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How to use interface to communicate between activities after process death?

I am building an SDK and need to implement callbacks between activities, without actually finish an activity. I previously used onActivityResult to provide results back to caller activity. However, this closes activity and I need to deliver callback, without finishing activity from SDK. My current implementation:
fun initializeSDK(){
SDK.getInstance().initialize(resultsCallbackImpl)
}
val resultsCallbackImpl:ResultsCallback = object : ResultsCallback {
override fun response1() {
}
override fun response2() {
}
};
For example, the client calls initializeSDK() from his activity after the button click. Then the client passes interface as parameter, which is set as a property in SDK singleton. Then I use that interface to return results.
The problem occurs after process death. The interface becomes null, because it is not serialized and I can't return callback to client anymore. How should I edit my code to tackle this issue? Is it even possible?
I know that client can initialize SDK in the application class, then it will be re-set after process death. However, such an approach will result in difficulty for the client to communicate results back to activity from application class.

Update:
Do a right click on the project tree and add a new AIDL file called IMyAidlInterface.aidl:
package com.test.aidlsample;
import com.test.aidlsample.MyData;
interface IMyAidlInterface {
List<MyData> getData(long id);
}
If you need to return objects to your client you need to declare and define them as parcelable and import them in aidl file too, here is the MyData.aidl that should be beside the other aidl file:
package com.test.aidlsample;
// Declare MyData so AIDL can find it and knows that it implements
// the parcelable protocol.
parcelable MyData;
and this is MyData.java in the java folder:
public class MyData implements Parcelable {
private long productId;
private String productName;
private long productValue;
public MyData(long productId, String productName, long productValue) {
this.productId = productId;
this.productName = productName;
this.productValue = productValue;
}
#Override
public int describeContents() {
return 0;
}
#Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
dest.writeLong(this.productId);
dest.writeString(this.productName);
dest.writeLong(this.productValue);
}
protected MyData(Parcel in) {
this.productId = in.readLong();
this.productName = in.readString();
this.productValue = in.readLong();
}
public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyData> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<MyData>() {
#Override
public MyData createFromParcel(Parcel source) {
return new MyData(source);
}
#Override
public MyData[] newArray(int size) {
return new MyData[size];
}
};
}
Now build the project so Stub class gets built. After a successful build continue with the service:
public class SdkService extends Service {
private IMyAidlInterface.Stub binder = new IMyAidlInterface.Stub() {
#Override
public List<MyData> getData(long id) throws RemoteException {
//TODO: get data from db by id;
List<MyData> data = new ArrayList<>();
MyData aData = new MyData(1L, "productName", 100L);
data.add(aData);
return data;
}
};
#Nullable
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return binder;
}
}
and add the service to the sdk manifest. If you are adding sdk as a dependency to the client like: implementation project(':sdk') you don't need to add AIDL files to client. If not, you have to add them and build the client application. Now, only remains to implement the client activity:
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
IMyAidlInterface mService;
/**
* Class for interacting with the main interface of the service.
*/
private ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() {
public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className,
IBinder service) {
// This is called when the connection with the service has been
// established, giving us the service object we can use to
// interact with the service. We are communicating with our
// service through an IDL interface, so get a client-side
// representation of that from the raw service object.
mService = IMyAidlInterface.Stub.asInterface(service);
try {
List<MyData> data = mService.getData(1L);
updateUi(data);
} catch (RemoteException e) {
// In this case the service has crashed before we could even
// do anything with it; we can count on soon being
// disconnected (and then reconnected if it can be restarted)
// so there is no need to do anything here.
}
}
public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName className) {
// This is called when the connection with the service has been
// unexpectedly disconnected -- that is, its process crashed.
mService = null;
}
};
private void updateUi(List<MyData> data) {
//TODO: Update UI here
}
#Override
protected void onResume() {
if (mService == null) {
Intent serviceIntent = new Intent();
//CAREFUL: serviceIntent.setComponent(new ComponentName("your.client.package", "your.sdk.service.path"));
serviceIntent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.test.sampleclient", "com.test.aidlsample.SdkService"));
bindService(serviceIntent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
} else {
try {
updateUi(mService.getData(1L));
} catch (RemoteException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
super.onResume();
}
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
}
every time your client activity gets visibility, it gets data from sdk service. Just build your logic over this template. In sdk activity save data to a database and in service query them from database. I've used simple parameters in this sample.
I assumed your sdk is a library in the client app. If not, you need to do some small modifications maybe. And as I mentioned before you can find more details here: Android Interface Definition Language (AIDL). There are lots of samples and even more Q/A here in the SO on the subject. Good luck.
Original: You need to get callbacks from an activity that is currently invisible since your SDK activity is in front, right? To do that you can create a database for your SDK, persist data to your database and get data via an AIDL in the starting activity:
SdkService sdkService;
CallbackData callbackData
private ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() {
// Called when the connection with the service is established
public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) {
sdkService = SdkService.Stub.asInterface(service);
}
// Called when the connection with the service disconnects unexpectedly
public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName className) {
Log.e(TAG, "Service has unexpectedly disconnected");
sdkService = null;
}
};
in onCreate:
Intent i = new Intent()
i.setClassName("your.sdk.packageName", "your.sdk.service.path.and.name");
bindService(i, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
and in whenever needed:
if(sdkService != null){
callbackData = sdkService.getCallbacks();
updateUI();
}
Just be careful getting a binder is an async job so if you call bindService and right after call sdkService.getCallbackData you get a NullPointerException. So you might want to move getCallbacks and updateUI inside the onServiceConnected and call bindService in onResume so every time activity becomes visible you would check if there is CallbackData so you can update your UI or whatever.

You cannot use interfaces directly to communicate between activities.
As soon as you start a new activity and new activity becomes visible android OS can kill 1st activity anytime (you can try this with a flag inside developer option "Don't keep activities"). So user of your SDK will complain about certain random "null pointer exception".
So, Now if you want to share data between current and previous screen, you might have to rethought your solution using Fragments.
Exposing your UI using a fragment and communicating back your result to activity which then would update proper fragment which needs the data.
I faced similar issue in one existing app which I was asked to fix. I switched entire app to fragments and single activity, first to release a hot fix.

The problem occurs after process death. The interface becomes null, because it is not serialised and I can't return callback to client anymore. How should I edit my code to tackle this issue? Is it even possible?
This is not possible. If the client process dies, all of its executing code - including your SDK - gets wiped away.
I know that client can initialise SDK in the application class, then it will be re-set after process death. However, such approach will result in difficulty for client to communicate results back to activity from application class.
So what? If the client Activity is restarted, it should call the SDK again to set a new callback instance which you can use from that point forward.

You can use a sharedviewmodel that is bound to both activities; have a mutablelivedata variable that you can observe from the two activities.
ideally on the first activity you can just put the value inside the mutablelivedata variable. Then on the second activity get the activity.
Follow the following link to give you a guideline.
ViewModel Overview

IBinder between Bound Service and Activity

Maybe I'm just tired. However I am struggling to understand just how the IBinder interface works.
A service has a method call onBind(Intent intent) and this passes some form of the IBinder to a binding activity.
Where I am struggling is how to visualize this. Is an IBinder object a pipe between the service and activity, so that an activity can interact directly with the service? Or is an IBinder an object that is passed to the activity that has information from the Service in it (similar to an intent)?
Edit: The idea is for me to be able to call the getSomeData function from the binding activity. Or rather, the idea is to get the mSomeData obect to the activity.
I have the following classes that I am using, and Im trying to figure out the best way to have the activity request data (serializable if needed though I'd rather not) from the service.
public class MainService extends Service{
private CustomBinder mIBinder;
private SomeDataObject mSomeData;
#Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
mIBinder = new CustomBinder();
return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
}
#Override
public CustomBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
// TODO: Return the communication channel to the service.
// This is auto generated and I havent changed it yet. I am not
// Experiencing errors as this is not designed to run yet.
throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not yet implemented");
}
public final SomeDataObject getSomeData(){
return mSomeData;
}
class SomeBinder extends MainEngineBinder{
// All the Auto Generated Stuff
}
}

You don't need to know how IBinder works. Just subclass Binder (Not IBinder) and add some methods to the Binder subclass. These methods can be called from the activity bound to your service.
The easiest way to do this in your case is to have an inner class extend Binder, and that inner class will then be able to access methods/fields from your service and return them to the activity. You look like you're working from a similar template as the Android documentation on bound services, so here's the example from the docs - all the binder does in this case is expose a getter for getting the service itself, and a caller can simply call methods directly on the service:
public class LocalService extends Service {
// Binder given to clients
private final IBinder mBinder = new LocalBinder();
// Random number generator
private final Random mGenerator = new Random();
/**
* Class used for the client Binder. Because we know this service always
* runs in the same process as its clients, we don't need to deal with IPC.
*/
public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
LocalService getService() {
// Return this instance of LocalService so clients can call public methods
return LocalService.this;
}
}
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return mBinder;
}
/** method for clients */
public int getRandomNumber() {
return mGenerator.nextInt(100);
}
}
The caller calling bind() will need to cast the IBinder to LocalService.LocalBinder. In this case, the IBinder is neither a pipe nor an intent-like object; it is a normal Java-style interface.
Note that all of this holds true if you are not doing IPC. The documentation states that in this case (same application, same process) the call is a normal Java call - you can pass objects, references, whatever you like, because everything is in the same process.
Note that IPC, pipes, marshalling, serialisation and the like are all unnecessary (unless you want your service to be called from other apps or if you use multi-process apps). An Android service is not even run in a separate thread unless you start a new thread explicitly, and does not have it's "own" thread or process - all calls made to binders or the service object itself are made in the same thread as the caller.
In your case, the exact example from the Android documentation seems like the best approach.

Android what is the purpose of using Local Service

In the Android official developer guide, the chapter of Bound Service, there is an example about local binder which extends the Binder, the code is like this:
public class LocalService extends Service {
// Binder given to clients
private final IBinder mBinder = new LocalBinder();
// Random number generator
private final Random mGenerator = new Random();
/**
* Class used for the client Binder. Because we know this service always
* runs in the same process as its clients, we don't need to deal with IPC.
*/
public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
LocalService getService() {
// Return this instance of LocalService so clients can call public methods
return LocalService.this;
}
}
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return mBinder;
}
/** method for clients */
public int getRandomNumber() {
return mGenerator.nextInt(100);
}
}
And especially for this is the method for client to call:
/** method for clients */
public int getRandomNumber() {
return mGenerator.nextInt(100);
}
I feel a bit confused about for such a simple action, why we need to put it to Service? What's further more is this Service is just a local service, can be only used in current process of application, but not other applications. Of course it is obviously this method can be put into any class as a public method, which is enough for the above case.
I can understand the purpose of to put such as file downloading code into a service (or maybe IntentService is a bit more suitable), which is suitable to the Service's feature: run long time processing code.
But what I cannot understand is why we need a Local Service like this?

Local bind service is needed to handle client-server case
Suppose you have a case when you need to do some long operations many times and also need result of it and do some on result in your Activity.
In that case you bind service and use its method and also can use callback to get results and do operations in activity.

sendBroadcast(intent) gives a null pointer exception

This is my second post today as fixing the 1st post lead to another problem which I am really struggling on. I want to use Broadcasts and intent to send data packets back from a service to the UI. I managed to bind and start the service successfully
see my other post if you want history and code
The null pointer exception comes on the sendBroadcast() inside the service. The service class does have its constructor re-called after binding the UI to the service. This happens from another class so Context can not be easily used. So I guess the sendBroadcast has no-where to go :(
I suspect this is my problem...the re-calling of the Service constructor after the initial binding. I have onDestroy, onPause and onResume covered with binding an unbinding.
Any ideas or suggestion would be great or maybe I am just going about this wrong is there another way?
EDIT
The previous problem of binding is now solved and due to me being new to the forums a slight delay in accepting the answer...sorry.
The class diagram is like this (it is ported C#code)
Activity doBind (on Curve.class)---> Activity starts a worker class (not treated as a service) Comm.class with a Handler for some comms--> the Comm starts another worker class --> previous worker class finally calls new Curve.class.
It is this last stage Curve.class where the sendBroadcastReceiver() then throws a nullpointer ref becasue the binder is lost.
I tested the broadcastreceiver just with a simple timer cutting out the worker classes in between and it works fine. Problems start when the Curve.class is recalled later further down the hierarchy and the binder gets nulled or "lost".
I removed all references of the binder from Curve except in onBind(). This might not be a good idea. Again the code below does work if used with a simple timer started directly from the UI (no other worker classes).
Some more code here:
The service
public class Curve extends Service
{
private NewCurvePointEventArgs newpoint = null;
private static final String TAG = "Curve";
Intent intent;
int counter = 0;
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
}
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
IBinder mBinder = new LocalBinder<Curve>(this);
return mBinder;
}
#Override
public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
}
public Curve(){
}
private void refreshintent(NewCurvePointEventArgs tmp)
{
ArrayList<String> thepoint = new ArrayList<String>();
thepoint.add()//various things added here
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
// add data to bundle
bundle.putStringArrayList("New_Point", thepoint);
intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(NEWCURVE_POINT);
intent.putExtra("NEW_POINT", bundle
sendBroadcast(intent);
}
The activity has this code now. the doBind() is called after the onCreate of the activity.
private BroadcastReceiver CurveReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver(){
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
if (intent.getAction().equals(Curve.NEWCURVE_POINT)) {
displaynewpoint(intent);
}
}
};
private ServiceConnection CurveServiceConncetion = new ServiceConnection() {
#Override
public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
CurveService = ((LocalBinder<Curve>) service).getService();
}
#Override
public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
CurveService = null;
}
};
#Override
public synchronized void onResume() {
super.onResume();
if(D) Log.e(TAG, "+ ON RESUME +");
}
#Override
public synchronized void onPause() {
super.onPause();
if(D) Log.e(TAG, "- ON PAUSE -");
}
#Override
public void onStop() {
super.onStop();
if(D) Log.e(TAG, "-- ON STOP --");
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
super.onDestroy();
if(D) Log.e(TAG, "--- ON DESTROY ---");
unregisterReceiver(CurveReceiver);
unbindService(CurveServiceConncetion);
}
public void doBind(){
Boolean tmp;
tmp = bindService(new Intent(this, Curve.class), CurveServiceConncetion, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);//Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE
IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(Curve.NEWCURVE_POINT);
registerReceiver(CurveReceiver, filter);
}
This problem to me is because the Curve.class has its constructor called again after the initial doBind().
Surely there must be a way around this otherwise I have to load my worker classes closer in hierarchy to the UI with the code from Curve.class???
EDIT
Curve is an object that processes data, constants etc sent from an external machine and contains the processed data in arrays.
The logCat did of course exist I just wasn't looking in the right place here it is
ARN/System.err(10505): java.lang.NullPointerException
WARN/System.err(10505): at android.content.ContextWrapper.sendBroadcast(ContextWrapper.java:271)
WARN/System.err(10505): at pi.droid.Core.Curve.refreshintent(Curve.java:206)
WARN/System.err(10505): at pi.droid.Core.Curve.AddPoint(Curve.java:400)
WARN/System.err(10505): at pi.droid.Core.Comm.CommMeasure$CommMeasurement.AddPoint(CommMeasure.java:363)
WARN/System.err(10505): at pi.droid.Core.Comm.CommMeasure$GenericCommMeasurement.TryProcessData(CommMeasure.java:168)
WARN/System.err(10505): at pi.droid.Core.Comm.CommMeasure$CommMeasurement.ProcessData(CommMeasure.java:302)
WARN/System.err(10505):at pi.droid.Core.Comm.ClientConnection$timer_tick.run(ClientConnection.java:164)
WARN/System.err(10505): at java.util.Timer$TimerImpl.run(Timer.java:289)
You can also see the chain of the 2 other worker classes I use. The constructor of Curve is called after the bind from CommMeasure.
So this is my problem.
Do I need to totally change how my program is set up or is there another way around this?
FINAL EDIT
This code is brought from c# and Curve used eventhandlers to pass data around. I got rid of all them(java listeners) and used android Handler and broadcastreceiver.
It has been suggested that I should pass the CurveService around but this will be problematic as Curve has multiple constructors. The no parameter 1 for the service and then 1 like this
public Curve(Unit XUnit, Unit YUnit)
{ this.Title = "Curve";
this.finished = false;
this.XUnit = XUnit;
this.YUnit = YUnit;
this.YDirection = CurveDirection.Unspecified;
}
so surely instantiating that would be a problem with CurveService, which has to be like this: public Curve(){} ??
Anyway many thanks for all your help and advice.
Final Edit +1..lol
The UI creates a new instance of ClientConnection, that in turns creates a new instance of CommMeasure and finally CommMeasure creates a new instance of Curve to access Curve.addpoint.
I think this thread and the other linked 1 goes beyond a simple android problem and highlights the difficulties of code porting. Any .Net developer for example reading this will learn some peculiarities of android a lot quicker than I did. There is also good working code in there.
Thanks to all who helped especially Justin Breitfeller

The best thing for you to do is follow the example from the Android APIDemos.
A service to be used like you want to use it:
http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/example/android/apis/app/LocalService.html
Look at the Binding class inside of this file to see a class that does binding like you should:
http://developer.android.com/resources/samples/ApiDemos/src/com/example/android/apis/app/LocalServiceActivities.html
Finally, if your constructor is being called twice on your service, you aren't binding to your service properly, or perhaps you are unbinding from it and binding to it again unexpectedly.
EDIT
From the stack trace, it appears that CommMeasure needs to have a reference to the instance of Curve that you receive in onServiceConnected.
EDIT 2
If you really want to make your life simple, pass getApplicationContext() to your CommMeasure class and just appContext.sendBroadcast() from that class to send out your point. This will prevent you from requiring a reference to the service in your long-running task.

AIDL: Stub class methods not being called

I am using AIDL to pass objects from an Activity to a Service and am getting some strange behavior. To my understanding, the idea behind AIDL is to create an interface in a .aidl file, which android will then implement (partially) in a dynamically generated class. Android will create an abstract class called Stub, which you then need to instantiate and add the implementation of the methods which you defined in your .aidl interface. Once all of that is in place, the remote service can be instantiated, and the methods declared in the .aidl interface file (and defined in your instantiation of the Stub class) can be called.
That is my impression of how this mechanism works, however when I tried implementing it, I notice that the definitions for the methods I declared in the Stub class are not being run; instead what is being run is IBinder.transct()
Here is a snippet of what I'm trying to do:
This is implemented in my Service:
public final INetService.Stub mBinder = new INetService.Stub() {
public void sendInteger(String ID, int data) throws RemoteException {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
}
public void sendString(String ID, String data) throws RemoteException {
ServiceConnectionHandler connHandler = new ServiceConnectionHandler(ID, data);
}
public void sendObject(String ID, NetMessage data) throws RemoteException {
ServiceConnectionHandler connHandler = new ServiceConnectionHandler(ID, data.getData());
}
};
And this is inside my Activity, which tries to use and talk to the service:
private INetService mService = null;
private NetServiceConnection conn = null;
class NetServiceConnection implements ServiceConnection
{
public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) {
mService = INetService.Stub.asInterface(service);
Log.d( "ADDERSERVICECLIENT","onServiceConnected" );
}
#Override
public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
mService = null;
Log.d( "ADDERSERVICECLIENT","onServiceDisconnected" );
}
};
private void initService()
{
conn = new NetServiceConnection();
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClassName( "framework.network", "framework.network.NetService" );
if (!bindService( i, conn, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE))
{
Toast.makeText(this, "bindService fails..", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
....
mService.sendString((char)0, finalMessage);
The methods defined in INetService.Stub, like sendString, appear never to be called; clearly I'm missing something; any thoughts?
Thanks a lot!
Iva

Without the rest of your code, it is difficult to answer your question. See here and here for a pair of sample projects implementing a remote service and its client, using AIDL. Perhaps those implementations will give you some idea of where things are going wrong for you.

You must specify your class in an .aidl-file to make it public to IPC.
See http://fauxgrammer.com/?p=4 for more information.
Cheers!

I came across the same situation earlier today. In my case, I had two copies of the AIDL file in the client side and server side.
I was updating the AIDL file in on the client side, but totally forgot about updating the server-side AIDL. Since there's no type checking on Stub implementation it just ran but never returned anything.