Question

So I have a bit of a problem. I am trying to make my app do things based on the message it receives through GCM. In this case it’s supposed to make a sound by using the TextToSpeech class. It kind of works, but not the first time I send the message. I realise this is probably because TextToSpeech hasn’t been instantiated, but I’m not sure how go to about and do that? I tried onInit(), but that didn’t work at all.

Also, what is the best way to shut down TTS in my example?

Disclaimer: I come from a PHP background, and know very little Java. I try to learn by doing, so please forgive me if this is a silly question. Thanks in advance!

public class GCMIntentService extends GCMBaseIntentService {

private static final String TAG = "GCMIntentService";
public static TextToSpeech mtts;

public GCMIntentService() {
    super(SENDER_ID);
}

@Override
protected void onMessage(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Log.i(TAG, "Received message");
    String message = intent.getExtras().getString("message");
    mtts = new TextToSpeech(context, null);

    if (message.startsWith("makeSound")) {
        mtts = new TextToSpeech(context, null);
        mtts.setLanguage(Locale.US);
        mtts.speak(message, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH, null);
    }
}
}

Answer 1

It doesn’t work the first time because the initialization of TextToSpeech is asynchronous. You can not simple instantiate it and use it as you are doing. You should provide a callback to be called once the TextToSpeech has been initialized if you want to use it right away.

 mTextToSpeech = new TextToSpeech( this, new TextToSpeech.OnInitListener()
    {
        @Override
        public void onInit( int status )
        {
            // Check for status might not be initialized due to errors
            // Configure language/speed
        }
    } );

It does work the rest of the times, because mtts is static. This means that is a class variable and is not destroyed/initialized when creating new instances of the service. By the second time you use this service, this variable was already initialized in the first service execution.