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I wanna build an app similar to MS office kinda thing; The issue is I've designed each app independently including a home app which contains the links to them. I wanna know how to design it in a way such that if i install the home app, it should automatically trigger the other apps' installation; can i do that?

thanks in advance

Manoj Kumar
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  • You could check this out: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7507784/multiple-android-application-package-apk-files-from-single-source-code – Sacha Nacar Sep 19 '12 at 04:18

2 Answers2

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Since I am not quite sure what you mean by trigger the other apps' installation, I can see this going 2 ways.

  1. Your entire app and all functionality is installed in one go, and you want a separate icon to be shown in the launcher for each of your word, power point etc. sub apps. In such a case, add the following to the <activity> tag of the main activity you want launched from the sub apps:

        <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
  2. You want one base app, which when installed shows icons to launch the other apps, downloading and installing them if the user clicks on the icon. In such a case, you can check is the app you need is installed using the PackageManager, something like the following. If the app isn't installed, you can prompt the user to download it from an app store if you've published it there, or from your own file server, and then use an intent to install it.
try {
    ApplicationInfo info = getPackageManager().getApplicationInfo("your.package.name", 0);
    //installed
} catch(NameNotFoundException e) {
    //Not installed
}
Raghav Sood
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  • really good answer, will try out and award you and accpect your answer; my scenario is similar to the first case of your answer :) – Manoj Kumar Sep 20 '12 at 05:08
  • please explain me more about your first case; i aint getting it – Manoj Kumar Sep 20 '12 at 05:34
  • Any suite app will have multiple sub apps. So for example, Microsoft office will have word, power point etc. Now Microsoft would want an icon to appear for each sub app in the launcher. To do this, they can add that specific intent filter to the specific activity, and tell android to show an icon in the launcher. – Raghav Sood Sep 20 '12 at 10:02
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You may probably use different apk, here's a link that relates to your question and probably step your through doing a multiple apk package.

Multiple Android Application Package .apk files from single source code

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Sacha Nacar
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