</a>. Its most significant use is in the launching of activities, where it can be thought of as the glue between activities: Intents provide an inter-application messaging system that encourages collaboration and <a href="Component_reuse" class="mw-redirect" title="Component reuse">component reuse</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-berkeley_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-berkeley-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>An Intent is basically a <a href="Passive_data_structure" title="Passive data structure">passive data structure</a> holding an <a href="Abstract_data_type" title="Abstract data type">abstract description</a> of an action to be performed.<sup id="cite_ref-android_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-android-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <i>Android Tablet Application Development</i> likens an Intent to flicking a switch: "Your intent is to turn on the light, and to do so, you perform the action of flipping the switch to the On position."<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Description">Description</h2></div>

<p>The concept was created as a way to allow developers to easily remix different apps and allow each type of <a href="Task_analysis" title="Task analysis">task</a> (called <i>activity</i>) to be handled by the application best suited to it, even if provided by a third party. Although the concept was not new, the Android architecture doesn't require <a href="Elevated_privilege" class="mw-redirect" title="Elevated privilege">elevated privileges</a> to access the components, which makes it an <a href="Open_platform" title="Open platform">open platform</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-vodafone_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-vodafone-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>Activities in Android are defined as classes that control the life cycle of a task in the user interface. The activities supported by an application are declared in a <a href="Manifest_(computing)" class="mw-redirect" title="Manifest (computing)">manifest</a>, so that other applications can read what activities are supported. Intents in one application can start particular activities in a different application, if the latter supports the message type of the Intent.<sup id="cite_ref-sitepoint_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-sitepoint-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>An analysis in 2011 by researchers from <a href="University_of_California%2C_Berkeley" title="University of California, Berkeley">The University of California at Berkeley</a> found that Intents can pose a <a href="Security_risk" class="mw-redirect" title="Security risk">security risk</a>, allowing attackers to read content in messages and to insert malicious messages between applications. <sup id="cite_ref-berkeley_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-berkeley-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFFerrill2011" class="citation book cs1">Ferrill, Paul (2011). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=uYEmWet7QtsC&dq=intent+android&pg=PA3"><i>Pro Android Python with SL4A</i></a>. Apress. p. 3. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781430235699</bdi>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-berkeley-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-berkeley_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-berkeley_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="Adrienne_Porter_Felt" title="Adrienne Porter Felt">Felt, A. P.</a>, Chin, E., Hanna, S., Song, D., & Wagner, D. (2011, October). Android permissions demystified. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Computer and communications security (pp. 627-638). ACM.</span>

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<li id="cite_note-android-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-android_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/Intent.html">Android API</a> retrieved 23-Jul-2013</span>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFFelker" class="citation web cs1">Felker, Donn. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130821083845/http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/common-android-intent-usage0.html">"Common Android Intent Usage"</a>. <i>Android Tablet Application Development</i>. Wiley. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/common-android-intent-usage0.html">the original</a> on 21 August 2013<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">3 September</span> 2013</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-vodafone-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-vodafone_5-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131004084946/http://developer.vodafone.com/develop-apps/android/android-intents/">"Remixing apps with Android intents"</a>. <i>developer.vodafone.com</i>. <a href="Vodafone" title="Vodafone">Vodafone</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://developer.vodafone.com/develop-apps/android/android-intents/">the original</a> on 4 October 2013<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 September</span> 2013</span>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-sitepoint-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-sitepoint_6-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFCooper,_Bruce2011" class="citation web cs1">Cooper, Bruce (12 July 2011). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sitepoint.com/activities-tasks-and-intents-oh-my/">"Activities, Tasks and Intents, Oh My!"</a>. <a href="SitePoint" title="SitePoint">SitePoint</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">18 September</span> 2013</span>.</cite></span>

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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-02-17" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Intent_(Android)&oldid=1276260410">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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