How to wire up an Share intent in MAUI for Android?

Question

I'm trying to work out how to wire up a Share intent in Android using MAUI.

Am I running into preview bugs, or am I not doing it correctly?

I'm running MAUI Preview 10, with Visual Studio 17.1.0 Preview 1.0.

Version 1

I've added the share intent to the AndroidManifest.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="21" android:targetSdkVersion="31" />
    <application android:allowBackup="true" android:icon="@mipmap/appicon" android:roundIcon="@mipmap/appicon_round" android:supportsRtl="true">
        <activity android:name="SomeLongName.MainActivity" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
</manifest>

And then by adding a Name property to the MainActivity class:

[Activity(Name = "SomeLongName.MainActivity", Theme = "@style/Maui.SplashTheme", MainLauncher = true, ConfigurationChanges = ConfigChanges.ScreenSize | ConfigChanges.Orientation | ConfigChanges.UiMode | ConfigChanges.ScreenLayout | ConfigChanges.SmallestScreenSize)]
    public class MainActivity : MauiAppCompatActivity
    {
        protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
        {
            base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);

            if (Intent.Type == "text/plain")
            {

            }

        }
    }

When I debug the application in MAUI, the app builds correctly and the Output says that the app has deployed. However, in Visual Studio, the debugger fails to run, and there is no evidence of the app on the emulator.

Version 2

In version 2, I've tried to create a separate activity for the Share intent:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="21" android:targetSdkVersion="31" />
    <application android:allowBackup="true" android:icon="@mipmap/appicon" android:roundIcon="@mipmap/appicon_round" android:supportsRtl="true">
        <activity android:name="SomeLongName.ShareActivity" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
</manifest>

 [Activity(Name = "SomeLongName.ShareActivity")]
  public class ShareActivity : MauiAppCompatActivity
    {
        protected override void OnCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
        {
            if (Intent.Type == "text/plain" && Intent.Action == "android.intent.action.SEND")
            {
                //handleSendUrl();
            }

            base.OnCreate(savedInstanceState);

        }

I can now successfully debug the application, but when I try to share to the application, I get an exception on the base.OnCreate call:

Java.Lang.IllegalStateException: 'The specified child already has a parent. You must call removeView() on the child's parent first.'

Answer 1

Seems the issue centres around themes. The solution is in the original question, apply Version 2. With some minor updates. In the MainApplication class add an attribute defining the theme (same as in MainActivity class but could be different).

[Application(Theme = "@style/Maui.SplashTheme")]
public class MainApplication : MauiApplication
{
    public MainApplication(IntPtr handle, JniHandleOwnership ownership)
        : base(handle, ownership)
    {
    }

    protected override MauiApp CreateMauiApp() => MauiProgram.CreateMauiApp();
}

This both works without error and enables debugging.

Without the MainApplication theme setting, when sharing to the android app (incoming), an error thrown:

Java.Lang.IllegalArgumentException: 'The style on this component requires your app theme to be Theme.MaterialComponents (or a descendant).'

In my secondary activity, the Activity attribute sets the Theme, but is ignored and error still shown, hence the Application level needed. Not sure why.

[Activity(Theme = "@android:style/Theme.MaterialComponents.Light", Name = "com.somename.receiveurlactivity", MainLauncher = false, ConfigurationChanges = ConfigChanges.ScreenSize | ConfigChanges.Orientation | ConfigChanges.UiMode | ConfigChanges.ScreenLayout | ConfigChanges.SmallestScreenSize)]
    
public class ReceiveUrlActivity : MauiAppCompatActivity
{
 //.... etc