Android based SMS server and WakeLock?

Question

I building a Android based SMS Server.

It shall request server (each x seconds) for new SMSes to send (in an infinite loop). The Android device will be always plugged-in via USB to the server.

The fetching of the new messages is running as a service and I need it to run 24/7. Since battery draining is not an issue here, how should I use the WakeLock?

As I read some articles about the partial lock it seems to be sufficient.

But yet I did not find any clues when should I call the wakeLock.acquire(); and wakeLock.release();

I do not suppose that it could work like that:

while(true){
    wakeLock.acquire();
    //Do stuff
    wakeLock.release();
    Thread.sleep(10000);
}

Considering the idea... Any inputs would be greatly apperciated. For example does it make sense to scheduler a daily restart of the phone so it will not get stucked? etc...

Answer 1

As explained here, various type of lock can be used. If you want to be always on, then you can acquire it outside the loop :

boolean end = false;
wakeLock.acquire();
while(!end){

    //Do stuff

    Thread.sleep(10000);
}
wakeLock.release();

But you shouldn't really use a loop for that, try an handler instead to do repeating tasks : http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Handler.html

Example :

    private class MyRunnable implements Runnable {

    @Override
    public void run() {
        // Do stuff
        handler.postDelayed(new MyRunnable(), 100000);

    }

}   

Handler handler = new android.os.Handler();
handler.postDelayed(new MyRunnable(), 1000000);

The handler is useful if you need to do a repeating task often and with a short period. If there period is longer (like few hours), use the AlarmManager : Alarm Manager Example That is a good example of what you can do, and they also use a wakelock for their tasks.