Service question - how do I make a service run periodically?

Sweevo · by **Sweevo** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:44 pm

Let's say I have an app that logs your route and lets you see it and post it online...

When the phone boots, it should run for a fraction of a second, putting your location in a database, and maybe every 15-20 minutes after that (don't want to bother other apps too much!), whether the app is launched or not.

Do I just use a service that starts at boot time, and have its thread sleep for 20 minutes, work for 1 second, and repeat? Or is there some clever scheduler I missed? Either way, what's a good example for getting started?

Note: I don't think the rest of the app (the activity component) needs to communicate with the service directly, since it can just read the data from the database.

MrSnowflake · by **MrSnowflake** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:39 pm

For the AutoStarting service there's a thread about that.

Then you just make a service which does:

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Using java Syntax Highlighting

/** in MyService.java */
 
private Handler mHandler;
 
private final int DELAY = 360*1000*20; // 20min in ms
 
public void onCreate(){
 
  mHandler = new Handler();
 
  mHandler.postDelayed(updateRunnable, DELAY);
 
}
 
private Runnable updateRunnable = new Runnable() {
 
  public void run() {
 
    // setup gps stuff
 
    // do the update
 
    // remove gps stuff (save battery!!!)
 
    MyService.this.mHandler.postDelayed(this, DELAY);
 
  }
 
};
Parsed in 0.032 seconds,  using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

That should do it.

the // do the update would probably be something like:

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while(!updated)
 
  sleep(1000); // with the apropriate try stuff
Parsed in 0.030 seconds,  using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

Where updated is a boolean which will be flagged when the LocatonChangedListener (or what's it's name) is invoked.

Sweevo · by **Sweevo** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:57 pm

Thanks. That's exactly what I've been looking for!

There's so much you can do with this - alert you when friends are nearby, using your route to draw using the earth as a canvas (if you change it to every 2-5 minutes, probably)...

Service question - how do I make a service run periodically?

Service question - how do I make a service run periodically?

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