The <activity-alias> tag can only be used to link to another activity implement in the same manifest as the tag appears, and when this alias is launched by the system it just directly launches the target activity so there is no actual implementation behind it.
The AliasActivity class is just a standard Activity implementation that is built into the system, which you can use as the implementation for one of your activities. When launched, the system actually launches the AliasActivity in your process, which reads from your manifest the intent description to launch, starts that other activity, and then finishes itself. So if you can use <activity-alias>, you should to do so, since it is much more efficient. The main purpose of AliasActivity is to be able to generate a .apk containing no code that just provides a top-level application icon for some other activity in the system, typically launching the browser to display a particular web page. On Oct 16, 10:26 am, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, what exactly is the difference between the two to understand > them better? > > - Juan T. > > On Oct 15, 10:29 pm, "Romain Guy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Photostream uses an activity-alias, not an AliasActivity (they are > > different :) > > > On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 7:24 PM, jtaylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I noticed the Photostream app has alias activities. > > > > (This comment is in androidmanifest.xml) > > > <!-- Alias activity used to set the wallpaper on Home. The alias is > > > used > > > simply to have a different label. --> > > > >http://code.google.com/p/apps-for-android/source/browse/trunk/#trunk/... > > > > - Juan > > > > On Oct 12, 11:31 am, Anm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> The AliasActivity looks interesting, as a way to redirect a user to > > >> another activity/intent under a different name. I can see this being > > >> used to put a launcher icon to a document/url. But I don't see any > > >> examples of it, or documentation of the XML to configure it. (From > > >> the docs: "To use this activity, you should include in the manifest > > >> for the associated component an entry named "android.app.alias". It is > > >> a reference to an XML resource describing an intent that launches the > > >> real application. ") > > > >> Does anyone have any pointers? > > > >> Secondly, I think I want to make a something that acts similar to the > > >> AliasActivity as my app's entry point, but redirects to the most > > >> recently used activity. Calling startActivity() followed by finish() > > >> still invokes the activity after returning from the child activity > > >> (its still on the activity stack, despite the finish() call), leading > > >> to a loop that re-enters the child. What should I be doing instead? > > >> (I.e., What does AliasActivity do?) > > > >> Anxiously awaiting the sources so I can answer these types of > > >> questions on my own. > > > >> Anm > > > -- > > Romain Guywww.curious-creature.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
