Android Foreground service is not starting with jetpack compose

Question

I'm creating a countdown timer and I want to notify the user all the time that the countdown timer runs. Therefore I have created a service which is started by a ViewModel. I use Hilt for dependency injection as I want to inject the service into the ViewModel. Additionally the UI library is jetpack compose. Following is my approach.

This is my service.

@AndroidEntryPoint
class TimerService: Service(){

    override fun onBind(p0: Intent?): IBinder? = null

    override fun onStartCommand(intent: Intent?, flags: Int, startId: Int): Int {
        Notifications.createNotification(applicationContext)
        return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId)
    }
}

This is how notifications are created.

object Notifications {
    private var notificationId = UUID.randomUUID().hashCode()

    fun createNotification(context: Context){
        val notification = NotificationCompat.Builder(context, "ChannelId")
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher_background)
            .setContentTitle("Timer started")
            .setContentText("Timer started and running...")
            .build()

        NotificationManagerCompat.from(context).notify(notificationId, notification)
    }
    fun createNotificationChannel(context: Context){
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O){ 
            val name = "timerNotifyChannel"
            val description = "Timer Notification Channel"
            val importance = NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH

            // The notification channel
            val channel = NotificationChannel("ChannelId", name, importance).apply {
                description
            }
            val notificationManager : NotificationManager = context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE) as NotificationManager
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel)
        }
    }
}

And a manager for starting and stopping the service.

class TimerServiceManager @Inject constructor(
    @ApplicationContext private val applicationContext: Context,
){
    private val serviceIntent = Intent(applicationContext, TimerService::class.java)
    fun startTimerService(){
        ContextCompat.startForegroundService(applicationContext, serviceIntent)
    }
    fun stopTimerService(){
        applicationContext.stopService(serviceIntent)
    }
}

The Application.

@HiltAndroidApp
class TimerApp: Application(){}

The TimerViewModel, which starts the service whenever the service is started.

@HiltViewModel
class TimerViewModel @Inject constructor(
    private val timerServiceManager: TimerServiceManager,
): ViewModel() {
    //...
    fun startcountDown(){
        //...
        countDownTimer = object : CountDownTimer(...){...}
        countDownTimer?.start()
        timerServiceManage.startTimerService()
    }
    private fun cancelTimer(){
        countDownTimer?.cancel()
        _isRunning.postValue(false)
        timerServiceManager.stopTimerService()
    }
}

And the MainActivity

@AndroidEntryPoint
class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {
    // private val timerViewModel by viewModels<TimerViewModel>()
    private val timeViewModel by viewModels<TimeViewModel>()
//    val timeViewModel: TimeViewModel = ViewModelProvider(checkNotNull(LocalViewModelStoreOwner.current))[TimeViewModel::class.java]

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        //...
                    val timerViewModel = hiltViewModel<TimerViewModel>()
                    callUI(timerViewModel = timerViewModel, timeViewModel, localConfig = LocalConfiguration.current)
    }
}

The problem is when I debug I can see that it calls the ContextCompact.startForegrounService(...) withing theTimerServiceManager.startTimerService() function. But it doesn't start the service. I say it doesn't start because when I put a break point in the onCreated(...) method in the TimerService it's never reached. Why is this failing? What's wrong?

Answer 1

After weeks of trial-and-errors I could show notifications from my app. I was being dumb at the first place for not allowing the application to access notifications in the emulator. So if you're also having this issue make sure your application has access to the notifications.

However I have also made some changes. I don't know whether the app working because of these changes or not.

I removed the Notificationobject and then add that functionality to the TimerService.

@AndroidEntryPoint
class TimerService: Service() {
    private lateinit var  notificationManager: NotificationManagerCompat
    private lateinit var notification: Notification

    override fun onCreate() {
        // the notification channel creates when the Service is created
        super.onCreate()
        notificationManager = NotificationManagerCompat.from(this)
        createNotificationChannel()
    }

    @RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N)
    override fun onStartCommand(intent: Intent?, flags: Int, startId: Int): Int {
         // when the service starts, a notification will be created
        notification = NotificationCompat.Builder(this, TIMER_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID)
            .setContentTitle("Timer service")
            .setContentText("Timer running")
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher_background)
            .setOngoing(true) // an ongoing notification means can't dismiss by the user.
            .setOnlyAlertOnce(true)
            .build()
        startForeground(TIMER_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION_ID, notification)
        return START_STICKY
    }

    private fun createNotificationChannel(){
        if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O){
            val serviceChannel = NotificationChannel(
                TIMER_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID,
                getString(R.string.app_name),
                NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH
            )
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(serviceChannel)
        }
    }

    @RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N)
    override fun onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy()
        stopForeground(STOP_FOREGROUND_REMOVE)
    }

    override fun onBind(p0: Intent?): IBinder?  = null // We don't need a binder

    companion object {
        public const val TIMER_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_ID = "TimerServiceChannel"
        public const val TIMER_SERVICE_NOTIFICATION_ID = 69
    }
}