Start an activity using adb without pain.

activity.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""
Running an activity from terminal using adb is more complex than necessary, 
you have to find the package and activity names, combine them together 
and place them in a command that you probably will forget right after
using it.

We should only give the name of an activity for running one!

usage: Run this command from the root folder of the project: `activity.py TestActivity`
"""

import os
import sys
from xml.dom.minidom import parseString

LIST_MANIFESTS = 'find . -name "AndroidManifest.xml" -not -path "**/build/*"'
ADB_ACTIVITY_COMMAND = 'adb shell "am start -n %s"'

def manifests():
  (stdin, stdout, stderr) = os.popen3(LIST_MANIFESTS)
  return stdout.read().split()

def find_activity(manifest_file_content, target_activity):
  dom = parseString(manifest_file_content)
  manifest_node = dom.getElementsByTagName('manifest')[0]
  packageName = manifest_node.getAttribute('package')
  
  found_activities = set([])
  activities = dom.getElementsByTagName('activity')
  for activity in activities:
    activity_name = activity.getAttribute('android:name')
    if activity_name.endswith(target_activity):
      found_activities.add(packageName + "/" + activity_name)
  return found_activities

target_activity = sys.argv[1]
print "Searching: " + target_activity

activities = set([])
for manifest in manifests():
  with open(manifest, 'r') as f:
    data = f.read()
    if target_activity in data:
      activities.update(find_activity(data, target_activity))

if len(activities) == 1:
  activity = next(iter(activities))
  print "Found " + activity
  command  = ADB_ACTIVITY_COMMAND % (activity)
  print "Run: " + command
  os.system(command)
elif len(activities) == 0:
  print "Activity not found"
else:
  print "We have found more than one activities:"
  print "\n\t+".join(activities)