Download LECTURE 5

By: Eliav Menachi
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Services are components that run in the
background, without a user interface
Android supports two types of services:.
 Local service: not accessible from other
applications running on the device
 Remote service: accessible from other
applications in addition to the application hosting
the service
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Started via Context.startService()
Runs until:
 Context.stopService()
 stopSelf()
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See SimpleService example
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Service that can be consumed by other
processes via Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Android Interface Definition Language
(AIDL): define the interface that will be
exposed to clients
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To build a remote service, you do the
following:
1. Write an AIDL file that defines your interface to
clients
2. Add the AIDL file to your Eclipse project generate a Java interface from the AIDL file
3. Implement the service and return the interface
from the onBind() method
4. Add the service configuration to your
AndroidManifest.xml
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AIDL is a simple syntax that lets you declare
an interface with one or more methods
The parameters and return values can be of
any type, even other AIDL-generated
interfaces
you must import all non-built-in types, even if
they are defined in the same package as your
interface
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Data types that AIDL can support:
 Primitive types (int, boolean…)
 String
 List - the other side will receive an ArrayList
 Map - the other side will receive a HashMap
 CharSequence
 Other AIDL-generated interfaces
 Custom classes that implement the Parcelable
protocol
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Add the AIDL file to your Eclipse project
Eclipse will automatically call the AIDL compiler and
will generate the Java interface from the AIDL file
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Write a class that extends
android.app.Service
Implement:
 Implement the interface method
 Implement the onBind() method
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Add the service configuration to your
AndroidManifest.xml
<service android:name=".AIDLServiceImpl">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="bgu.eliav.AIDLServiceInterface" />
</intent-filter>
</service>
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copy the AIDL file to the client project
AIDL compiler creates the interface
Extends the ServiceConnection
get a reference to the service
call the bindService()