Taking pictures using a third-party app is fairly straightforward, using ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE. However, different camera apps have slightly different behavior, meaning that you are prone to getting inconsistent results.

Taking pictures using the Android SDK camera classes directly is eminently possible, but is full of edge and corner cases, not to mention its own set of per-device idiosyncracies. Plus, there are now two separate APIs for this.

CWAC-Cam2 is an effort to create an in-app ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE workalike, with a bit more configurability. You still integrate by opening up a separate activity (CameraActivity, in this case), but it is all within your own app, rather than relying upon device- or user-specific third-party camera apps.

The #1 objective of this library is maximum compatibility with hardware. As such, this library will not be suitable for all use cases.

The targeted use case is an app that might otherwise have relied upon ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE, but needs greater reliablilty and somewhat greater control (e.g., capture images directly to internal storage).

If you are trying to write "a camera app" — an app whose primary job is to take pictures — this library may be unsuitable for you.

To integrate the core AAR, the Gradle recipe is:

repositories {
    maven {
        url "https://repo.commonsware.com.s3.amazonaws.com"
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.commonsware.cwac:cam2:0.1.+'
}

The cam2 artifact depends on some other libraries, available in JCenter or Maven Central. They should be pulled down automatically when you integrate in the cam2 AAR.

You are also welcome to clone this repo and use the camera/ Android library project2 in source form.

The only supported API at the moment is through CameraActivity and its IntentBuilder.

While there are other public classes and methods in the library, ones that may be exposed as part of a public API in the future, they are not supported at present.

The compatibility status page outlines what devices have been tested with this library by the library author.

The cam2 artifact depends upon com.github.clans:fab (for a floating action button and floating action menu implementation) and de.greenrobot:eventbus (for internal communications within the library). Both are listed as dependencies in the AAR artifact metadata and should be added to your project automatically.

This is version v0.1.0 of this library, which means it is brand new.

There are two demo projects.

One is demo/. This illustrates taking pictures using the front and rear-facing cameras. More importantly, it serves as a way of collecting information about a device, particularly if you are going to file a bug report.

The demo-playground/ sample project displays a PreferenceFragment where you can tweak various IntentBuilder configurations, then tap on an action bar item to take a picture using those settings. This is good for experimenting with the CameraActivity capabilities.

The code in this project is licensed under the Apache Software License 2.0, per the terms of the included LICENSE file.

If you have questions regarding the use of this code, please post a question on StackOverflow tagged with commonsware-cwac and android after searching to see if there already is an answer. Be sure to indicate what CWAC module you are having issues with, and be sure to include source code and stack traces if you are encountering crashes.

If you have encountered what is clearly a bug, or if you have a feature request, please read the contribution guidelines, then post an issue. Be certain to include complete steps for reproducing the issue.

Do not ask for help via social media.

• v0.1.0: initial release