I finally solved this . Below i give some code for anyone who wants to know how to take screenshots of a layout ,pictures from the camera without intent, screenshots(sort of) of the content of a surfaceView and save the screen shot in a folder :
public class Cam_View extends Activity implements SurfaceHolder.Callback {
protected static final int CAPTURE_IMAGE_ACTIVITY_REQUEST_CODE = 0;
private SurfaceView SurView;
private SurfaceHolder camHolder;
private boolean previewRunning;
final Context context = this;
public static Camera camera = null;
private RelativeLayout CamView;
private Bitmap inputBMP = null, bmp, bmp1;
private ImageView mImage;
@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.camera);
CamView = (RelativeLayout) findViewById(R.id.camview);//RELATIVELAYOUT OR
//ANY LAYOUT OF YOUR XML
SurView = (SurfaceView)findViewById(R.id.sview);//SURFACEVIEW FOR THE PREVIEW
//OF THE CAMERA FEED
camHolder = SurView.getHolder(); //NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
camHolder.addCallback(this); //NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
camHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS);//NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
camera_image = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.camera_image);//NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
Button btn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1); //THE BUTTON FOR TAKING PICTURE
btn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() { //THE BUTTON CODE
public void onClick(View v) {
camera.takePicture(null, null, mPicture);//TAKING THE PICTURE
//THE mPicture IS CALLED
//WHICH IS THE LAST METHOD(SEE BELOW)
}
});
}
@Override
public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int width,//NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
int height) {
if(previewRunning) {
camera.stopPreview();
}
Camera.Parameters camParams = camera.getParameters();
Camera.Size size = camParams.getSupportedPreviewSizes().get(0);
camParams.setPreviewSize(size.width, size.height);
camera.setParameters(camParams);
try {
camera.setPreviewDisplay(holder);
camera.startPreview();
previewRunning=true;
} catch(IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) { //NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
try {
camera=Camera.open();
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Error",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
finish();
}
}
@Override
public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) { //NEEDED FOR THE PREVIEW
camera.stopPreview();
camera.release();
camera=null;
}
public void TakeScreenshot(){ //THIS METHOD TAKES A SCREENSHOT AND SAVES IT AS .jpg
Random num = new Random();
int nu=num.nextInt(1000); //PRODUCING A RANDOM NUMBER FOR FILE NAME
CamView.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true); //CamView OR THE NAME OF YOUR LAYOUR
CamView.buildDrawingCache(true);
Bitmap bmp = Bitmap.createBitmap(CamView.getDrawingCache());
CamView.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false); // clear drawing cache
ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
bmp.compress(CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, bos);
byte[] bitmapdata = bos.toByteArray();
ByteArrayInputStream fis = new ByteArrayInputStream(bitmapdata);
String picId=String.valueOf(nu);
String myfile="Ghost"+picId+".jpeg";
File dir_image = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()+//<---
File.separator+"Ultimate Entity Detector"); //<---
dir_image.mkdirs(); //<---
//^IN THESE 3 LINES YOU SET THE FOLDER PATH/NAME . HERE I CHOOSE TO SAVE
//THE FILE IN THE SD CARD IN THE FOLDER "Ultimate Entity Detector"
try {
File tmpFile = new File(dir_image,myfile);
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(tmpFile);
byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
int len;
while ((len = fis.read(buf)) > 0) {
fos.write(buf, 0, len);
}
fis.close();
fos.close();
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),
"The file is saved at :SD/Ultimate Entity Detector",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
bmp1 = null;
camera_image.setImageBitmap(bmp1); //RESETING THE PREVIEW
camera.startPreview(); //RESETING THE PREVIEW
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private PictureCallback mPicture = new PictureCallback() { //THIS METHOD AND THE METHOD BELOW
//CONVERT THE CAPTURED IMAGE IN A JPG FILE AND SAVE IT
@Override
public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) {
File dir_image2 = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()+
File.separator+"Ultimate Entity Detector");
dir_image2.mkdirs(); //AGAIN CHOOSING FOLDER FOR THE PICTURE(WHICH IS LIKE A SURFACEVIEW
//SCREENSHOT)
File tmpFile = new File(dir_image2,"TempGhost.jpg"); //MAKING A FILE IN THE PATH
//dir_image2(SEE RIGHT ABOVE) AND NAMING IT "TempGhost.jpg" OR ANYTHING ELSE
try { //SAVING
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(tmpFile);
fos.write(data);
fos.close();
//grabImage();
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Error",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
} catch (IOException e) {
Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(),"Error",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
String path = (Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()+
File.separator+"Ultimate EntityDetector"+
File.separator+"TempGhost.jpg");//<---
BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();//<---
options.inPreferredConfig = Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888;//<---
bmp1 = BitmapFactory.decodeFile(path, options);//<--- *********(SEE BELOW)
//THE LINES ABOVE READ THE FILE WE SAVED BEFORE AND CONVERT IT INTO A BitMap
camera_image.setImageBitmap(bmp1); //SETTING THE BitMap AS IMAGE IN AN IMAGEVIEW(SOMETHING
//LIKE A BACKGROUNG FOR THE LAYOUT)
tmpFile.delete();
TakeScreenshot();//CALLING THIS METHOD TO TAKE A SCREENSHOT
//********* THAT LINE MIGHT CAUSE A CRASH ON SOME PHONES (LIKE XPERIA T)<----(SEE HERE)
//IF THAT HAPPENDS USE THE LINE "bmp1 =decodeFile(tmpFile);" WITH THE METHOD BELOW
}
};
public Bitmap decodeFile(File f) { //FUNCTION BY Arshad Parwez
Bitmap b = null;
try {
// Decode image size
BitmapFactory.Options o = new BitmapFactory.Options();
o.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fis, null, o);
fis.close();
int IMAGE_MAX_SIZE = 1000;
int scale = 1;
if (o.outHeight > IMAGE_MAX_SIZE || o.outWidth > IMAGE_MAX_SIZE) {
scale = (int) Math.pow(
2,
(int) Math.round(Math.log(IMAGE_MAX_SIZE
/ (double) Math.max(o.outHeight, o.outWidth))
/ Math.log(0.5)));
}
// Decode with inSampleSize
BitmapFactory.Options o2 = new BitmapFactory.Options();
o2.inSampleSize = scale;
fis = new FileInputStream(f);
b = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fis, null, o2);
fis.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return b;
}
}
If you want to take a simple screenshot(no camera feed is needed) the you can use the TakeScreenshot method alone.
If you want to take a screenshot of a surfaceView with is not possible to do from the surfaceview directly the use the mPicture, set the picture you capture as backgroung , and then call TakeScreenshot to take your screenshot.(as seen above)
If you want to take a picture with the camera without calling an other camera app with an intent the use the takePicture with the mPicture and the surfaceView stuff from the code above.
What the previous code does if used “as is” is to take a screenshot of the layout contents(buttons,imageviews etc) and set as backgroung an image from the camera.
Below i also provide a basic layout xml for the previous code :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:id="@+id/camview">
<SurfaceView
android:id="@+id/sview"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true" />
<ImageView
android:id="@+id/camera_image"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:contentDescription="@string/app_name" />
<Button
android:id="@+id/button1"
style="?android:attr/buttonStyleSmall"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true" />
</RelativeLayout>
Dont forget to import what needs to be imported