Fetching attachments with custom extension in my Android application

Question

What I am trying to achieve is sounds very familiar, it has been posted many times here and there in Stack Overflow as well, but I'm unable to get it done.

The scenario is, I receive a mail with attachment having custom extension in it. The extension is recognized by my app and it needs the FilePath to process it.

Currently, when I get the attachment in my app using getIntent().getData() all I get is path of the form content://

I have seen methods to convert media content of the type content:// to FilePath like /sdcard/file.ext but I was unable to convert the attachment using that. May be its obvious.

Is there any way that I can process the content:// type without actually downloading it.

Currently from the k9 mail app, when I get the custom extension, it shows my app in the list and opens it through it, but I need FilePath like /sdcard/file.ext and I'm only able to get content:// type.

I hope I made the question clear.

Please Help.

Regards.

Answer 1

A content:// Uri does not necessarily point to a file on the sdcard. It is more likely that it points to any kind of data stored in a database or to a content provider that gives you access to the private file storage of another app.

I think the later one is the case with mail attachments (if the content provider is not requesting it directly from a web server). So converting the content:// Uri to a path will not work.

I did the following (not sure if it works also for k9 mail app)

Uri uri = intent.getData();
if (uri.getScheme().equals("content")) {
    String fileName = ContentProviderUtils.getAttachmentName(this, uri);
    if (fileName.toLowerCase().endsWith(".ext")) {
        InputStream is = this.getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri);
        // do something
    } else {
        // not correct extension
        return;
    }
} else if (uri.getScheme().equals("file")) {
    String path = uri.getPath();
    if (path.toLowerCase().endsWith(".ext")) {
        InputStream is = new FileInputStream(path);
        // do something
    } else {
        // not correct extension
        return;
    }
}

The attachment name can be found by

public static String getAttachmentName(Context ctxt, Uri contentUri) {
    Cursor cursor = ctxt.getContentResolver().query(contentUri, new String[]{MediaStore.MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME}, null, null, null);
    String res = "";
    if (cursor != null){
        cursor.moveToFirst();
        int nameIdx = cursor.getColumnIndex(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME);
        res = cursor.getString(nameIdx);
        cursor.close();
    }

    return res; 
}