Question

Ok, I’m new to android development and am trying to bind to a service so that I can call methods on the service once it’s been started. The Activity and Service described below are both part of the same application so there shouldn’t be any problems there, but everytime I run my app I get the following error:

java.lang.ClassCastException: android.os.BinderProxy

The line this happens on is:

LocalBinder binder = (LocalBinder) service;

My Activity code (simplified is):

public class Main extends Activity {

    boolean gpsBound = false;

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }

    /** Called whenever the activity is started. */
    @Override
    protected void onStart() {
        super.onStart();
        // Bind to GPSService
        Intent i = new Intent(this, GPSService.class);
    startService(i);
    bindService(i, connection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
    }

    /** service binding */
    private ServiceConnection connection = new ServiceConnection() {

        public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) {
            // After binding to GPSService get the instance of it returned by IBinder
        LocalBinder binder = (LocalBinder) service;
            gpsBound = true;
        }

        public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName className) {
            gpsBound = false;
        }
    };

}

Service:

public class GPSService extends Service {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
            super.onCreate();
    }

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent i) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    return new LocalBinder<GPSService>(this);
    }


   /**
    * Our implementation of LocationListener that handles updates given to us
    * by the LocationManager.
    */
    public class CustomLocationListener implements LocationListener {

        DBHelper db;

        CustomLocationListener() {
            super();
        }

    // Overridden methods here...

    }

}

And finally my LocalBinder:

/**
 * A generic implementation of Binder to be used for local services
 * @author Geoff Bruckner  12th December 2009
 *
 * @param <S> The type of the service being bound
 */

public class LocalBinder<S> extends Binder {
    private String TAG = "LocalGPSBinder";
    private  WeakReference<S> mService;


    public LocalBinder(S service){
        mService = new WeakReference<S>(service);
    }


    public S getService() {
        return mService.get();
    }
}

I understand the meaning of the ClassCast Exception but cannot understand what to do! I’ve followed the example in the google documentation but it’s still not working. Can anyone shed any light on what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

the LocalBinder passed in onServiceConnected has a generic type argument, while your local variable LocalBinder binder does not have one.

Resolve this one way or another, either by removing the generic type from the definition of LocalBinder, or by adding one to your declaration of your local variable binder in onServiceConnected

class MyBoundService extends Service{
    private final IBinder mBinder = new MyBinder();

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return mBinder;
    }

    public class MyBinder extends Binder{

        public void doStuff(){
            //Stuff
        }
        //More Binder Methods
    }
}

class MyActivity extends Activity{
    private MyBinder mBinder;

    @Override
    protected void onStart(){
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyBoundService.class);
        bindService(intent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStop(){
        unbindService(mConnection);
    }

    private ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() {

        @Override
        public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) {
            mBinder = (TaskBinder) service;
            mBound = true;
        }

        @Override
        public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) {
            mBound = false;
        }
    };

    private void doStuff(){
        if (mBound)
            mBinder.doStuff();
    }
}

No real need to fiddle around with weak references and whatnot. just be sure to unbind (I didn’t in the sample)

If you want to invoke service methods ASAP, just put calls in onServiceConnected, after you set mBinder. otherwise, just invoke from other callbacks (onClick events and whatnot).