Android: dynamically choosing a launch activity doesn't always work

I've read a few articles here (and other places) that describe how to dynamically choose which activity to show when launching an app. Below is my code:

AndroidManifest.xml

<activity android:name=".StartupActivity"
          android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoDisplay">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

StartupActivity.java

public class StartupActivity extends Activity
{
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        Intent intent;
        if (RandomClass.getSomeStaticBoolean())
        {
           intent = new Intent(this, ActivityOften.class);
        }
        else
        {
           intent = new Intent(this, ActivityRare.class);
        }
        startActivity(i开发者_C百科ntent);
        finish();
    }
}

Both ActivityOften and ActivityRare are declared in the manifest (without the launcher category of course) and extend ListActivity and Activity respectively. 99% of the time the 1st activity to get shown is ActivityOften based on RandomClass.getSomeStaticBoolean().

So launching my app from the icon for the 1st time I break inside the StartupActivity.onCreate. The choice is properly made. But then any subsequent attempts to launch the app (from a shortcut or the apps menu) show the ActivityOften again. No further breaks occur inside the StartupActivity class. Despite the fact that I know that RandomClass.getSomeStaticBoolean() has changed value and that ActivityRare should appear, the 1st activity keeps popping up.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Merci, Gracias, Danke, Grazie! Sean

It is happening because your application activity is loaded from the history stack. Set android:noHistory=true in the manifest for both ActivityOften and ActivityRare. That should solve your problem.

Just as a suggestion, you could just have one activity instead of three by choosing the content View dynamically. i.e.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    if (RandomClass.getSomeStaticBoolean())
    {
       setContentView(R.layout.Often);

       // Set up often ....
    }
    else
    {
       setContentView(R.layout.Rare);

       // Set up rare ....
    }
}

This would mean that you would have to write setup code both views in on activity, which can get a bit messy.