Android Question Starter service behavior

[Alessandro71]

I see in the logs that the Starter service is created and started when the app is run.
I've also seen that sometimes the Starter service is also stopped by the OS while the app is still running (maybe when it's in background, I haven't traced the actual condition)

My question is: once the Starter service is stopped, it will remain stopped, or is there any event that may cause it to be started again?

The reason behind my question is the initialization code I'm putting in Service_Start: I don't want it to be executed again while the app is still running, and I must be sure that Service_Start won't be invoked again.

 

[Cableguy]

see this as an example of a continuously running service

Background location tracking

Simple example of a foreground service that keeps the process running in the background. The current location is shown in the persistent notification. The app starts at boot and theoretically should run all the time. It also schedules itself to run with StartServiceAt. This can help in cases...

www.b4x.com

 

[Cableguy]

The reason behind my question is the initialization code I'm putting in Service_Start: I don't want it to be executed again while the app is still running, and I must be sure that Service_Start won't be invoked again.

you can also test for if a view of your choice is initialized and if so, skip the initialization process

 

[Alessandro71]

see this as an example of a continuously running service

Background location tracking

Simple example of a foreground service that keeps the process running in the background. The current location is shown in the persistent notification. The app starts at boot and theoretically should run all the time. It also schedules itself to run with StartServiceAt. This can help in cases...

www.b4x.com

I rephrase my question: I do not need the Starter service to be continuosly running, I just need to be sure that it's not started again after the system stop it

 

[Cableguy]

If the system stops the starter service, your app is in fact "killed" and so next time you run it, the Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean) will be true, so all the initialization will occur.
Again, you can either test if firsttime is false, which will mean the app is comming from the background to the foreground, and/or if a particular view is already inilialized, in order to prevent doing it again

 

[Alessandro71]

maybe I'm wrong, but I'm quite sure I've seen sometimes the Starter service being stopped with the app still running, in a B4XPages project.

 

[Cableguy]

This should make some interesting reading on the subject

https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/automatic-foreground-mode.90546/

 

[Alessandro71]

Update: Starting from B4A v8.3 the starter service will never be killed unless the whole process is killed. This means that you can always assume in your code that the starter service is running.
It is done internally by changing the starter service context to the application context.

this is interesting: I hope it's still valid for B4A 13 and SDK 34

 

[Alessandro71]

apparently I was not dreaming: here is the log from an app of mine starting and then being put in background

*** Service (starter) Create ***
** Service (starter) Start **
** Activity (main) Create (first time) **
** Activity (main) Resume **
** Activity (main) Pause event (activity is not paused). **
** Service (starter) Destroy (ignored)**

the Starter service is apparently destroyed, but I think the "(ignored)" message means that it is actually still in the running state

 

[Cableguy]

the Starter service is apparently destroyed, but I think the "(ignored)" message means that it is actually still in the running state

exactly, but its easy to check. as I said, if the service is destroyed and the app is in background, then the next time it runs "FirstTime" value will be true