App Actions fitness basic sample

This is a sample Fitness application that allows displaying workout information as well as starting and stopping a workout. By implementing App Actions, we allow the user to call upon our application to fulfill supported built-in intents (BIIs) in the fitness category.

Specifically, this sample supports the following BIIs:

• actions.intent.START_EXERCISE: Open the sample app and start an exercise session.
• actions.intent.STOP_EXERCISE: Open the sample app and stops the current exercise session.
• actions.intent.GET_EXERCISE_OBSERVATION: Display a Slice inside the Assistant with information on a particular exercise statistic.

Beta available

Check out the App Actions Beta sample that implementes App Actions using the Android Shortcuts framework. This framework integration is in the Beta release stage.

If you're learning how to maintain App Actions implemented using an actions.xml resource file, continue with this sample.

App Actions overview

With App Actions, users can trigger your app through the Google Assistant on Android devices. To support App Actions, your app must implement Android deep links to your app content, allowing the Android system to invoke a specific Activity when the App Action is invoked.

Users invoke App Actions through phrases associated with built-in intents (BIIs). The Assistant handles these BIIs so that your app receives the user's input without you needing to create a conversational Action, or having to deal with natural language processing by yourself.

You map the BIIs that are relevant to your app and their parameters to your Android deep links in a file named actions.xml. For more details, check out the App Actions developer documentation.

Importing this sample

Check out or download the project to your preferred location. You can import the project using the Android Studio with the following steps:

1. Select Open an existing Android Studio project from the initial screen, or go to File > Open.
2. Find the directory where you saved the sample.
3. Select the build.gradle file.
4. Follow the instructions presented by the IDE.

Requirements

For security and verification reasons, the account you use to upload your actions.xml file with the App Actions test tool must have ownership of the application ID.

Additionally, you must meet the setup and usage requirements for App Actions and for the App Actions test tool.

Sign in to Android Studio with your account and use the applicationId of one of your published apps in Google Play Console. If you don't have any existing apps, you can upload one in draft mode (it doesn't have to be published to production).

Change the applicationId in app/build.gradle

android {
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.devrel.android.fitactions" // Use one of your published applications IDs
    }
}

Also, Google Assistant must be installed on the test/target device with the same account used in Android Studio.

Finally, the sample shows how to use the Firebase App Indexing to track the success or failure of the actions received. Re-use or create an app in Firebase following these steps and make sure google-services.json is available in the app module.

Note: As an alternative, if you want to skip this step, you can disable Firebase by setting the firebaseEnabled flag to false in app/build.gradle.

How to run

Once the requirements above are satisfied, you are ready to run the sample.

1. Run the code and install the sample in the device (Run app).
2. Open the App Actions plugin (Tools > Google Assistant > App Actions Test Tool).
3. Define an invocation name to use for triggering the actions (like "My Fit App").
4. Click Create Preview. If the setup was successful, you will see a panel like this:

5. Select the action and click Run App Action.

The Assistant should show up and run the selected action.

Once you run this once, you can then try using voice or written commands directly in the Assistant on the device.

Troubleshooting

Make sure that you follow these steps:

• Own a Google account
• Application ID used is published in Google Play console (at least as draft)
• Google Account has access to the application in Google Play Console
• Logged in Android Studio with the Google Account
• Logged in with the same account in the testing device
• Actions.xml file is defined in the Application project
• Upload preview using App Actions plugin
• App is available in the device.

If the plugin is not able to load the preview of the action, make sure that:

• The account used in Android Studio is the same as the one in the device.
• The account used must own or have access in Play console to the applicationId defined in build.gradle.
• Android Studio has access to an internet connection.
• If you modified the actions.xml, make sure the right syntax is used.

If the action is not running in the device or Assistant is not reacting, make sure that:

• The plugin loaded the actions preview at least one time.
• The account in the device is the same as the one in Android Studio.
• The device has access to an internet connection.
• You are using the latest version of the Assistant or Google app.

If project does not compile after changing the applicationId, the main reason is GoogleService plugin:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:processDebugGoogleServices'.
> No matching client found for package name 'com.name.package'

Check the requirement section, you must update the JSON file or disable the plugin.

If instead the problem is that the app is not being installed, showing this error:

Installation did not succeed.
The application could not be installed: INSTALL_FAILED_CONFLICTING_PROVIDER
Installation failed due to: 'null'

It's because you have installed the sample version without changing the applicaitonId and the authority for the SliceProvider are conflicting when trying to install the new one with different ID.

• Change the authority of SliceProvider in AndroidManifest.xml, in actions.xml, and in FitSliceProvider.kt.
• Or uninstall the sample and install again with the new applicationId.

Last but not least, remember to update the preview in the App Actions plugin every time you change actions.xml. Just running the app won't apply the changes.

Contribution guidelines

If you want to contribute to this project, be sure to review the contribution guidelines.

We use GitHub issues for tracking requests and bugs, please get support by posting your technical questions to Stack Overflow.

Report general issues with App Actions features or make suggestions for additional built-in intents through our public issue tracker.

License

Copyright 2019 Google LLC

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.