Pathpattern to Match File Extension Does Not Work If a Period Exists Elsewhere in the File Name

pathPattern to match file extension does not work if a period exists elsewhere in the file name?

The android team chose an unfortunate way to implement pathPattern. You can take a look at how the pattern matching is implemented in the android.os.PatternMatch class:

https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/master/core/java/android/os/PatternMatcher.java

We're used to .* working like it does in a regular expression, where the * match is greedy and will match as many characters as possible. In PatterMatch's implementation, the match is not greedy. The .* will match as many characters as it can, until it finds a match for the next character in the string.

Example:

String: "/mnt/my.file.mytype"

pathPattern: ".*\\.mytype"

The ".*" in the pathPattern will match the substring "/mnt/my", and hence will fail to match the string.

Given this limitation, I don't see a way to write a pathPattern that can match any string that ends in ".mytype". The best you can do is follow Jason's solution to add additional patterns to match paths with as many dots as you are willing to specify patterns.

Android's intent-filter matches files regardless of their extension

Quoting the documentation for android:path* attributes:

These attributes are meaningful only if the scheme and host attributes are also specified for the filter.

You do not appear to have a scheme.

Open a certain file type in my app

My problem has been solved after I added mimeType attribute:
DataMimeType = "*/*"
android:mimeType="*/*

Android intent filter not working

So here is what I ended up with:

<!--Mime type set -->
<intent-filter>

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

    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

    <data android:scheme="file" />
    <data android:scheme="http" />
    <data android:scheme="https" />
    <data android:scheme="content" />

    <!-- Valid mime types -->
    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.kmz" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/gpx+xml" />

    <!-- Invalid mime types used by some bad software -->
    <data android:mimeType="application/kml" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/kmz" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/gpx" />

    <data android:mimeType="application/kml+xml" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/kmz+xml" />

    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.kml" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.gpx" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.kmz+xml" />
    <data android:mimeType="application/vnd.google-earth.gpx+xml" />

    <data android:mimeType="text/kml" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/kmz" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/gpx" />

    <data android:mimeType="text/kml+xml" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/kmz+xml" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/gpx+xml" />

    <data android:mimeType="text/xml+kml" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/xml+kmz" />
    <data android:mimeType="text/xml+gpx" />

</intent-filter>

<!-- Mime type not set but valid extensions -->
<intent-filter>

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

    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

    <data android:scheme="file" />
    <data android:scheme="http" />
    <data android:scheme="https" />
    <data android:scheme="content" />

    <data android:host="*" />

    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.kmz" />

</intent-filter>

<!-- Invalid mime type but valid extensions -->
<intent-filter>

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

    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

    <data android:scheme="file" />
    <data android:scheme="http" />
    <data android:scheme="https" />
    <data android:scheme="content" />

    <data android:host="*" />
    <data android:mimeType="*/*" />

    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*..*\\.kmz" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.gpx" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.kml" />
    <data android:pathPattern="/.*\\.kmz" />

</intent-filter>

Seems to be working on all the file manager I tested (FX, ES, Astro, File Commander).

(For those wondering about the weird path patterns see pathPattern to match file extension does not work if a period exists elsewhere in the file name?)

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