Enforce what is passed to an activity in an intent similar to the newInstance pattern for fragments

For fragments I have this code to create a new instance:

public static FoodDetails newInstance(Food food) {
    FoodDetails foodDetails = new FoodDetails();
    Bundle args = new Bundle();
    args.putParcelable(FoodConstants.BundleConstants.FOOD_OBJECT, food);
    foodDetails .setArguments(args);
    return foodDetails ;
}

What I like about this is that I can see what arguments are passed to the fragment.

I want a similar way for Activities so this is my proposed solution.

public class FullScreenImageActivity extends BaseActivity {

public static Intent createIntent(String[] images, String googleAnalyticsCategory,int positionToStartFrom){
    Intent intent = new Intent(MyApplication.getInstance(),FullScreenImageActivity.class);
    intent.putExtra(FoodConstants.BundleConstants.LIST_OF_IMAGES_TO_DISPLAY,images);
    intent.putExtra(FoodConstants.BundleConstants.GOOGLE_ANALYTICS_CATEGORY,googleAnalyticsCategory);
    intent.putExtra(FoodConstants.BundleConstants.POSITION_TO_START_FROM, positionToStartFrom);
    return intent;
}

The method returns a built intent and adds the parameters to the bundle
Note that MyApplication is a subclass of Application so I am using the application context in the intent argument.

And then you can start the activity like this:

startActivity(FullScreenImageActivity.createIntent(mImages, AnalyticsUtils.CATEGORY_FOOD,position));

The benefits are:

• Do not need type the bundle keys all the time

• You can see what arguments are passed to the activity

Your solution looks great to me, apply Fragment's instantation to a Class seems to be a good pattern and a nice idea. However, I have just a little tip for this static method: pass the current Context instead of Application Context:

public class SampleActivity extends BaseActivity {
    public static Intent createIntent(Context context, String[] a, String b) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(context, SampleActivity.class);
        intent.putExtra(AppConstants.KEY_ARG_ARRAY,  a);
        intent.putExtra(AppConstants.KEY_ARG_STRING, b);
        return intent;
    }
}

This allows you to get the right Activity calling the new Intent instead of whole application context. So, the called syntax could be:

startActivity( SampleActivity.createIntent(this, a, b) );
// 'this' being the calling class Context (like 'MainActivity.this' or 'getActivity()')

StackExchange Code Review Q#110339, answer score: 3