Save captured image to application's local file directory.

This post is little old and I would not advise to use this solution instead you should use android.support.v4.content.FileProvider of  Support v4 library.

Today I am posting a tutorial for save the captured image to application's local directory. Suppose you are developing an application in which you are capturing an Image and uploading that image to the server. For this normally you will save the captured image to sd-card and then you will upload that image to the server and this is fine. Now assume that in your device there is no sd-card present. ohh no, Your application will not work :P.

Do not worry there are two ways to solve this problem.

1. You can get the bitmap from the onActivityResult if you start the camera  activity using ACTION_IMAGE-CAPTURE.
2. Using content provider you can save the image to the phone's internal memory(File directory of your application) from the camera activity.

1. The first solution is very easy. start the camera activity using this code

Intent cameraIntent=new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, CAMERA_REQUEST);

After capturing image you will get the result in the ActivtyResult.

 if (requestCode == CAMERA_REQUEST) { 
            Bitmap photo = (Bitmap) data.getExtras().get("data"); 
 }

Note:: This first solution is working fine but the bitmap you are getting in onActivityResult() is of low resolution. If you want high resolution image then you should prefer a second solution.

2. Second solution is little bit long but it is very important.

In this case you will have to create a content provider which will use to share your local (Application's internal) file to the camera activity.

Here I am sharing my demo application for content provider to share the local file to camera activity.

Manifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    package="com.example.camera"

    android:versionCode="1"

    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" />

    <uses-feature

        android:name="android.hardware.camera"

        android:required="false" />

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

    <application

        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"

        android:label="@string/app_name" >

        <activity

            android:name=".Home"

            android:label="@string/app_name" >

            <intent-filter>

                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

            </intent-filter>

        </activity>

        <provider

            android:name=".MyFileContentProvider"

            android:authorities="com.example.camerademo"

            android:enabled="true"

            android:exported="true" />

    </application>

</manifest>

Layout file Main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    android:id="@+id/RelativeLayout1"

    android:layout_width="fill_parent"

    android:layout_height="fill_parent"

    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <Button

        android:id="@+id/button1"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"

        android:text="Button" />

    <ImageView

        android:id="@+id/imageView1"

        android:layout_width="wrap_content"

        android:layout_height="wrap_content"

        android:layout_below="@+id/button1"

        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

</RelativeLayout>

Content provider class

public class MyFileContentProvider extends ContentProvider {

 public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://com.example.camerademo/");

 private static final HashMap<String, String> MIME_TYPES = new HashMap<String, String>();

 static {

  MIME_TYPES.put(".jpg", "image/jpeg");

  MIME_TYPES.put(".jpeg", "image/jpeg");

 }

 @Override

 public boolean onCreate() {

  try {

   File mFile = new File(getContext().getFilesDir(), "newImage.jpg");

   if(!mFile.exists()) {

    mFile.createNewFile();

   }

   getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(CONTENT_URI, null);

   return (true);

  } catch (Exception e) {

   e.printStackTrace();

   return false;

  }

 }

 @Override

 public String getType(Uri uri) {

  String path = uri.toString();

  for (String extension : MIME_TYPES.keySet()) {

   if (path.endsWith(extension)) {

    return (MIME_TYPES.get(extension));

   }

  }

  return (null);

 }

 @Override

 public ParcelFileDescriptor openFile(Uri uri, String mode)

 throws FileNotFoundException {

  File f = new File(getContext().getFilesDir(), "newImage.jpg");

  if (f.exists()) {

   return (ParcelFileDescriptor.open(f,

     ParcelFileDescriptor.MODE_READ_WRITE));

  }

  throw new FileNotFoundException(uri.getPath());

 }

 @Override

 public Cursor query(Uri url, String[] projection, String selection,

   String[] selectionArgs, String sort) {

  throw new RuntimeException("Operation not supported");

 }

 @Override

 public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues initialValues) {

  throw new RuntimeException("Operation not supported");

 }

 @Override

 public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String where,

   String[] whereArgs) {

  throw new RuntimeException("Operation not supported");

 }

 @Override

 public int delete(Uri uri, String where, String[] whereArgs) {

  throw new RuntimeException("Operation not supported");

 }

} 

Activity class Home.java

public class Home extends Activity implements OnClickListener{

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */

 private final int CAMERA_RESULT = 1;

 private final String Tag = getClass().getName();

  Button button1;

 ImageView imageView1;

     @Override

    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.main);

      

        button1 = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button1);

        imageView1 = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imageView1);

        button1.setOnClickListener(this);

    }

 public void onClick(View v) {

  PackageManager pm = getPackageManager();

    if (pm.hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA)) {

   Intent i = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);

   i.putExtra(MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT, MyFileContentProvider.CONTENT_URI);

   startActivityForResult(i, CAMERA_RESULT);

  } else {

   Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "Camera is not available", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

  }   }

  

 @Override

 protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {

  super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

  Log.i(Tag, "Receive the camera result");

    if (resultCode == RESULT_OK && requestCode == CAMERA_RESULT) {

   File out = new File(getFilesDir(), "newImage.jpg");

     if(!out.exists()) {

    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),

      "Error while capturing image", Toast.LENGTH_LONG)

      .show();

    return;

   }

      Bitmap mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(out.getAbsolutePath());

   imageView1.setImageBitmap(mBitmap);

  }

 }

  

 @Override

 protected void onDestroy() {

  super.onDestroy();

  imageView1 = null;

 }

} 

In this tutorial  if you find any mistake then please comment me to correct it. Hope it will helpful to you.
Enjoy coding :)

Note :: Test this is real device. In emulator possible it not work.