How do you turn off share history when using ShareActionProvider?

Question

The new ShareActionProvider available in Android 4.0 (or in earlier versions if you're using ActionBarSherlock) has a feature where the last used item is displayed in the action bar. Is there anyway to turn this off?

Bloodletting

Answer 1

There is no API to do this. However, the class is really simple and you could very easily create your own version of ShareActionProvider that did not keep a history. You would just have to determine the sort order of the possible targets using some other means of ordering (e.g., alphabetically).

Baresark

The thing is, I want to keep the history, but ONLY in the dropdown menu. Adding the extra icon is annoying and it doesn't fit in the bar anymore. – Keane

@Keane Take a look at my answer - https://mcmap.net/q/534582/-how-to-hide-the-share-action-which-use-most-icon-near-the-share-action-provider . It will help your need. – Cowbind

Answer 2

For me, the best solution for avoid the history icon is don't use ShareActionProvider, instead of it, create it as any other action:

 <item 
    android:id="@+id/menu_action_share"
    android:showAsAction="ifRoom" 
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_action_share"
    android:title="@string/share"/>   

at the menu/activity_actions.xml put a item with the ic_action_share icon...

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_actions, menu);
    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
 }

Inflate the menu normally...

private void actionShare(){
     Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
     i.setType("text/plain");
     i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "my string");
     i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "another string");
     startActivity(i); 
     //Or like above will always display the chooser
     //startActivity(Intent.createChooser(i, getResources().getText(R.string.share))); 
 }

Create a method with an ACTION_SEND intent

@Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        switch (item.getItemId()) {
        case R.id.menu_item_share:
            actionShare();
            return true;
        default:
            return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
        }
    }

And finally call to this method from onOptionsItemSelected

more info ->Sending Simple Data to Other Apps

Women

This is even better than the traditional ActionProvider. – Manslayer

This is better than the native ShareActionProvider because it doesn't display history but all apps that can share. – Nedi

Answer 3

Start the share activity by yourself:

shareActionProvider.setShareIntent(intent);
shareActionProvider.setOnShareTargetSelectedListener(this);

@Override
public boolean onShareTargetSelected(ShareActionProvider source, Intent intent) {
    // start activity ourself to prevent search history
    context.startActivity(intent);
    return true;
}

Then the ShareActionProvider will not add the chosen activity to the share history.

Marquee

I'm not sure how this works for others. When using the v7 compat library, it will still crash with java.lang.IllegalStateException: No preceding call to #readHistoricalData. Furthermore, the documentation clearly states this for onShareTargetSelected: "Note: You should not handle the intent here. This callback aims to notify the client that a sharing is being performed, so the client can update the UI if necessary. The return result is ignored. Always return false for consistency." – Hayrack

Remember to clean the data of your application in the device for testing. – Accalia

@Felix's comment is valid. Docs say this shouldn't be done. I end up with 2 intents fired. – Khachaturian

Answer 4

I created my own version of the ShareActionProvider (and supporting classes), you can copy them into your project (https://gist.github.com/saulpower/10557956). This not only adds the ability to turn off history, but also to filter the apps you would like to share with (if you know the package name).

private final String[] INTENT_FILTER = new String[] {
        "com.twitter.android",
        "com.facebook.katana"
};

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    MenuInflater inflater = getMenuInflater();
    inflater.inflate(R.menu.journal_entry_menu, menu);

    // Set up ShareActionProvider's default share intent
    MenuItem shareItem = menu.findItem(R.id.action_share);

    if (shareItem instanceof SupportMenuItem) {
        mShareActionProvider = new ShareActionProvider(this);
        mShareActionProvider.setShareIntent(ShareUtils.share(mJournalEntry));
        mShareActionProvider.setIntentFilter(Arrays.asList(INTENT_FILTER));
        mShareActionProvider.setShowHistory(false);
        ((SupportMenuItem) shareItem).setSupportActionProvider(mShareActionProvider);
    }

    return super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu);
}

Postman

Answer 5

Point of clarification: It's not the "last used", it's "most often used", across a sliding window period of time.

If you prefer not to use history, then before creating your views, call

yourShareActionProvider.setShareHistoryFileName(null);

Description of this method, from the official docs (emphasis mine):

Sets the file name of a file for persisting the share history which history will be used for ordering share targets. This file will be used for all view created by onCreateActionView(). Defaults to DEFAULT_SHARE_HISTORY_FILE_NAME. Set to null if share history should not be persisted between sessions.

EDIT: I should clarify — The "most often used" item won't show up if there's no history, so this is currently the only way of removing that button.

Joannjoanna

Can you be more specific, in what you mean by "didn't work" ? – Joannjoanna

I got the same behavior. The sharing was still working..which shouldn't be possible. – Bloodletting

When I call setShareHistoryFileName(null), the share action doesn't do anything any longer :( – Marquee

When I set the filename null on a Nexus 7 running 4.2.1, the default action button correctly disappears. However, attempting to choose an action from the share menu yields a crash with java.lang.IllegalStateException: No preceding call to #readHistoricalData. – Prow

This causes a crash on my system – Indigo

Causes crash after selecting a share app: FATAL EXCEPTION: main java.lang.IllegalStateException: No preceding call to #readHistoricalData at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserModel (Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.3) – Ascent

Answer 6

Although It's been 2 years ago today but I'd like to share my experience as I made a custom ShareActionProvider class and add this line chooserView.getDataModel().setHistoryMaxSize(0); inside onCreateActionView() which did all the magic for me ! .. I tested it on Lollipop device and on API 16 emulator device and it works perfectly. here is my custom class :

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.os.Build;
import android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActivityChooserView;
import android.support.v7.widget.ShareActionProvider;
import android.view.View;


public class MyShareActionProvider extends ShareActionProvider {
    /**
     * Creates a new instance.
     *
     * @param context Context for accessing resources.
     */
    public MyShareActionProvider(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @Override
    public View onCreateActionView() {
        ActivityChooserView chooserView = (ActivityChooserView) super.onCreateActionView();
        Drawable icon;
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 21) {
            icon = getContext().getDrawable(R.drawable.share_icon);
        }else{
            icon = getContext().getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.share_icon);
        }
        chooserView.setExpandActivityOverflowButtonDrawable(icon);
        chooserView.getDataModel().setHistoryMaxSize(0);
        return chooserView;
    }

}

Hump

Nice, but in androidx the setHistoryMaxSize() method is inaccessible... :( – Tearing

@Tearing You are right.. I discovered that even earlier since appcompat v.23 library – Hump

Answer 7

add the code like this:

    private void addShareSelectedListener() {
    if (null == mShareActionProvider) return;
    OnShareTargetSelectedListener listener = new OnShareTargetSelectedListener() {
        public boolean onShareTargetSelected(ShareActionProvider source, Intent intent) {
            mContex.startActivity(intent);
            return true;
        }
    };

//Set to null if share history should not be persisted between sessions.
    mShareActionProvider.setShareHistoryFileName(null);
    mShareActionProvider.setOnShareTargetSelectedListener(listener);

}

Juniorjuniority

Answer 8

    getSupportMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.share_action_provider, menu);

    // Set file with share history to the provider and set the share intent.
    MenuItem actionItem = menu.findItem(R.id.menu_item_share_action_provider_action_bar);
    ShareActionProvider actionProvider = (ShareActionProvider) actionItem.getActionProvider();
    ***actionProvider.setShareHistoryFileName(null);
    OnShareTargetSelectedListener listener = new OnShareTargetSelectedListener() {
        public boolean onShareTargetSelected(ShareActionProvider source, Intent intent) {
            startActivity(intent);
            return true;
        }
    };
    actionProvider.setOnShareTargetSelectedListener(listener);***

Prestige