Question

Basically I have created an app into which the user enters a number (in seconds). They then click a button and a service is created which runs a countdown starting at the number of seconds entered. However in my service I reference variables such as:

public EditText text = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editText1);
int Time = Integer.parseInt(text.getText().toString());

This ‘breaks’ the service as it is static and can’t reference findViewById.
I have tried for hours to work around this but I have no clue, any help much appreciated!

Answer 1

Why does the Service have to be static? A Service should be either started/stopped or bound/unbound (or a combination of the two). You shouldn’t have to create a static Android Service.

Put this code into your Activity and not the Service…

public EditText text = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editText1);
int time = Integer.parseInt(text.getText().toString());

…then just pass the time to the Service in the Intent you use to start it…

Intent i = new Intent(this, MyService.class);
i.putExtra("the_time", time);
startService(i);

Then in the Service onStartCommand(...) method use…

int time = intent.getIntExtra("the_time", 0);