Service Intent must be explicit: Intent

Question

I have an app some time now in which I call a service through a broadcast receiver (MyStartupIntentReceiver). The code in the broadcast receiver in order to call the service is:

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Intent serviceIntent = new Intent();
    serviceIntent.setAction("com.duk3r.eortologio2.MyService");
    context.startService(serviceIntent);
}

The problem is that in Android 5.0 Lollipop I get the following error (in previous versions of Android, everything works ok):

Unable to start receiver com.duk3r.eortologio2.MyStartupIntentReceiver: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Service Intent must be explicit: Intent { act=com.duk3r.eortologio2.MyService }

What do I have to change in order for the service to be declared as explicit and start normally? Tried some answers in other similar threads but although i got rid of the message, the service wouldn't start.

Answer 1

any intent you make to a service, activity etc. in your app should always follow this format

Intent serviceIntent = new Intent(context,MyService.class);
context.startService(serviceIntent);

or

Intent bi = new Intent("com.android.vending.billing.InAppBillingService.BIND");
bi.setPackage("com.android.vending");

implicit intents (what you have in your code currently) are considered a security risk

Answer 2

Set your packageName works.

intent.setPackage(this.getPackageName());

Answer 3

Convert implicit intent to explicit intent then fire start service.

        Intent implicitIntent = new Intent();
        implicitIntent.setAction("com.duk3r.eortologio2.MyService");
        Context context = getApplicationContext();
        Intent explicitIntent = convertImplicitIntentToExplicitIntent(implicitIntent, context);
        if(explicitIntent != null){
            context.startService(explicitIntent);
            }


    public static Intent convertImplicitIntentToExplicitIntent(Intent implicitIntent, Context context) {
            PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
            List<ResolveInfo> resolveInfoList = pm.queryIntentServices(implicitIntent, 0);

            if (resolveInfoList == null || resolveInfoList.size() != 1) {
                return null;
            }
            ResolveInfo serviceInfo = resolveInfoList.get(0);
            ComponentName component = new ComponentName(serviceInfo.serviceInfo.packageName, serviceInfo.serviceInfo.name);
            Intent explicitIntent = new Intent(implicitIntent);
            explicitIntent.setComponent(component);
            return explicitIntent;
        }

Answer 4

Try this. it works for me. Here MonitoringService is my service class. I have two action, which indicate service to stop or start. I send that value from my broadcast receiver depend on AIRPLANE_MODE_CHANGED.

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {   
    String action = intent.getAction();

    if(Intent.ACTION_AIRPLANE_MODE_CHANGED.equalsIgnoreCase(action)){
         boolean isOn = intent.getBooleanExtra("state", false);
         String serviceAction = isOn? MonitoringService.StopAction : MonitoringService.StartAction;
         Intent serviceIntent = new Intent(context, MonitoringService.class);
         serviceIntent.setAction(serviceAction);
         context.startService(serviceIntent);
    }
}

NOTE: I add following code to trigger my broadcast receiver named: ManageLocationListenerReceiver.

<receiver
     android:name=".ManageLocationListenerReceiver"
     android:enabled="true"
     android:exported="true">
     <intent-filter>
         <action android:name="android.intent.action.AIRPLANE_MODE" />
     </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Answer 5

I improved the answer of Shahidul to remove the context dependency:

public class ServiceUtils {
    public static void startService(String intentUri) {
        Intent implicitIntent = new Intent();
        implicitIntent.setAction(intentUri);
        Context context = SuperApplication.getContext();
        Intent explicitIntent = convertImplicitIntentToExplicitIntent(implicitIntent, context);
        if(explicitIntent != null){
            context.startService(explicitIntent);
        }
    }

    private static Intent convertImplicitIntentToExplicitIntent(Intent implicitIntent, Context context) {
        PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
        List<ResolveInfo> resolveInfoList = pm.queryIntentServices(implicitIntent, 0);

        if (resolveInfoList == null || resolveInfoList.size() != 1) {
            return null;
        }
        ResolveInfo serviceInfo = resolveInfoList.get(0);
        ComponentName component = new ComponentName(serviceInfo.serviceInfo.packageName, serviceInfo.serviceInfo.name);
        Intent explicitIntent = new Intent(implicitIntent);
        explicitIntent.setComponent(component);
        return explicitIntent;
    }
}

Inside the SuperApplication class:

public class SuperApplication extends Application {
    private static MyApp instance;

    public static SuperApplication getInstance() {
        return instance;
    }

    public static Context getContext(){
        return instance;
        // or return instance.getApplicationContext();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        instance = this;
        super.onCreate();
    }
}

In your manifest:

<application
    android:name="com.example.app.SuperApplication "
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    .......
    <activity
        ......

And then, just call:

ServiceUtils.startService("com.myservice");