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Broadcast by Notification Action not handled in BroadcastReceiver inside Service

I am trying to build a notification while a music playback service is running and use the notification to interact with the service (play, pause, stop) using the Broadcast mechanism.
(I know there is also the possibility to use PendingIntent.getService() as an action button in the notification, but I don't like this idea, because this would trigger the onStartCommand() of the service and I need to parse and analyze the Intent object to take action, which seems not as clean as the BroadcastReceiver approach, described below).
Let's illustrate what we have so far with some (truncated) code.
We are creating a Notification object inside the service lifecycle, add an action button, and showing the notification using startForeground().
...
Intent i = new Intent(getBaseContext(), PlayerService.class);
PendingIntent piStop = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getBaseContext(), 1, i, PendingIntent.FLAG_ONE_SHOT);
NotificationCompat.Action actionStopPlayback = new NotificationCompat.Action(R.drawable.ic_stop_white_36dp, "Stop playback", piStop);
notification.addAction(actionStopPlayback);
...
Then we are registering a BroadcastReceiver inside the onCreate() of the service (and unregistering it in onDestroy of course; this is a more simplified example).
IntentFilter intentFilter = new IntentFilter();
registerReceiver(new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Log.d(getClass().toString(), "Broadcast received");
}
}, intentFilter);
And the final result is that the onReceive() of the receiver is never called. The service is a continuous one and is active when the Notification action sends the broadcast. Since I have no way of debugging broadcasts due to their nature, I'm kind of blocked here.

You're creating this explicit Intent for the PendingIntent:
Intent i = new Intent(getBaseContext(), PlayerService.class);
This won't work for a couple of reasons. Explicit Intents - those created for a specific target class - do not work with dynamically registered Receiver instances. Also, this is targeting the wrong class. A broadcast Intent with a Service class target will just fail outright. A getBroadcast() PendingIntent would need a BroadcastReceiver class as the target.
With your current setup - the dynamically registered Receiver instance - you'll need to use an implicit Intent; i.e., an Intent with an action String, rather than a target class. For example:
Intent i = new Intent("com.hasmobi.action.STOP_PLAYBACK");
You would then use that action String for the IntentFilter you're using to register the Receiver.
IntentFilter intentFilter = new IntentFilter("com.hasmobi.action.STOP_PLAYBACK");
Do note that an IntentFilter can have multiple actions, so you can register a single Receiver to handle several different actions.
Alternatively, you could stick with using an explicit Intent, and statically register a BroadcastReceiver class in the manifest. For example:
public class NotificationReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
...
}
}
In the manifest:
<receiver android:name=".NotificationReceiver" />
Then your Intent would be similar to:
Intent i = new Intent(PlayerService.this, NotificationReceiver.class);
However, this would require an additional step, as you would then need to somehow pass the broadcast info from NotificationReceiver to the Service; e.g., with an event bus, LocalBroadcastManager, etc.

Android Change a variable in service from other app

the title says all, I need to change the variable of my service from a activity in my other app , what to finalize the service or not, this is possible?
I found the Message object , but I do not quite understand

The simplest solution would be to implement a BroadcastReceiver. Your Service listens for the Broadcast and the other App sends the Broadcast.
Example Reciever:
public class MyReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
// Get bundle from intent and use it to set your Variable in your Service
}
}
Example Broadcaster (courtesy of Vogella):
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction("de.vogella.android.mybroadcast");
sendBroadcast(intent);

Android - How to use a local broadcast receiver?

I'm trying to use a local broadcast receiver.
In order to do so I"ve done the next steps -
1) At an Activity, where Iwould like something to happen, I've created a class -
private class NewGroupReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver{
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Log.d("The group ", "GOT IN THE RECIVING");
Toast.makeText(this, "Working",Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
2) At the same activity I've used the next code in order to create a receiver -
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
NewGroupReceiver receiver = new NewGroupReceiver();
//the intent filter will be action = "com.example.demo_service.action.SERVICE_FINISHED"
IntentFilter filter= new IntentFilter("com.example.apps.action.NEW_GROUP");
// register the receiver:
registerReceiver(receiver, filter);
}
3) At the a service class I've used the next code to know when something has happened-
Intent resultsIntent=new Intent("com.example.apps.action.NEW_GROUP");
LocalBroadcastManager localBroadcastManager =LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this);
localBroadcastManager.sendBroadcast(resultsIntent);
Now the problem is that when the thing I WOuld like to know has happen - I see the it's get into the code that I've used at step 3, but it doesen't seem to get into the BroadcastReceiver - the step 1 code.
Any idea what am I doing wrong here?
Thanks for any kind of help.

You are using the LocalBroadcastManager to send the request, but you register the receiver on the "global" Intent. You should either use LocalBroadcastManager to register the receiver or send the broadcast on the
application context:
Step 2
LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(this).registerReceiver (receiver, filter);

Android activity not getting broadcast from local service

From the examples this looked straightforward. Maybe you can show me what I did wrong. I can't get an activity to receive a broadcast sent from a local service.
I have Activity1 that start Service1:
startService(new Intent(Activity1.this, Service1.class));
Activity1 then starts Activity2:
startActivity(new Intent(Activity1.this, Activity2.class));
Service1, a local service, listens for downloads:
protected final BroadcastReceiver service2DownloadBroadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver()
{
public void onReceive(final Context context, final Intent intent)
{
...
broadcastDownloadFinished(Uri.fromFile(downloadedFile));
The broadcast receiver of Service1 then broadcasts its own message:
protected Intent broadcastDownloadFinished(final Uri uri)
{
final Intent intent = new Intent(ACTION_DOWNLOAD_FINISHED).setData(checkNotNull(uri));
sendBroadcast(intent);
Activity2, which is in the foreground at the time, listens for the ACTION_DOWNLOAD_FINISHED intent using its own broadcast receiver:
private final BroadcastReceiver activity2DownloadBroadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver()
{
public void onReceive(final Context context, final Intent intent)
{
Log.i(Activity2.class.getSimpleName(), "Received download event: " + intent.getAction() + " " + intent.getData());
Activity2 of course registers the receiver:
protected void onResume()
{
super.onResume();
final IntentFilter downloadIntentFilter = new IntentFilter();
downloadIntentFilter.addAction(ACTION_DOWNLOAD_FINISHED);
registerReceiver(activity2DownloadBroadcastReceiver, downloadIntentFilter);
In case it matters, ACTION_DOWNLOAD_FINISHED is something like "com.example.intent.action.DOWNLOAD_FINISHED".
Service1 receives the download manager event in its receiver and apparently broadcasts its own custom event, but Activity2 never seems to receive it. What did I do wrong? Is it a problem to broadcast an intent in the middle of processing another one? (I wouldn't think so---this is asynchronous, right?)
Update: Just to make sure there is no problem sending a broadcast in the middle of receiving a broadcast, I changed my broadcast code to actually perform the broadcast three seconds later on the main thread:
Log.i(getClass().getSimpleName(), "...ready to broadcast");
final Intent intent = new Intent(ACTION_DOWNLOAD_FINISHED).setData(checkNotNull(uri));
mainThreadHandler.postDelayed(new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
Log.i(getClass().getSimpleName(), "...broadcasting");
sendBroadcast(intent);
Log.i(getClass().getSimpleName(), "...broadcasted");
}
}, 3000);
Log.i(getClass().getSimpleName(), "...scheduled to broadcast");
As expected, the log says:
...ready to broadcast
...scheduled to broadcast
...broadcasting
...broadcasted
Yet nothing is received in the activity. Please help.

Eureka! I found it! The problem is that I supplied a data URI in my broadcast intent. The Android intent matching rules get a little complicated. If you supply a data URI, then your intent filter must specify a matching MIME type.
Unfortunately, although the Android documentation says that the data type can be inferred from the data URI, apparently Android doesn't know that a file://.../example.jpg is an image. So this doesn't work:
intentFilter.addDataType("image/*");
However, instead of specifying a type, I can specify a scheme that I accept:
intentFilter.addDataScheme("file");
That works! It's a little rough---and a little artificial to restrict my broadcasts to file: URIs, but as that's all I'm using for the moment, it works.
Note that apparently I could manually specify the MIME type in the intent when I broadcast it, but that's too much trouble for now, as I'm downloading images from Picasa so I already know that they are images (and don't care the specific MIME type). And if it gets too much trouble, I could ditch the whole setData() thing altogether and set an extra---but of course I want to do things the Right Way.

have you included your receiver in your activity's manifest?
<receiver
android:name=".YourReceiver">
<intent-filter>
<action
android:name="intent_name"></action>
</intent-filter>
</receiver>

Update the UI of the calling activity or start a new activity when the alarm is triggered from a broadcast receiver

I am writing an alarm code and using a broadcast receiver. I am able to receive the broadcast receiver. but now I want to come back to the calling activity and update the UI of my activity. I am not able to this.
I used the following code in my activity but it is never executing that code.
private BroadcastReceiver myBroadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Toast.makeText(context, "I am back!!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
};
#Override
protected void onPause()
{
super.onPause();
unregisterReceiver(myBroadcastReceiver);
}
#Override
protected void onResume()
{
super.onResume();
IntentFilter intentFilter = new IntentFilter("com.test.Main");
registerReceiver(myBroadcastReceiver, intentFilter);
}
in the manifest file I have included the following, here gotAlarm is the broadcast receiver file
<receiver android:name=".gotAlarm"
android:enabled="true">
</receiver>
gotAlarm file is one which gets called from the pending intent of the alarm set
public class gotAlarm extends BroadcastReceiver {
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent){
Toast.makeText(context, "Wake Up!!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
May be I am missing something very basic.
please help.

Two things:
If you dynamically register the receiver via Context.registerReceiver() then you won't receive broadcasts when Activity is paused (or stopped or not-running). If you need to receive broadcasts even when Activity is paused then create a top-level BroadcastReceiver class (as opposed to your inner class) and use <receiver> to register it.
BroadcastReceiver lifecycle docs state that BroadcastReceiver object is alive only during processing of onReceive(). You can not do any async tasks like showing dialogs, etc.. In your case (Activities might not be running and you receive a broadcast) you should use NotificationManager to notify user something happened.

I have dropped this way and I am starting a new activity on receiving broadcast. And I am sending information data from calling activity to broadcast and from broadcast to next activity. This has served the purpose.

Did you register your BroadcastReceiver (you can do this in the 'onResume'-method of your Activity)? Also, you should unregister your BroadcastReceiver in the 'onPause'-method.