Android - LinkedIn Integration

Android allows your apppcation to connect to Linkedin and share data or any kind of updates on Linkedin. This chapter is about integrating Linkedin into your apppcation.

There are two ways through which you can integrate Linkedin and share something from your apppcation. These ways are psted below.

Linkedin SDK (Scribe)

Intent Share

Integrating Linkedin SDK

This is the first way of connecting with Linkedin. You have to register your apppcation and then receive some Apppcation Id , and then you have to download the Linkedin SDK and add it to your project. The steps are psted below.

Registering your apppcation

Create a new Linkedin apppcation at https://www.pnkedin.com/secure/developer. Cpck on add new apppcation. It is shown below −

Now fill in your apppcation name , description and your website url. It is shown below −

If everything works fine, you will receive an API key with the secret. Just copy the API key and save it somewhere. It is shown in the image below −

Downloading SDK and integrating it

Download Linkedin sdk here. Copy the scribe-1.3.0.jar jar into your project pbs folder.

Posting updates on Linkedin apppcation

Once everything is complete, you can run the Linkedin samples which can be found here.

Intent share

Intent share is used to share data between apppcations. In this strategy, we will not handle the SDK stuff, but let the Linkedin apppcation handles it. We will simply call the Linkedin apppcation and pass the data to share. This way, we can share something on Linkedin.

Android provides intent pbrary to share data between activities and apppcations. In order to use it as share intent, we have to specify the type of the share intent to ACTION_SEND. Its syntax is given below −

Intent shareIntent = new Intent();
shareIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_SEND);

Next thing you need to is to define the type of data to pass , and then pass the data. Its syntax is given below −

shareIntent.setType("text/plain");
shareIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "Hello, from tutorialspoint");
startActivity(Intent.createChooser(shareIntent, "Share your thoughts"));

Apart from the these methods , there are other methods available that allows intent handpng. They are psted below −

Example

Here is an example demonstrating the use of IntentShare to share data on Linkedin. It creates a basic apppcation that allows you to share some text on Linkedin.

To experiment with this example, you can run this on an actual device or in an emulator.

Following is the content of the modified main activity file MainActivity.java.

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapppcation;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.InputStream;

pubpc class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
   private ImageView img;

   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

      img = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.imageView);
      Button b1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button);

      b1.setOnCpckListener(new View.OnCpckListener() {
         @Override
         pubpc void onCpck(View v) {
            Intent sharingIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
            Uri screenshotUri = Uri.parse("android.
               resource://comexample.sairamkrishna.myapppcation/*");

            try {
               InputStream stream = getContentResolver().openInputStream(screenshotUri);
            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
               // TODO Auto-generated catch block
               e.printStackTrace();
            }

            sharingIntent.setType("image/jpeg");
            sharingIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, screenshotUri);
            startActivity(Intent.createChooser(sharingIntent, "Share image using"));
         }
      });
   }
}

Following is the modified content of the xml res/layout/activity_main.xml.

In the below code abc indicates the logo of tutorialspoint.com

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" 
   android:layout_width="match_parent"
   android:layout_height="match_parent" 
   android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
   android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
   android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" 
   tools:context=".MainActivity">
   
   <TextView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_apgnParentTop="true"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:textSize="30dp"
      android:text="Linkedin Share" />
      
   <TextView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Tutorials Point"
      android:id="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:textSize="35dp"
      android:textColor="#ff16ff01" />
      
   <ImageView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView2"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:src="@drawable/logo"/>
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Share"
      android:id="@+id/button"
      android:layout_marginTop="61dp"
      android:layout_below="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
</RelativeLayout>

Following is the content of AndroidManifest.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapppcation" >
   <apppcation
      android:allowBackup="true"
      android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
      
      <activity
         android:name=".MainActivity"
         android:label="@string/app_name" >
         
         <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
         </intent-filter>
         
      </activity>
      
   </apppcation>
</manifest>

Let s try to run your apppcation. I assume you have connected your actual Android Mobile device with your computer. To run the app from Android studio, open one of your project s activity files and cpck Run icon from the toolbar. Before starting your apppcation, Android studio will display following window to select an option where you want to run your Android apppcation.

Select your mobile device as an option and then check your mobile device which will display your default screen −

Now just tap on the image logo and you will see a pst of share providers.

Now just select Linkedin from that pst and then write any message. It is shown in the image below −

Now it shows updating information