How to create an app image folder to show in Android gallery

Question

I have an app where the user creates an image and then I want to save it so it's visible form the default gallery application.

Now I don't want the pictures to be saved in the same folder as the pictures taken from the camera, I want them to be saved in a folder dedicated to the app, just like images from apps like whatsapp or facebook.

I've tried saving them in this two locations:

File imagePath = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DCIM)+ File.separator + appDirectoryName + File.separator);

and here

File imagePath = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES)+ File.separator + appDirectoryName + File.separator);

If I browse through the phone I see that I successfully save the images but they don't show in the gallery app. It is obvious that I'm missing something but I don't know what it is. Maybe adding some kind of metadata to the files or folders so the gallery recognizes them?

Answer 1

Well I found the answer in the end.

It turned out to be what I suspected. The saved image needs to have some metadata added in order to be seen in the gallery (at least in my device).

This is what I did:

OutputStream fOut = null;
    File file = new File(imagePath,"GE_"+ System.currentTimeMillis() +".jpg");

    try {
        fOut = new FileOutputStream(file);
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, fOut);
    try {
        fOut.flush();
        fOut.close();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
    values.put(Images.Media.TITLE, this.getString(R.string.picture_title));
    values.put(Images.Media.DESCRIPTION, this.getString(R.string.picture_description));
    values.put(Images.Media.DATE_TAKEN, System.currentTimeMillis ());
    values.put(Images.ImageColumns.BUCKET_ID, file.toString().toLowerCase(Locale.US).hashCode());
    values.put(Images.ImageColumns.BUCKET_DISPLAY_NAME, file.getName().toLowerCase(Locale.US));
    values.put("_data", file.getAbsolutePath());

    ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();
    cr.insert(MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, values);