How to invoke the checkSelfPermission method from Android API 22 and bellow

How to invoke the checkSelfPermission method from Android API 22 and bellow

  June 04, 2016    Nikos Siatras

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I build android apps using NetBeans and the NBDroid plugin. I don't use Gradle and AppCompat framework so sometimes I have to "hack" a few things.

Recently I had to make an app that needs access to the coarse location of the user. The app is written for Android API 19 (Android 4.4.2) so I added the android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permission to the manifest.xml and everything was fine until a few people installed it on their Android 6 phone.

Well... in Android 6 (API 23) the permission system is bit different. The API 23 has a new featured called  "Requesting Permissions at Run Time" so if you need to have access to coarse or fine location then you have to call the checkSelfPermissions method. 

I spent my whole evening trying to figure out how I can make my API 19 android app to call the checkSelfPermissions  method if someone installs it on an Android API 23. After a very long evening  I finally managed to make it and I decided to share it with you.

Hope you find it useful!

 @Override  
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)  
  {  
     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);  
     setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);  
     CheckForCoarseLocationPermission();  
  }  

 private void CheckForCoarseLocationPermission()  
 {  
     if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 23)  
     {  
       // ANDROID 6.0 AND UP!  
       boolean accessCoarseLocationAllowed = false;  
       try  
       {  
         // Invoke checkSelfPermission method from Android 6 (API 23 and UP)  
         java.lang.reflect.Method methodCheckPermission = Activity.class.getMethod("checkSelfPermission", java.lang.String.class);  
         Object resultObj = methodCheckPermission.invoke(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION);  
         int result = Integer.parseInt(resultObj.toString());  
         if (result == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED)  
         {  
           accessCoarseLocationAllowed = true;  
         }  
       }  
       catch (Exception ex)  
       {  
       }  
       if (accessCoarseLocationAllowed)  
       {  
         return;  
       }  
       try  
       {  
         // We have to invoke the method "void requestPermissions (Activity activity, String[] permissions, int requestCode) "  
         // from android 6  
         java.lang.reflect.Method methodRequestPermission = Activity.class.getMethod("requestPermissions", java.lang.String[].class, int.class);  
         methodRequestPermission.invoke(this, new String[]  
         {  
           Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION  
         }, 0x12345);  
       }  
       catch (Exception ex)  
       {  
       }  
     }  
 }