Using startAbilityByType to Start a Flight Application

This topic describes how to open the vertical domain panel of flight applications.

For example, in a travel scheduling application, if a user inputs the flight number for an upcoming journey, the application can identify this flight number and provide a link to track the flight status. After the user touches the link, the application calls UIAbilityContext.startAbilityByType or UIExtensionContentSession.startAbilityByType to open a panel. This panel displays all available applications on the device that support flight query, enabling the user to select and switch to the application that meets their needs.

Parameters on the Flight Application Panel

If the type field in startAbilityByType is set to flight, two intent scenarios are supported: flight query by flight number and by origin and destination. The corresponding wantParam parameter contains the following properties.

Flight query by flight number

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
sceneType	number	No	Intent scene, which indicates the purpose of the current request. The default value is 1. In scenarios of flight query by flight number, set it to 1 or leave it empty.
flightNo	string	Yes	Flight number, which is a two-digit code of the airline company plus a digit.
departureDate	string	No	Flight departure date, in the format of YYYY-MM-DD.

Flight query by origin and destination

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
sceneType	number	Yes	Intent scene, which indicates the purpose of the current request. In scenarios of flight query by origin and destination, set it to 2.
originLocation	string	Yes	Departure place.
destinationLocation	string	Yes	Destination.
departureDate	string	No	Flight departure date, in the format of YYYY-MM-DD.

Developing a Caller Application

Import the module.

import { common } from '@kit.AbilityKit';

Construct parameters and call the startAbilityByType API.

@Entry
@Component
struct Index {
    @State hideAbility: string = 'hideAbility'

    build() {
        Row() {
            Column() {
                Text(this.hideAbility)
                    .fontSize(30)
                    .fontWeight(FontWeight.Bold)
                    .onClick(() => {
                        let context = this.getUIContext().getHostContext() as common.UIAbilityContext;
                        let wantParam: Record<string, Object> = {
                            'sceneType': 1,
                            'flightNo': 'ZH1509',
                            'departureDate': '2024-10-01'
                        };
                        let abilityStartCallback: common.AbilityStartCallback = {
                            onError: (code: number, name: string, message: string) => {
                                console.error(`onError code ${code} name: ${name} message: ${message}`);
                            },
                            onResult: (result) => {
                                console.info(`onResult result: ${JSON.stringify(result)}`);
                            }
                        }

                        context.startAbilityByType("flight", wantParam, abilityStartCallback,
                            (err) => {
                                if (err) {
                                	console.error(`startAbilityByType fail, err: ${JSON.stringify(err)}`);
                                } else {
                                	console.info(`success`);
                                }
                            });
                    });
            }
            .width('100%')
        }
        .height('100%')
    }
}

Effect

Effect example

Developing a Target Application

Configure uris in the module.json5 file.

Set the linkFeature field to declare the features supported by the application so that the system can match the application against all the installed applications on the device. The options are as follows:

Value	Description
QueryByFlightNo	Declares that the application supports flight query by flight number.
QueryByLocation	Declares that the application supports flight query by origin and destination.

Set scheme, host, port, and path or pathStartWith to match the URIs in Want to distinguish different features.

{
    "abilities": [
        {
            "skills": [
                {
                    "uris": [
                        {
                            "scheme": "flight",
                            "host": "queryByFlightNo",
                            "path": "",
                            "linkFeature": "QueryByFlightNo"
                        },
                        {
                            "scheme": "flight",
                            "host": "queryByLocation",
                            "path": "",
                            "linkFeature": "QueryByLocation"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Parse parameters and perform corresponding processing.

UIAbility.onCreate(want: Want, launchParam: AbilityConstant.LaunchParam): void

The want.uri parameter carries the URI corresponding to linkFeature configured by the target application.

want.parameters carries the parameters passed by the caller, which vary in different scenarios.

Flight query by flight number

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
flightNo	string	Yes	Flight number, which is a two-digit code of the airline company plus a digit.
departureDate	string	No	Flight departure date, in the format of YYYY-MM-DD. If this field is left blank, it indicates the current day.

Flight query by origin and destination

Name	Type	Mandatory	Description
originLocation	string	Yes	Departure place.
destinationLocation	string	Yes	Destination.
departureDate	string	No	Flight departure date, in the format of YYYY-MM-DD. If this field is left blank, it indicates the current day.

The application can develop different style pages based on the features defined in linkFeature, such as flight query by flight number or by origin and destination, as well as the received URI and parameters.

Sample Code

import { AbilityConstant, UIAbility, Want } from '@kit.AbilityKit';
import { hilog } from '@kit.PerformanceAnalysisKit';
import { window } from '@kit.ArkUI';

const TAG = 'EntryAbility';

export default class EntryAbility extends UIAbility {
    windowStage: window.WindowStage | null = null;

    uri?: string;
    flightNo?: string;
    departureDate?: string;
    originLocation?: string;
    destinationLocation?: string;

    onCreate(want: Want, launchParam: AbilityConstant.LaunchParam): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, `onCreate, want=${JSON.stringify(want)}`);
        super.onCreate(want, launchParam);
        this.parseWant(want);
    }

    onNewWant(want: Want, launchParam: AbilityConstant.LaunchParam): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, `onNewWant, want=${JSON.stringify(want)}`);
        super.onNewWant(want, launchParam);
        this.parseWant(want);
        if (!this.windowStage) {
            hilog.error(0x0000, TAG, 'windowStage is null');
            this.context.terminateSelf();
            return;
        }
        this.loadPage(this.windowStage);
    }

    private parseWant(want: Want): void {
        this.uri = want.uri as string | undefined;
        this.flightNo = want.parameters?.flightNo as string | undefined;
        this.departureDate = want.parameters?.departureDate as string | undefined;
        this.originLocation = want.parameters?.originLocation as string | undefined;
        this.destinationLocation = want.parameters?.destinationLocation as string | undefined;
    }

    private loadPage(windowStage: window.WindowStage): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, `loadPage, uri=${this.uri}`);
        if (this.uri === 'flight://queryByFlightNo') {
            // Construct parameters for scenarios of flight query by flight number.
            const storage: LocalStorage = new LocalStorage({
                "flightNo": this.flightNo,
                "departureDate": this.departureDate
            } as Record<string, Object>);
            // Display the page for querying flights by flight number.
            windowStage.loadContent('pages/QueryByFlightNoPage', storage)
        } else if (this.uri === 'flight://queryByLocation') {
            // Construct parameters for scenarios of flight query by origin and destination.
            const storage: LocalStorage = new LocalStorage({
                "originLocation": this.originLocation,
                "destinationLocation": this.destinationLocation,
                "departureDate": this.departureDate
            } as Record<string, Object>);
            // Display the page for querying flights by origin and destination.
            windowStage.loadContent('pages/QueryByLocationPage', storage)
        } else {
            // Display the home page by default.
            windowStage.loadContent('pages/Index', (err) => {
                if (err.code) {
                    hilog.error(0x0000, TAG, 'Failed to load the content. Cause: %{public}s',
                        JSON.stringify(err) ?? '');
                    return;
                }
                hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, 'Succeeded in loading the content.');
            });
        }
    }

    onDestroy(): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, `onDestroy`);
    }

    onWindowStageCreate(windowStage: window.WindowStage): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, `onWindowStageCreate`);
        this.windowStage = windowStage;
        this.loadPage(this.windowStage);
    }

    onWindowStageDestroy(): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, '%{public}s', 'Ability onWindowStageDestroy');
    }

    onForeground(): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, '%{public}s', 'Ability onForeground');
    }

    onBackground(): void {
        hilog.info(0x0000, TAG, '%{public}s', 'Ability onBackground');
    }
}