How to check if an IntentService was started

Question

I'd like to get to know if an Activity successfully started an IntentService.

As it's possible to bind an IntentService via bindService() to keep it running, perhaps an approach would be to check if invoking startService(intent) results in a call of onStartCommand(..) or onHandleIntent(..) in the service object.

But how can I check that in the Activity?

Answer 1

Here's the method I use to check if my service is running. The Sercive class is DroidUptimeService.

private boolean isServiceRunning() {
    ActivityManager activityManager = (ActivityManager)getSystemService(ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
    List<ActivityManager.RunningServiceInfo> serviceList = activityManager.getRunningServices(Integer.MAX_VALUE);

    if (serviceList.size() <= 0) {
        return false;
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < serviceList.size(); i++) {
        RunningServiceInfo serviceInfo = serviceList.get(i);
        ComponentName serviceName = serviceInfo.service;
        if (serviceName.getClassName().equals(DroidUptimeService.class.getName())) {
            return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

Answer 2

You can add a flag when constructing the PendingIntent, if the returned value was null, your service is not started. The mentioned flag is PendingIntent.FLAG_NO_CREATE.

Intent intent = new Intent(yourContext,YourService.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent =   PendingIntent.getService(yourContext,0,intent,PendingIntent.FLAG_NO_CREATE);

if (pendingIntent == null){
    return "service is not created yet";
} else {
    return "service is already running!";
}