How do you create an AppIntent that will run in your app's process and use it in your widget's Button? I created a new file, added it to my app's target, created my AppIntent struct, then added a b...

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Open Intents are easy peezy in iOS 26. A few API tweaks makes them quick to implement.

`@AppIntent` can expose a public static Java method to Siri, Spotlight, and Shortcuts. The same declaration can also drive an Android launcher shortcut or an internal application command. **What is Codename One?** Codename One is an open-source framework for building native iOS, Android, desktop, and web apps from a single Java or Kotlin codebase. Learn more at codenameone.com. PR #5559 adds `com.codename1.intents` and the build-time annotations behind that integration. The build generates only the native declarations each target supports. For encrypted SQLite and the rest of this week's work, see the weekly release overview. ## A handler is a public static method An app intent can run in a process the system started only to answer it. There may be no application object and no visible form. private static final Object WORKOUT_TOTAL_LOCK = new Object(); @AppIntent(value = "log_workout", title = "Log a workout", description = "Records a completed workout", phrases = {"Log a workout in ${applicationName}"}, headless = true, timeoutSeconds = 5) public static IntentResult logWorkout( @IntentParam(value = "kind", title = "What kind of workout?", options = {"run", "ride", "swim"}) String kind, @IntentParam(value = "minutes", title = "How many minutes?") int minutes) { int total; synchronized (WORKOUT_TOTAL_LOCK) { total = Preferences.get("totalMinutes", 0) + minutes; Preferences.set("totalMinutes", total); } return IntentResult.value(String.valueOf(total)) .withDialog("Logged " + minutes + " minutes."); } The method is static because the build generates a direct call. Runtime annotation lookup is unavailable in translated iOS code, and dead-code elimination removes methods with no Java caller. A reflection-based dispatcher could compile successfully and disappear from the shipped application. Intent handlers can run concurrently, so the preference update protects its read-modify-write sequence. The Maven plugin validates declarations and generates native metadata during the build. A malformed phrase, missing entity query, or invalid route fails the build instead of producing a shortcut that silently vanishes. ## Intents and routes answer different questions A route maps a URL to a screen. An intent accepts typed parameters, can ask the user to choose an entity, and returns a result. A route has no return channel. They meet when the intent should open a screen. `opensRoute` passes bound parameters through the existing route table: @AppIntent(value = "show_workout", title = "Show a workout", phrases = {"Show my ${workout} in ${applicationName}"}, opensRoute = "/workouts/{workout}") public static IntentResult showWorkout( @IntentParam(value = "workout", title = "Which workout?") Workout workout) { return IntentResult.ok(); } @Route("/workouts/:id") public static Form workoutForm(@RouteParam("id") String id) { return buildWorkoutForm(id); } The `{workout}` placeholder expands to the selected entity's stable ID before the router matches `/workouts/:id`. The screen keeps one address. A deep link and a system intent reach it through the same router. ## Entities let the platform ask which object you meant An entity parameter represents an application noun such as a workout, playlist, or invoice. The platform can search those entities and ask the user to choose before the handler runs. @IntentEntity(value = "workout", title = "Workout", indexed = true) public static class Workout { @EntityId public String getId() { return id; } @EntityTitle public String getName() { return name; } @EntityQuery(EntityQuery.Kind.BY_ID) public static Workout byId(String id) { return WorkoutStore.find(id); } @EntityQuery(EntityQuery.Kind.SEARCH) public static List<Workout> matching(String query) { return WorkoutStore.search(query); } } The `BY_ID` query is required because an entity crosses the native boundary as its identifier. The identifier must survive releases and data reordering. A list position or content hash can later resolve to the wrong object without producing an error. `Intents.index(...)` publishes entities to device search. Remove them when the underlying content disappears, or stale results remain visible after the application data is gone. ## Headless means no window A headless handler can use `Storage`, `Preferences`, `Database`, networking, logging, surfaces publishing, and indexing. It cannot use `Form`, `Dialog`, the camera, capture, or anything else that needs a window. Platform-dispatched handlers do not run on the event dispatch thread. A foreground handler that needs to update the UI must use `Display.callSerially(...)`. `Intents.invoke(...)` is synchronous and runs on the calling thread, which makes it useful as an internal command layer but also means a long handler can freeze the UI if invoked from the event thread. Each invocation has a deadline. Cancellation is cooperative through `IntentContext.isCancelled()`. Commit durable changes as the work proceeds because a result returned after the platform deadline can be discarded. ## Android shortcuts are not Siri Android has no equivalent to Siri's typed invocation contract and spoken result channel. The API does not label launcher shortcuts as voice parity. Capability | iOS | Android ---|---|--- Declared intent | App Intent and App Shortcut | Launcher shortcut Voice phrases | Siri | Not available Entity disambiguation | System picker | Application picker Device search | Core Spotlight | Long-lived launcher shortcuts Donation | Learned suggestions | Dynamic shortcuts Headless execution | Background application launch | Service without an activity Branch on `Intents.isVoiceInvocationSupported()` before telling a user to speak to the application. `areIntentsSupported()` answers a broader question. `Intents.invoke(...)` works on every port because it calls the generated Java dispatcher. A desktop or web application can use the same intent as an internal command even when the operating system provides no external intent surface. Widget actions use the separate surfaces API. A tap arrives through `Surfaces.setActionHandler(...)`; that handler can call `Intents.invoke(...)` when a widget should reuse an intent. Declaring `@AppIntent` alone does not generate a widget action. ## System integrations stay out when unused An application that never references `com.codename1.intents` gets no native intent plumbing, shortcut resources, frameworks, manifest entries, or deployment-target change. Spotlight indexing and donation use older Objective-C APIs and do not raise the iOS deployment target. Declaring an `@AppIntent` generates the newer Swift declarations. `ios.intents.appIntents=false` keeps indexing and donation while suppressing those declarations. `ios.intents.minDeploymentTarget` lets the project choose whether an intent contributes a floor. The simulator's **Simulate > App Intents** window lists the generated declarations, builds parameter forms, fills entity pickers from the real query methods, and invokes the same dispatch table used by the native ports. A workout handler remains one piece of Java application logic. Siri can invoke it by voice, Spotlight can find its entities, Android can publish it as a shortcut, and the application can call it directly through `Intents.invoke()`. Each platform integration remains native to that platform. Return to the parent post for the database, watch, web, smart-home, camera, and security work that shipped with it.