Question

I’m creating an alarm in my app from the ItemEdit Activity. Its where one can edit/view their note/todo item, they can also set a reminder/alarm for the item there. I set the alarm with the following code:

private void createAlarm() {
     Intent intent = new Intent(this, ReminderReceiver.class);
     intent.putExtra("reminder_message", "Reminder Received!");
     intent.putExtra("item_id", mRowId);
     PendingIntent sender = 
         PendingIntent.getBroadcast(
                 getApplicationContext(), 
                 ALARM_ID, 
                 intent, 
                 PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT | PendingIntent.FLAG_ONE_SHOT);

     // Get the AlarmManager service
     AlarmManager am = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(ALARM_SERVICE);
     // Set alarm to the time given by the user.
     am.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, mReminderCal.getTimeInMillis(), sender);
}

And here is the Receiver

    public class ReminderReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

    private static final String TAG = "MyApp";

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        try {
            Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();
            String message = bundle.getString("reminder_message");
            Log.v(TAG, message);
        } catch(Exception e) {
            Log.v(TAG, "OH SNAP!");
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }

Edit: Also I have the following in my manifest:

<receiver android:process=":remote" android:name="ReminderReceiver"></receiver>

If I stay in the Activity where I set the alarm it is received fine. If I hit the back button to return to my ListActivity where all the items are listed or leave the app entirely the alarm never triggers. Have I done something wrong in setting up my alarm that it only triggers from the Activity that set it?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You need to look into a Service instead of an Activity for a long-living process that doesn’t interact with the user (like an alarm clock).