Receiver's Lifecycle

Question

I have two applications which talk with each other via receiver. When a button is pressed in application A, I broadcast an Intent with a certain permission. Application B then wakes up makes some calculations and again broadcasts an Intent with a certain permission for application A. In both manifests I define the permission (same name) and I also register both receivers.

    <permission android:name="aa.bb.cc.dd"
    android:label="permission"
    android:protectionLevel="normal"></permission>

    <receiver android:name=".receiver"
        android:exported="true">

        <uses-permission android:name="aa.bb.cc.dd"/>

        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name= "a_certain_action"/>/>
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

and call them :

    Intent i = new Intent();
    i.setAction("a_certain_action");
    sendBroadcast(i,"aa.bb.cc.dd");

However while this worked perfect yesterday today the receiver on application B won't wake up when I broadcast the intent. Why is that?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 14 '16 at 09:24

1

Your app was probably killed, and receiver is unregistered then. Try to use service, and there register broadcast

answered Dec 14 '16 at 09:24

Tomasz Czura

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For receivers to work the application should be running? – Libathos Dec 14 '16 at 09:25
Yes, "application" has to be run. But not whole activity, just service in your case – Tomasz Czura Dec 14 '16 at 09:29
When I register a receiver in my manifest isn't always listening for an event? – Libathos Dec 14 '16 at 09:37
It is - as long as application process is live. But android can kill processes. That's why you should use service with broadcast receiver - operating system will see service and won't kill process. – Tomasz Czura Dec 14 '16 at 10:01
It might as well kill the service. I think when registering receiver they always listen for an intent with a certain action – Libathos Dec 14 '16 at 10:14
Yes, but service might restart – Tomasz Czura Dec 14 '16 at 10:25
As I said before I believe receivers are always active when registered via manifest – Libathos Dec 14 '16 at 10:46
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24946350/broadcastreceiver-not-working-when-i-kill-my-application – Tomasz Czura Dec 14 '16 at 10:48
yes but that's for force stop. I even restarted my device and the receiver worked – Libathos Dec 14 '16 at 10:57

Receiver's Lifecycle

1 Answers1