Get/pick an image from Android's built-in Gallery app programmatically

Here is an update to the fine code that hcpl posted. but this works with OI file manager, astro file manager AND the media gallery too (tested). so i guess it will work with every file manager (are there many others than those mentioned?). did some corrections to the code he wrote.

public class BrowsePicture extends Activity {

    //YOU CAN EDIT THIS TO WHATEVER YOU WANT
    private static final int SELECT_PICTURE = 1;

    private String selectedImagePath;
    //ADDED
    private String filemanagerstring;

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        ((Button) findViewById(R.id.Button01))
        .setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

            public void onClick(View arg0) {

                // in onCreate or any event where your want the user to
                // select a file
                Intent intent = new Intent();
                intent.setType("image/*");
                intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
                startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent,
                        "Select Picture"), SELECT_PICTURE);
            }
        });
    }

    //UPDATED
    public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            if (requestCode == SELECT_PICTURE) {
                Uri selectedImageUri = data.getData();

                //OI FILE Manager
                filemanagerstring = selectedImageUri.getPath();

                //MEDIA GALLERY
                selectedImagePath = getPath(selectedImageUri);

                //DEBUG PURPOSE - you can delete this if you want
                if(selectedImagePath!=null)
                    System.out.println(selectedImagePath);
                else System.out.println("selectedImagePath is null");
                if(filemanagerstring!=null)
                    System.out.println(filemanagerstring);
                else System.out.println("filemanagerstring is null");

                //NOW WE HAVE OUR WANTED STRING
                if(selectedImagePath!=null)
                    System.out.println("selectedImagePath is the right one for you!");
                else
                    System.out.println("filemanagerstring is the right one for you!");
            }
        }
    }

    //UPDATED!
    public String getPath(Uri uri) {
        String[] projection = { MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA };
        Cursor cursor = managedQuery(uri, projection, null, null, null);
        if(cursor!=null)
        {
            //HERE YOU WILL GET A NULLPOINTER IF CURSOR IS NULL
            //THIS CAN BE, IF YOU USED OI FILE MANAGER FOR PICKING THE MEDIA
            int column_index = cursor
            .getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA);
            cursor.moveToFirst();
            return cursor.getString(column_index);
        }
        else return null;
    }

hcpl's methods work perfectly pre-KitKat, but not working with the DocumentsProvider API. For that just simply follow the official Android tutorial for documentproviders: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/providers/document-provider.html -> open a document, Bitmap section.

Simply I used hcpl's code and extended it: if the file with the retrieved path to the image throws exception I call this function:

private Bitmap getBitmapFromUri(Uri uri) throws IOException {
        ParcelFileDescriptor parcelFileDescriptor =
             getContentResolver().openFileDescriptor(uri, "r");
        FileDescriptor fileDescriptor = parcelFileDescriptor.getFileDescriptor();
        Bitmap image = BitmapFactory.decodeFileDescriptor(fileDescriptor);
        parcelFileDescriptor.close();
        return image;
}

Tested on Nexus 5.

basis with the above code, I reflected the code like below, may be it's more suitable:

public String getPath(Uri uri) {
    String selectedImagePath;
    //1:MEDIA GALLERY --- query from MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA
    String[] projection = { MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA };
    Cursor cursor = managedQuery(uri, projection, null, null, null);
    if(cursor != null){
        int column_index = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA);
        cursor.moveToFirst();
        selectedImagePath = cursor.getString(column_index);
    }else{
        selectedImagePath = null;
    }

    if(selectedImagePath == null){
        //2:OI FILE Manager --- call method: uri.getPath()
        selectedImagePath = uri.getPath();
    }
    return selectedImagePath;
}

I went through the solution from @hcpl & @mad. hcpl's solution supports well for local image in the gallery & mad provided a better solution on top of that - it helps to load OI/Astro/Dropbox image as well. But in my app, while working on picasa library that's now integrated in Android Gallery, both solution fail.

I searched & analyzed a bit & eventually have come with a better & elegant solution that overcomes this limitation. Thanks to Dimitar Darazhanski for his blog, that helped me in this case, I modified a bit to make it easier to understand. Here is my solution goes -

public class BrowsePicture extends Activity {

//YOU CAN EDIT THIS TO WHATEVER YOU WANT
private static final int SELECT_PICTURE = 1;

private String selectedImagePath;
//ADDED
private String filemanagerstring;

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    ((Button) findViewById(R.id.Button01))
    .setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

        public void onClick(View arg0) {

            // in onCreate or any event where your want the user to
            // select a file
            Intent intent = new Intent();
            intent.setType("image/*");
            intent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
            startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(intent,
                    "Select Picture"), SELECT_PICTURE);
        }
    });
}

public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
        if (requestCode == SELECT_PICTURE) {
            Uri selectedImageUri = data.getData();
            Log.d("URI VAL", "selectedImageUri = " + selectedImageUri.toString());
            selectedImagePath = getPath(selectedImageUri);

            if(selectedImagePath!=null){         
                // IF LOCAL IMAGE, NO MATTER IF ITS DIRECTLY FROM GALLERY (EXCEPT PICASSA ALBUM),
                // OR OI/ASTRO FILE MANAGER. EVEN DROPBOX IS SUPPORTED BY THIS BECAUSE DROPBOX DOWNLOAD THE IMAGE 
                // IN THIS FORM - file:///storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.dropbox.android/...
                System.out.println("local image"); 
            }
            else{
                System.out.println("picasa image!");
                loadPicasaImageFromGallery(selectedImageUri);
            }
        }
    }
}


// NEW METHOD FOR PICASA IMAGE LOAD
private void loadPicasaImageFromGallery(final Uri uri) {
    String[] projection = {  MediaColumns.DATA, MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME };
    Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, projection, null, null, null);
    if(cursor != null) {
        cursor.moveToFirst();

        int columnIndex = cursor.getColumnIndex(MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME);
        if (columnIndex != -1) {
            new Thread(new Runnable() {
                // NEW THREAD BECAUSE NETWORK REQUEST WILL BE MADE THAT WILL BE A LONG PROCESS & BLOCK UI
                // IF CALLED IN UI THREAD 
                public void run() {
                    try {
                        Bitmap bitmap = android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.getBitmap(getContentResolver(), uri);
                        // THIS IS THE BITMAP IMAGE WE ARE LOOKING FOR.
                    } catch (Exception ex) {
                        ex.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }
            }).start();
        }
    }
    cursor.close();
}


public String getPath(Uri uri) {
    String[] projection = {  MediaColumns.DATA};
    Cursor cursor = getContentResolver().query(uri, projection, null, null, null);
    if(cursor != null) {
        //HERE YOU WILL GET A NULLPOINTER IF CURSOR IS NULL
        //THIS CAN BE, IF YOU USED OI FILE MANAGER FOR PICKING THE MEDIA
        cursor.moveToFirst();
        int columnIndex = cursor.getColumnIndexOrThrow(MediaColumns.DATA);
        String filePath = cursor.getString(columnIndex);
        cursor.close();
        return filePath;
    }
    else 
        return uri.getPath();               // FOR OI/ASTRO/Dropbox etc
}

Check it & let me know if there's some issue with it. I have tested it & it works well in every case.

Hope this will help everyone.

Assuming you have an image folder in your SD card directory for images only.

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_GET_CONTENT);
// tells your intent to get the contents
// opens the URI for your image directory on your sdcard
intent.setType("file:///sdcard/image/*"); 
startActivityForResult(intent, 1);

Then you can decide with what you would like to do with the content back in your activity.

This was an example to retrieve the path name for the image, test this with your code just to make sure you can handle the results coming back. You can change the code as needed to better fit your needs.

protected final void onActivityResult(final int requestCode, final int
                     resultCode, final Intent i) {
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, i);

  // this matches the request code in the above call
  if (requestCode == 1) {
      Uri _uri = i.getData();

    // this will be null if no image was selected...
    if (_uri != null) {
      // now we get the path to the image file
     cursor = getContentResolver().query(_uri, null,
                                      null, null, null);
     cursor.moveToFirst();
     String imageFilePath = cursor.getString(0);
     cursor.close();
     }
   }

My advice is to try to get retrieving images working correctly, I think the problem is the content of accessing the images on the sdcard. Take a look at Displaying images on sd card.

If you can get that up and running, probably by the example supplying a correct provider, you should be able to figure out a work-around for your code.

Keep me updated by updating this question with your progress. Good luck