Android: Developing apps that run in the 'background', how?

Question

I am used to developing standalone applications, ones that you click on, it runs, and when you are done, you exit.

I am now interested in tackling a new type (not sure if that's the right word) of app, and was wondering how I should go about it. I am not sure what to research, and would appreciate your advice to help me get the ball rolling. I'll give you an idea about what I have in mind.

My app would need to perform a special action in the dialer. When the user dials a number and is in the middle of a call, I would like the user to be able to press the Menu key, and find an option to scroll through all their contacts (either the stock app, or my own list which I grab from the contacts stored in the phone), and select one. Upon selection, that contact's number is pasted into the dialer (keep in mind, in the middle of a call).

I certainly don't expect an answer telling me how to do this exactly, I just need some guidance as I have never written an app of this nature before. On top of that, is it even possible to do what I want to do?

Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to go through Android Service or IntentService. A Service is an application component that can perform long-running operations in the background and does not provide a user interface(UI).

The following example is taken from android blog which is an implementation of the Service class

public class HelloService extends Service {
  private Looper mServiceLooper;
  private ServiceHandler mServiceHandler;

  // Handler that receives messages from the thread
  private final class ServiceHandler extends Handler {
      public ServiceHandler(Looper looper) {
          super(looper);
      }
      @Override
      public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
          // Normally we would do some work here, like download a file.
          // For our sample, we just sleep for 5 seconds.
          long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis() + 5*1000;
          while (System.currentTimeMillis() < endTime) {
              synchronized (this) {
                  try {
                      wait(endTime - System.currentTimeMillis());
                  } catch (Exception e) {
                  }
              }
          }
          // Stop the service using the startId, so that we don't stop
          // the service in the middle of handling another job
          stopSelf(msg.arg1);
      }
  }

  @Override
  public void onCreate() {
    // Start up the thread running the service.  Note that we create a
    // separate thread because the service normally runs in the process's
    // main thread, which we don't want to block.  We also make it
    // background priority so CPU-intensive work will not disrupt our UI.
    HandlerThread thread = new HandlerThread("ServiceStartArguments",
            Process.THREAD_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND);
    thread.start();

    // Get the HandlerThread's Looper and use it for our Handler 
    mServiceLooper = thread.getLooper();
    mServiceHandler = new ServiceHandler(mServiceLooper);
  }

  @Override
  public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
      Toast.makeText(this, "service starting", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

      // For each start request, send a message to start a job and deliver the
      // start ID so we know which request we're stopping when we finish the job
      Message msg = mServiceHandler.obtainMessage();
      msg.arg1 = startId;
      mServiceHandler.sendMessage(msg);

      // If we get killed, after returning from here, restart
      return START_STICKY;
  }

  @Override
  public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
      // We don't provide binding, so return null
      return null;
  }

  @Override
  public void onDestroy() {
    Toast.makeText(this, "service done", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); 
  }
}

On the other hand, The same thing can be achieved using IntentService, which is a base class for Services that handle asynchronous requests on demand.

public class HelloIntentService extends IntentService {

  /** 
   * A constructor is required, and must call the super IntentService(String)
   * constructor with a name for the worker thread.
   */
  public HelloIntentService() {
      super("HelloIntentService");
  }

  /**
   * The IntentService calls this method from the default worker thread with
   * the intent that started the service. When this method returns, IntentService
   * stops the service, as appropriate.
   */
  @Override
  protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
      // Normally we would do some work here, like download a file.
      // For our sample, we just sleep for 5 seconds.
      long endTime = System.currentTimeMillis() + 5*1000;
      while (System.currentTimeMillis() < endTime) {
          synchronized (this) {
              try {
                  wait(endTime - System.currentTimeMillis());
              } catch (Exception e) {
              }
          }
      }
  }
}

You can also go through SO post https://stackoverflow.com/a/4353653/432903

Answer 2

maybe you can use an IntentFilter so you can get a system notify when the user uses a dialer. and you should learn the Service component which can work in background in android.

Answer 3

If your app isn't mainly written in javascript/webview/phonegap, then all you have to do is look at the Service class. That class and the linked documents tell you everything you need to know.