This lesson teaches you to
You should also read
- Intents and Intent Filters
- The section Broadcast receivers in the Application Components API guide.
Try it out
ThreadSample.zip
This lesson shows you how to report the status of a work request run in a background service to the component that sent the request. This allows you, for example, to report the status of the request in an Activity
object's UI. The recommended way to send and receive status is to use a LocalBroadcastManager
, which limits broadcast Intent
objects to components in your own app.
Report Status From an IntentService
To send the status of a work request in an IntentService
to other components, first create an Intent
that contains the status in its extended data. As an option, you can add an action and data URI to this Intent
.
Next, send the Intent
by calling LocalBroadcastManager.sendBroadcast()
. This sends the Intent
to any component in your application that has registered to receive it. To get an instance of LocalBroadcastManager
, call getInstance()
.
For example:
public final class Constants { ... // Defines a custom Intent action public static final String BROADCAST_ACTION = "com.example.android.threadsample.BROADCAST"; ... // Defines the key for the status "extra" in an Intent public static final String EXTENDED_DATA_STATUS = "com.example.android.threadsample.STATUS"; ... } public class RSSPullService extends IntentService { ... /* * Creates a new Intent containing a Uri object * BROADCAST_ACTION is a custom Intent action */ Intent localIntent = new Intent(Constants.BROADCAST_ACTION) // Puts the status into the Intent .putExtra(Constants.EXTENDED_DATA_STATUS, status); // Broadcasts the Intent to receivers in this app. LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).sendBroadcast(localIntent); ... }
The next step is to handle the incoming broadcast Intent
objects in the component that sent the original work request.
Receive Status Broadcasts from an IntentService
To receive broadcast Intent
objects, use a subclass of BroadcastReceiver
. In the subclass, implement the BroadcastReceiver.onReceive()
callback method, which LocalBroadcastManager
invokes when it receives an Intent
. LocalBroadcastManager
passes the incoming Intent
to BroadcastReceiver.onReceive()
.
For example:
// Broadcast receiver for receiving status updates from the IntentService private class ResponseReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver { // Prevents instantiation private DownloadStateReceiver() { } // Called when the BroadcastReceiver gets an Intent it's registered to receive @ public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) { ... /* * Handle Intents here. */ ... } }
Once you've defined the BroadcastReceiver
, you can define filters for it that match specific actions, categories, and data. To do this, create an IntentFilter
. This first snippet shows how to define the filter:
// Class that displays photos public class DisplayActivity extends FragmentActivity { ... public void onCreate(Bundle stateBundle) { ... super.onCreate(stateBundle); ... // The filter's action is BROADCAST_ACTION IntentFilter mStatusIntentFilter = new IntentFilter( Constants.BROADCAST_ACTION); // Adds a data filter for the HTTP scheme mStatusIntentFilter.addDataScheme("http"); ...
To register the BroadcastReceiver
and the IntentFilter
with the system, get an instance of LocalBroadcastManager
and call its registerReceiver()
method. This next snippet shows how to register the BroadcastReceiver
and its IntentFilter
:
// Instantiates a new DownloadStateReceiver DownloadStateReceiver mDownloadStateReceiver = new DownloadStateReceiver(); // Registers the DownloadStateReceiver and its intent filters LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver( mDownloadStateReceiver, mStatusIntentFilter); ...
A single BroadcastReceiver
can handle more than one type of broadcast Intent
object, each with its own action. This feature allows you to run different code for each action, without having to define a separate BroadcastReceiver
for each action. To define another IntentFilter
for the same BroadcastReceiver
, create the IntentFilter
and repeat the call to registerReceiver()
. For example:
/* * Instantiates a new action filter. * No data filter is needed. */ statusIntentFilter = new IntentFilter(Constants.ACTION_ZOOM_IMAGE); ... // Registers the receiver with the new filter LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(getActivity()).registerReceiver( mDownloadStateReceiver, mIntentFilter);
Sending an broadcast Intent
doesn't start or resume an Activity
. The BroadcastReceiver
for an Activity
receives and processes Intent
objects even when your app is in the background, but doesn't force your app to the foreground. If you want to notify the user about an event that happened in the background while your app was not visible, use a Notification
. Never start an Activity
in response to an incoming broadcast Intent
.