Starting an Android Service at Boot time

A service that has to be started manually is an oxymoron, so starting a service at boot time is for many applications a must.

My tracklogging service is such an example, which should run whenever the phone is turned on, so that one can refer to the route travelled later. A further example is the much touted CarbonFootprint, which again relies on accurate measurements all the time, and not just when the user has turned it on.

The last post detailed how the TrackloggingService worked, but started the service only when the main activity was launched. Now comes the time to hook it into the Android boot sequence. Here is how:

After boot completes the Android system broadcasts an intent with the action android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED. And now all we need is an IntentReceiver, now called a BroadcastReceiver, to listen and act on it. This is how this class looks:

public class LocationLoggerServiceManager extends BroadcastReceiver {

 public static final String TAG = "LocationLoggerServiceManager";
 @Override
 public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
  // just make sure we are getting the right intent (better safe than sorry)
  if( "android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED".equals(intent.getAction())) {
   ComponentName comp = new ComponentName(context.getPackageName(), LocationLoggerService.class.getName());
   ComponentName service = context.startService(new Intent().setComponent(comp));
   if (null == service){
    // something really wrong here
    Log.e(TAG, "Could not start service " + comp.toString());
   }
  } else {
   Log.e(TAG, "Received unexpected intent " + intent.toString());   
  }
 }
}

The key is of course the onReceive() method. I have decided to check that it is actually the Intent I am expecting, but otherwise it is straightforward starting the service and return.

The receiver needs to be declared in the manifest, e.g. with the following entry:

<receiver android:name=".LocationLoggerServiceManager" 
 android:enabled="true" 
 android:exported="false"
 android:label="LocationLoggerServiceManager">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Furthermore this class listen to this specific event needs to be declared in the security settings:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />

That's it. Now the service will be started as soon a Android has finished booting.
Now we will need something to make this user-configurable...