I am currently researching the way to do this "right" and find the response below a bit interesting. It would seem that any and all long lived background services are being heavily discouraged.
What I want to do is periodically check url that returns data. If the change in data between one request and the next is large enough (user set threshold) I want to send a notification to the user. This is the MOST requested feature for my application. I cannot see how to accomplish this if I only check data that meets the threshold when the application is running. The users want the thing to go off in their pocket, that's the whole point - they don't want to be constantly running my app. So how do the google apps do this - for example email and IM? Do they have long lived services that run in the background - or is there some other notification process that they are utilizing? On Nov 23, 6:47 pm, "Dianne Hackborn" <hack...@android.com> wrote: > Please please please be sure to stop the service when it is no longer > needed. For a media player, this generally means only having it in the > running state when it is actively playing music; otherwise it should only be > needed when there are clients bound to it. > > If you don't stop your services, then the system has to assume it is needed > forever and can't remove your process to allow for other things the user is > actually doing. I think this is actually one of our biggest third party > application issues, applications that just starts a service and never stops > it. This sucks for the user, and just should not be done. In fact there is > already code in the system to look for services that have been running a > long time without others doing things to them to let them be killed, but > it's pretty clear we'll need to be even more brutal about this. :( (Which > sucks for things that really do want to run for a long time, like a media > player, but it's not clear at all to me what to do about them.) > > Also, there was a suggestion earlier to try running the service in another > process. Multiple processes is again something to be careful of, and to > stay away from unless you really need them -- processes are quite > heavy-weight entities, so shouldn't be thrown around lightly. > > > > On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 12:42 PM, G <ghack...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > EUREKA! I've figured it out based on some of the documentation I > > missed. For those who also have trouble... > > > The docs for ContextWrapper.startService(Intent service) includes the > > following line... > > "Using startService() overrides the default service lifetime that is > > managed by bindService(Intent, ServiceConnection, int): it requires > > the service to remain running until stopService(Intent) is called, > > regardless of whether any clients are connected to it." > > > This is the trick, simply run startService() before you attempt to > > bind to it! So before, my onCreate contained: > > bindService(new Intent(MDService.class.getName()), > > mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); > > > Now this has been replaced by: > > Intent i = new Intent(MDService.class.getName()); > > startService(i); > > bindService(i, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); > > > After that change, calling unbindService(mConnection) does NOT destroy > > the service :) > > > So starting a service by binding it from an activity links the > > service's life-cycle with that of the activity. While starting the > > Service first, gives it it's own lifecycle, and you can still bind to > > it right after. (And you still know the service will only actually be > > started once.) > > > Also, doing this seems to have alleviated my 2nd problem that I > > described in my 1st post, but this requires a little more testing > > before i can confirm it. > > > On Nov 23, 3:09 pm, G <ghack...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I just realized that the in API Demo for Remote Service Binding, the > > > service is destroyed when the activity is destroyed as well. So it's > > > no help in this case. Can anyone point to a code sample in which a > > > service outlives it's binding in an activity? Do I need to use a > > > BroadcastReceiver or something? I'm very confused :( > > > > On Nov 23, 2:46 pm, G <ghack...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > That is what I've been trying to do, below is the service definition > > > > in my AndroidManifest.xml file > > > > > <service android:name=".MDService" android:process=":remote"> > > > > <intent-filter> > > > > <action > > android:name="com.episode6.android.carolla.MDService"></ > > > > action> > > > > </intent-filter> > > > > </service> > > > > > And I bind the service in my activity with the following call... > > > > > bindService(new Intent(MDService.class.getName()), mConnection, > > > > Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); > > > > > And whenever I run unbindService(mConnection); the service still gets > > > > destroyed. > > > > > On Nov 23, 1:52 pm, Mark Murphy <mmur...@commonsware.com> wrote: > > > > > > G wrote: > > > > > > 1) When my main activity is destroyed, my service is getting > > destroyed > > > > > > along with it. The service's onDestroy get's called, playback > > stops, > > > > > > the notification gets cleared. How can I avoid this? > > > > > > Have you tried making your service a remote service, one that runs in > > > > > its own process? > > >http://code.google.com/android/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/example/andro... > > > > > > I haven't tried a remote service yet myself, so I'm not 100% certain > > it > > > > > will resolve this problem. > > > > > > -- > > > > > Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com > > > > > > Android Training on the Ranch! -- Mar 16-20, 2009 > >http://www.bignerdranch.com/schedule.shtml > > -- > Dianne Hackborn > Android framework engineer > hack...@android.com > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > provide private support. All such questions should be posted on public > forums, where I and others can see and answer them. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
