Android: How To Launch an Email Intent Attaching a Resource via a URL

Posted in Miscellaneous - 8 August 2012 - 3 comments

Today at work I had the requirement to invoke an intent that would send a plain text email but with an image attachment sourced from the internet. I struggled to find a complete solution online for these particular requirements and thought I’d share my solution here.

String urlOfImageToDownload = "https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images"
    + "/google-logo-plus-0fbe8f0119f4a902429a5991af5db563.png";
String attachmentFileName = "AnImageFromTheWeb.png";

// Start to build up the email intent
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
i.setType("message/rfc822");
i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[] { "abc@mail.com" });
i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "Check Out This Image");
i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "There should be an image attached");

// Do we need to download and attach an icon and is the SD Card available?
if (urlOfImageToDownload != null && Environment.MEDIA_MOUNTED.equals(
        Environment.getExternalStorageState())) {
    // Download the icon...
    URL iconUrl = new URL(urlOfImageToDownload);
    HttpURLConnection connection
        = (HttpURLConnection) iconUrl.openConnection();
    connection.setDoInput(true);
    connection.connect();
    InputStream input = connection.getInputStream();
    Bitmap immutableBpm = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(input);

    // Save the downloaded icon to the pictures folder on the SD Card
    File directory = Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(
        Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES);
    directory.mkdirs(); // Make sure the Pictures directory exists.
    File destinationFile = new File(directory, attachmentFileName);
    FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(destinationFile);
    immutableBpm.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
    out.flush();
    out.close();
    Uri mediaStoreImageUri = Uri.fromFile(destinationFile);		

    // Add the attachment to the intent
    i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, mediaStoreImageUri);
}						

// Fire the intent
startActivity(i);

3 Responses - Add Yours+

  1. R. Udhayakumar says:
    September 17, 2013 at 06:43

    Thank you for this http://www.oliverpearmain.com/blog/android-how-to-launch-an-email-intent-attaching-a-resource-via-a-url/ post.

    Its really helped me a lot.

  2. Ranjit Paul says:
    April 30, 2014 at 07:47

    getting error on this line:
    File destinationFile = new File(directory, attachmentFileName);

    error on attachmentFileName

  3. Ollie says:
    April 30, 2014 at 08:36

    Ranjit, you just need to instanciate your own attachmentFileName String and set it to whatever you like (probably with a matching filename extension of what you’re downloading).

    I’ve added this to my code sample.

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