Android Question How to start a Service in another app with an explicit intent?

[JordiCP]

Perhaps it is obvious but after several hours can't see it clear... I had used 'other' intents in previous apps , but not in this exact scenario.

I have 2 apps, A and B, both 'controlled' by me, running in a device.

My purpose is to send some data from app A to a Service in app B, and I want to use intents
If I follow the tutorial and examples HERE, it works correctly sending and receiving data with implicit intents between activities.
But as what I want to call is a Service in app B, the first error that I receive is that the intent should be explicit.

Any idea of what I am missing?


Just in case someone is interested, here there are different tests and partial code....none of the combinations worked, sometimes simply doing nothing and other times throwing runtime error

Spoiler

REQUESTER (app A: thisapp.b4a.intentrequestor)

' None of these tests worked for me

Sub test1 
    Dim jo As JavaObject = Me
    Dim jc As JavaObject
    jc.InitializeContext
    jo.RunMethod("sendit",Array(jc))
    Return
End Sub    
   
#if JAVA
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.ComponentName;

public void sendit(Context cx){
   Intent intent = new Intent("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider.mservice");
   intent.setPackage("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider");
   startService(intent);
}
#End If

'**** another test *****

Sub explicitIntent
    Dim in2 As Intent
    in2.Initialize("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider.mservice","")
    Dim jo As JavaObject = in2
    jo.RunMethod("setPackage", Array("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider")) 
    in2.SetComponent("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider.mservice")
    StartService(in2)   
End Sub

PROVIDER (app B: thisapp.b4a.intentprovider)

mService code

' This is where I want to arrive....
Sub Service_Start (StartingIntent As Intent)   
    Log("PROVIDER (SERVICE) CALLED!!!!!!******************************")
   '...
End Sub

Manifest

AddApplicationText(
<service
        android:enabled="true"
        android:name=".mservice"
        android:exported="true"
        android:label="My Service" >
    </service>)

' Also have tested intent-filters for the implicit intents, which later discarded ...

 

[Erel]

Try:
1: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/calling-external-service.27671/#post-160366
2:

Dim in As Intent
in.Initialize("", "")
in.SetComponent("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider/.mservice")
StartService(in)

With that said it is better to add an intent filter with a custom action with AddReceiverText and send a broadcast with Phone.SendBroadcast.

 

[JordiCP]

Thanks
#2 worked perfectly. The wall against which I was hitting my head was that I was using

in.SetComponent("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider.mservice")

instead of

in.SetComponent("thisapp.b4a.intentprovider/.mservice")

Just curious, in which sense is it better? Is there any reason (version compatibility or whatever), to prefer the custom action option better than the explicit intent?

 

[Erel]

Automatic foreground mode will only work when the service is started from a receiver.

Make sure to test your solution on Android 8+ device with targetSdkVersion = 26.