how do you pass images (bitmaps) between android activities using bundles?

Suppose I have an activity to select an image from the gallery, and retrieve it as a BitMap, just like the example: here

Now, I want to pass this BitMap to be used in an ImageView for another activity. I am aware bundles can be passed between activities, but how would I store this BitMap into the bundle?

or is there another approach I should take?

Solution 1:

I would highly recommend a different approach.

It's possible if you REALLY want to do it, but it costs a lot of memory and is also slow. It might not work if you have an older phone and a big bitmap. You could just pass it as an extra, for example intent.putExtra("data", bitmap). A Bitmap implements Parcelable, so you can put it in an extra. Likewise, a bundle has putParcelable.

If you want to pass it inbetween activities, I would store it in a file. That's more efficient, and less work for you. You can create private files in your data folder using MODE_PRIVATE that are not accessible to any other app.

Solution 2:

If you pass it as a Parcelable, you're bound to get a JAVA BINDER FAILURE error. So, the solution is this: If the bitmap is small, like, say, a thumbnail, pass it as a byte array and build the bitmap for display in the next activity. For instance:

in your calling activity...

Intent i = new Intent(this, NextActivity.class);
Bitmap b; // your bitmap
ByteArrayOutputStream bs = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
b.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 50, bs);
i.putExtra("byteArray", bs.toByteArray());
startActivity(i);

...and in your receiving activity

if(getIntent().hasExtra("byteArray")) {
    ImageView previewThumbnail = new ImageView(this);
    Bitmap b = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(
        getIntent().getByteArrayExtra("byteArray"),0,getIntent().getByteArrayExtra("byteArray").length);        
    previewThumbnail.setImageBitmap(b);
}

Solution 3:

As suggested by @EboMike I saved the bitmap in a file named myImage in the internal storage of my application not accessible my other apps. Here's the code of that part:

public String createImageFromBitmap(Bitmap bitmap) {
    String fileName = "myImage";//no .png or .jpg needed
    try {
        ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, bytes);
        FileOutputStream fo = openFileOutput(fileName, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        fo.write(bytes.toByteArray());
        // remember close file output
        fo.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        fileName = null;
    }
    return fileName;
}

Then in the next activity you can decode this file myImage to a bitmap using following code:

Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(context
                    .openFileInput("myImage"));//here context can be anything like getActivity() for fragment, this or MainActivity.this

Note A lot of checking for null and scaling bitmap's is ommited.

Solution 4:

Activity

To pass a bitmap between Activites

Intent intent = new Intent(this, Activity.class);
intent.putExtra("bitmap", bitmap);

And in the Activity class

Bitmap bitmap = getIntent().getParcelableExtra("bitmap");

Fragment

To pass a bitmap between Fragments

SecondFragment fragment = new SecondFragment();
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
bundle.putParcelable("bitmap", bitmap);
fragment.setArguments(bundle);

To receive inside the SecondFragment

Bitmap bitmap = getArguments().getParcelable("bitmap");

Transferring large bitmap (Compress bitmap)

If you are getting failed binder transaction, this means you are exceeding the binder transaction buffer by transferring large element from one activity to another activity.

So in that case you have to compress the bitmap as an byte's array and then uncompress it in another activity, like this

In the FirstActivity

Intent intent = new Intent(this, SecondActivity.class);

ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPG, 100, stream);
byte[] bytes = stream.toByteArray(); 
intent.putExtra("bitmapbytes",bytes);

And in the SecondActivity

byte[] bytes = getIntent().getByteArrayExtra("bitmapbytes");
Bitmap bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(bytes, 0, bytes.length);