Acquiring instance of Background Service

Question

So i have a background service running. Now, if the user quits the activity, the service will still be running, right? Now when user restarts the app, I want to access the background service and call some methods. How can I access the instance of the background service ?

Thanks Guys!

Answer 1

This worked for me out of the box!However do not use it if you have alternatives because public static members are not good unless they are final. You can create a static variable with public scope in the Service.

public static BackgroundService bs;
@Override
public void onCreate(){
    bs=this;}

Then initialize the variable with 'this' which makes it a reference to the current running service. Use it as a reference in your activity anytime.

Answer 2

If the service continues to run after you quit your activity depends on how you start it. (Read about this in the documentation startService() / bindService()) If your Service is still running, then calls to startService()/bindService() will connect you to your 'old' service.