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Introducing Intents

2:23 with Ben Jakuben

Activities (and many other things in Android) are started using an object called an Intent. The intent of this Intent is to start another Activity. :)

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    So, when you as a person intend to do a task, it means that you've thought about 0:00
    what you wanna do, and your intent is to do it. 0:04
    You just need to start and maybe you need a little help. 0:07
    In Android, it's the same basic idea, 0:10
    but it's wrapped up in an intent object that we can use in code. 0:12
    An intent is what we use when we intend to do something in an Android app. 0:16
    We usually use them to start a new task, and 0:20
    that task can be something like starting a new activity, or 0:22
    maybe handing something off to another app like a video player, or a messaging app. 0:25
    Back in our code, let's declare a new Intent object named, simply, intent. 0:30
    We'll set it equal to a new Intent, with parentheses, and add a semicolon. 0:35
    Now, there are a few different constructors we can use. 0:40
    So, if we go back between the parentheses, we can hit Cmd+P on a Mac, or 0:43
    Ctrl+P on Windows, to bring up some help. 0:47
    We're going to start a new activity, which is defined in a class file. 0:50
    Thus, we want the fourth option shown here, that accepts the current context, 0:54
    and a class as a parameter. 0:58
    Remember that context is really important in Android. 1:01
    We discussed it briefly before, but it is essentially the specific context or 1:04
    environment within which our code is running. 1:08
    This code is in an activity, and 1:11
    the activity class is a sub class of the context class. 1:13
    So we can use the current activity as our context. 1:16
    This is easily achieved with the this keyword. 1:19
    And in this case, it's now referring to this current class. 1:22
    There are other ways to access the context. 1:25
    For example, we could type getApplicationContext, 1:27
    which is a method available in the activity class. 1:30
    But let's undo that, go with this, and now for 1:33
    the second parameter, we want the activity class that we want to start. 1:36
    So we type StoryActivity and then we type .class to reference the actual class. 1:41
    When our app is actually running, it needs the class object 1:47
    rather than simply the name which is why we use this class property. 1:50
    Okay, next, just one more line of code. 1:53
    We need to express this intention somehow. 1:55
    This is often done using the method from the activity base class called, 1:58
    startActivity. 2:01
    And look at that. 2:04
    It takes an Intent as its parameter. 2:05
    Type that and try it out, and see what happens. 2:07
    Okay, we can type a name again. 2:12
    Hit enter. 2:17
    Start the adventure. 2:18
    All right, and we're taken to our new blank story activity. 2:19

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