12 February 2012

Android App to Save Any File to disk: AToolBox

I have built a utility app for Android which enables the saving of any file to disk, then manually choosing which application to use to open it.

SC20120211-120243I love Google Docs and now they have added an offline ability to the Android I love it even more, but I use it to keep a lot of different file types, not only word and spread-sheet files. This is where the app falls down for me: If I select a file type that the Android system doesn’t recognise I can’t do anything with it. Sometimes I just want to add a file as an attachment to an email and so need to save it to disk first. I know this is possible via the Google Docs web interface (open it, select file and send as attachment) but I prefer to use the application, and anyway I find the Google Docs web interface doesn’t work well for me on either of my Android devices in the native (or other) browser.

AToolBox is available in “Complete Action Using” dialogue
Application List, from where you can choose an application to open the file.

SC20120211-120227
When you select ‘Open’ from the Google Docs application or any file handling application (e.g. Astro or a browser download) AToolBox will present itself as an option in the “Complete Action Using” dialogue and from there you can choose to save it to disk or try and open it directly. I find for most applications you need to save it to file first.


You can install AToolBox from here:
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.coultard.atoolbox
Give it a go and let me know any problems or suggestions.

2 comments:

  1. hi
    i tried to save the file from gmail attachment (gmail app) to other directory, it keeps saving back to "mnt/sdcard/download", is this a bug or you need it needs special permission to save to other folder?
    btw, i am using Galaxy S3 -> ICS 4.0.4

    regards
    jove

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. when you choose save it should show you a text box with the path in it, and in that you can type whatever path you wish, it should then save it to there if it is a valid path. If this doesn't work please let me know.

      Delete