Question

I wrote an app that implements a web server with multithreading.
The main activity has a button to start/stop a thread. When the server is powered on, this thread stays in listening and, if there is a request it creates a new thread to serve it.
The app works fine, but now I would use a service instead, so it can work in background.

Actually I’ve this design (semplified):

WebServer.java

class WebServer implements Runnable{
protected Thread t;

 public void start(){
  ON=true;
  t=new Thread(this,"WebServer");
  t.start();
 }

 public void stop(){
 ON=false;
 t=null;}

 public void run(){
 while(ON)
 ...
 }

 public isOn(){
  return ON;
 }
}

DroidServer.java

class DroidServer extends WebServer{
...
}

MyActivity.java

public class MyActivity extends Activity{
ws = new DroidServer(8080,this);
btn.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){
 public void onClick(View V){
    if(!ws.isOn()){
     ws.start();
     btn.setText("Stop");
    }else{
     ws.stop();
     btn.setText("Start");
    }}});
}

What should I change, to make it use Services? I’d like to extends Service from DroidServer, but this class already extends WebServer… any solutions?

Answer 1

Service is not a replacement for a Thread.
Per definition from Service :

Most confusion about the Service class actually revolves around what
it is not:

• A Service is not a separate process. The Service object itself
  does not imply it is running in its own process; unless otherwise
  specified, it runs in the same process as the application it is part
  of.
• A Service is not a thread. It is not a means itself to do work off
  of the main thread (to avoid Application Not Responding errors).

What you should do it create a Service then have your DroidServer run in the Service as a separate Thread so it could accept request in the background