android: how to add an image to an album

Question

Can anyone share code (or point me to Android sample code) to help me add images to an album in the Media Store (Gallery).

In my app I download images from our server, and also take new images using the camera (via Intent).

I would like to organize those images in an app-specific album, similar to what the Facebook (and other apps) app does, keeping related images all neatly organized.

I looked into this a while ago, following the Media Store API docs, and it didn't work for me....so need some help.

Thanks

Answer 1

you can use:

  MediaStore.Images.Media.insertImage(ContentResolver cr, Bitmap source, String title, String description);

and I'm sure that somewhere here http://developer.android.com/guide/ in some of the sub-menus shows a command asking the MediaStore to scan a determined folder, I just can't find it now.

edit: found it:

 MediaScannerConnection.scanFile(Context context, String[] path, null, null);

Answer 2

This is a method used to store an image in the public Picture folder, with a custom app folder in it.

public void saveImageToExternal(String imgName, Bitmap bm) throws IOException {
    //Create Path to save Image
    File path = Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES+appFolder); //Creates app specific folder
    path.mkdirs();
    File imageFile = new File(path, imgName+".png"); // Imagename.png
    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(imageFile);
    try{
        bm.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 100, out); // Compress Image
        out.flush();
        out.close();

        // Tell the media scanner about the new file so that it is
        // immediately available to the user.
        MediaScannerConnection.scanFile(context,new String[] { imageFile.getAbsolutePath() }, null,new MediaScannerConnection.OnScanCompletedListener() {
            public void onScanCompleted(String path, Uri uri) {
                Log.i("ExternalStorage", "Scanned " + path + ":");
                Log.i("ExternalStorage", "-> uri=" + uri);
            }
        });
    } catch(Exception e) {
        throw new IOException();
    }
}

Answer 3

Here is the code I ended up using to do this:

public static Uri addToTouchActiveAlbum( Context context, String title, String filePath ) {
    ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); 
    values.put( Media.TITLE, title ); 
    values.put( Images.Media.DATE_TAKEN, System.currentTimeMillis() );
    values.put( Images.Media.BUCKET_ID, filePath.hashCode() );
    values.put( Images.Media.BUCKET_DISPLAY_NAME, Constants.TA_PHOTO_ALBUM_NAME );

    values.put( Images.Media.MIME_TYPE, "image/jpeg" );
    values.put( Media.DESCRIPTION, context.getResources().getString( R.string.product_image_description ) ); 
    values.put( MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA, filePath );
    Uri uri = context.getContentResolver().insert( Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI , values );

    return uri;
}

It works for the Images I have in "getExternalStorage()" (/storage/sdcard0)

I'd also like to add images I have in a different folder (a cacheDir I create under the folder returned by Context.getExternalCacheDir()). Problem: I don't know their mime-type (does that matter?), the folder is a different one in a different location with a different name - and I can't figure out how to add to an "album" per se.....as the album name seems to come from the folder name....

Or to put it another way:

values.put( Images.Media.BUCKET_DISPLAY_NAME, Constants.TA_PHOTO_ALBUM_NAME );

doesn't seem to have any effect?