Android - implementing startForeground for a service?

Question

I'd start by completely filling in the Notification. Here is a sample project demonstrating the use of startForeground().

From your main activity, start the service with the following code:

Intent i = new Intent(context, MyService.class); 
context.startService(i);

Then in your service for onCreate() you would build your notification and set it as foreground like so:

Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);

PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0,
                notificationIntent, 0);

Notification notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.app_icon)
                .setContentTitle("My Awesome App")
                .setContentText("Doing some work...")
                .setContentIntent(pendingIntent).build();

startForeground(1337, notification);

Solution for Oreo 8.1

I've encountered some problems such as RemoteServiceException because of invalid channel id with most recent versions of Android. This is how i solved it:

Activity:

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    val intent = Intent(this, BackgroundService::class.java)

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        startForegroundService(intent)
    } else {
        startService(intent)
    }
}

BackgroundService:

override fun onCreate() {
    super.onCreate()
    startForeground()
}

private fun startForeground() {

  
    val channelId =
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
                createNotificationChannel()
            } else {
                // If earlier version channel ID is not used
                // https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/app/NotificationCompat.Builder.html#NotificationCompat.Builder(android.content.Context)
                ""
            }

    val notificationBuilder = NotificationCompat.Builder(this, channelId )
    val notification = notificationBuilder.setOngoing(true)
            .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher)
            .setPriority(PRIORITY_MIN)
            .setCategory(Notification.CATEGORY_SERVICE)
            .build()
    startForeground(101, notification)
}


@RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
private fun createNotificationChannel(): String{
    val channelId = "my_service"
    val channelName = "My Background Service"
    val chan = NotificationChannel(channelId,
            channelName, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH)
    chan.lightColor = Color.BLUE
    chan.importance = NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE
    chan.lockscreenVisibility = Notification.VISIBILITY_PRIVATE
    val service = getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE) as NotificationManager
    service.createNotificationChannel(chan)
    return channelId
}

JAVA EQUIVALENT

public class YourService extends Service {

    // Constants
    private static final int ID_SERVICE = 101;
    
    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
        return START_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        // do stuff like register for BroadcastReceiver, etc.

        // Create the Foreground Service
        NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        String channelId = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O ? createNotificationChannel(notificationManager) : "";
        NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this, channelId);
        Notification notification = notificationBuilder.setOngoing(true)
                .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher)
                .setPriority(PRIORITY_MIN)
                .setCategory(NotificationCompat.CATEGORY_SERVICE)
                .build();

        startForeground(ID_SERVICE, notification);
    }
    
    @RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
    private String createNotificationChannel(NotificationManager notificationManager){
        String channelId = "my_service_channelid";
        String channelName = "My Foreground Service";
        NotificationChannel channel = new NotificationChannel(channelId, channelName, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH);
        // omitted the LED color
        channel.setImportance(NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE);
        channel.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PRIVATE);
        notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel);
        return channelId;
    }
}

This is my code to set the service to foreground:

private void runAsForeground(){
    Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, RecorderMainActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pendingIntent=PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0,
            notificationIntent, Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

    Notification notification=new NotificationCompat.Builder(this)
                                .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
                                .setContentText(getString(R.string.isRecording))
                                .setContentIntent(pendingIntent).build();

    startForeground(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);

}

I need to build a notification using PendingIntent, so that I can start my main activity from the notification.

To remove the notification, just call the stopForeground(true);

It is called in the onStartCommand(). Please refer to my code at : https://github.com/bearstand/greyparrot/blob/master/src/com/xiong/richard/greyparrot/Mp3Recorder.java

In addition to RAWA answer, this peace of code:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
    startForegroundService(intent)
} else {
    startService(intent)
}

You can change to:

ContextCompat.startForegroundService(context, yourIntent);

If you will look inside this method then you can see that this method do all checking work for you.

If you want to make IntentService a Foreground Service

then you should override onHandleIntent()like this

Override
protected void onHandleIntent(@Nullable Intent intent) {


    startForeground(FOREGROUND_ID,getNotification());     //<-- Makes Foreground

   // Do something

    stopForeground(true);                                // <-- Makes it again a normal Service                         

}

   

How to make notification ?

simple. Here is the getNotification() Method

public Notification getNotification()
{

    Intent intent = new Intent(this, SecondActivity.class);
    PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this,0,intent,0);


    NotificationCompat.Builder foregroundNotification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this);
    foregroundNotification.setOngoing(true);

    foregroundNotification.setContentTitle("MY Foreground Notification")
            .setContentText("This is the first foreground notification Peace")
            .setSmallIcon(android.R.drawable.ic_btn_speak_now)
            .setContentIntent(pendingIntent);


    return foregroundNotification.build();
}

Deeper Understanding

What happens when a service becomes a foreground service

This happens

What is a foreground Service ?

A foreground service,

• makes sure that user is actively aware of that something is going on in the background by providing the notification.

• (most importantly) is not killed by System when it runs low on memory

A use case of foreground service

Implementing song download functionality in a Music App

Add given code Service class for "OS >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O" in onCreate()

@Override
public void onCreate(){
    super.onCreate();

     .................................
     .................................

    //For creating the Foreground Service
    NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
    String channelId = Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O ? getNotificationChannel(notificationManager) : "";
    NotificationCompat.Builder notificationBuilder = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this, channelId);
    Notification notification = notificationBuilder.setOngoing(true)
            .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_launcher)
           // .setPriority(PRIORITY_MIN)
            .setCategory(NotificationCompat.CATEGORY_SERVICE)
            .build();

    startForeground(110, notification);
}



@RequiresApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
private String getNotificationChannel(NotificationManager notificationManager){
    String channelId = "channelid";
    String channelName = getResources().getString(R.string.app_name);
    NotificationChannel channel = new NotificationChannel(channelId, channelName, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH);
    channel.setImportance(NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_NONE);
    channel.setLockscreenVisibility(Notification.VISIBILITY_PRIVATE);
    notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel);
    return channelId;
}

Add this permission in manifest file:

 <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />