CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidservice
Daniel Fridman
Daniel Fridman

Reputation: 3

Service stops when application is closed

I need a service to run in background and calculate every minute distance between two locations. I used Thread in order to execute a method every minute, then I understood that when the application is closed, the service stops too since application and service use the same thread. How can i create a simple method that is invoked every 1 minute, in background even when the application is closed?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 9876

Answers (3)

Mahdi Parastesh
Mahdi Parastesh

Reputation: 29

In addition to the previous solutions provided by our friends...

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE "Allow background activity" BUTTON IN YOUR APP'S SETTINGS!

See the picture: In the Battery section

Upvotes: 0

Markus Kauppinen
Markus Kauppinen

Reputation: 3235

You can run the Service in a separate process by modifying the manifest:

<service
    android:name="com.example.myapplication.MyBackgroundService"
    android:exported="false"
    android:process=":myBackgroundServiceProcess" >
</service>

But that might not really bring any benefit. And most of the time it may even be a bad idea.

Of course the main thing is that if the Service gets shut down it's then re-started.

The Service's onStartCommand() can return the START_STICKY flag:

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {

    // Other code goes here...

    return START_STICKY;
}

This (and the other) options are explained in the documentation. Basically START_STICKY means "Hey Android! If you really really have to shut down my precious Service because of running low on memory, then please please try to start it again."

Whereas START_NOT_STICKY would mean "Nahh...don't bother. I'll call startService() again myself if I really need my Service running."

This (start sticky) is probably fine most of time. Your Service will just start from scratch again. You could try if that's suitable for your use case.

Then there are "foreground services" which are less likely to get shut down by Android as they are treated more like visible apps. And in fact they show up in the notification drawer with an icon and (if you make it so) a status text. So they are visible to the user like e.g. SportsTracker, Beddit and such apps.

This involves modifying your Service's onStartCommand(): 

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {

    // Tapping the notification will open the specified Activity.
    Intent activityIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(getApplicationContext(), 0,
            activityIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);

    // This always shows up in the notifications area when this Service is running.
    // TODO: String localization 
    Notification not = new Notification.Builder(this).
            setContentTitle(getText(R.string.app_name)).
            setContentInfo("Doing stuff in the background...").setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher).
            setContentIntent(pendingIntent).build();
    startForeground(1, not);

    // Other code goes here...

    return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
}

The Service is started as usual and you can get out of the foreground mode with:

myBackgroundService.stopForeground(true);

The boolean parameters defines if the notification should also be dismissed or not.

Upvotes: 14

Yogi
Yogi

Reputation: 29

You have to use thread for this and set a flag on starting the service. And check that flag for stoping the service.

Upvotes: 0

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