Android PendingIntent FLAG_NO_CREATE does not return null

Question

I have some trouble with PendingIntents. Every time my app is opened it will schedule some broadcasts. My Problem is that already existing PendingIntents aren't recognized.

I know that the PendingIntents and the unterlaying Intents must be created with the same parameters.

Her is my code ... started in my Launcher Activity as a Asynctask.

        long nextExecute = getNextExecute(t);

        if (nextExecute > System.currentTimeMillis()) {

            int tt = 12;

            intent = new Intent(context, BirthExecutor.class);
            intent.putExtra(Target.ROW_ID, tt);

            PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 10, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_NO_CREATE);

            if (pending != null) {

                manager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, nextExecute, pending);

                BirthLog log = new BirthLog("Scheduled " + t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " on " + df.format(nextExecute));
                log_helper.insertLog(log);

            } else {

                BirthLog log = new BirthLog(t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " already active!");
                log_helper.insertLog(log);

            }

            intent = new Intent(LogAdapter.LOG_RECEIVE_ACTION);
            context.sendBroadcast(intent);

        }

The exact same code is executed each time but why is the pending variable not null? It has to be !!! I have hardcoded the requestId also the putExtra is hardcoded.

EDIT

I have another function to update this schedules. Only if I execute that function the PendingIntents aren't recognized any more. I tried to use the same context object as a static reference but also that failed.

public void updateTask(Target t) {

    if (t.getTime() == null || t.getRow() == null)
        return;

    Intent intent;
    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm dd.MM.yyyy", Locale.US);

    long nextExecute = getNextExecute(t);

    if (nextExecute > System.currentTimeMillis()) {

        intent = new Intent(static_context, BirthExecutor.class);
        intent.putExtra(Target.ROW_ID, 12);

        PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(static_context, 10, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_CANCEL_CURRENT);

        if (pending != null) {

            manager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, nextExecute, pending);

            BirthLog log = new BirthLog("Scheduled " + t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " on " + df.format(nextExecute));
            log_helper.insertLog(log);
            Log.d("birth", log.getComment());

        } else {

            BirthLog log = new BirthLog(t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " ERROR. TIME: " + df.format(nextExecute));
            log_helper.insertLog(log);
            Log.d("birth", log.getComment());

        }

        intent = new Intent(LogAdapter.LOG_RECEIVE_ACTION);
        static_context.sendBroadcast(intent);

    }

}

EDIT 2

Ok it makes sence if it returns a non-null result if that pending-intent is already scheduled. I have changed my code. Every time I rotate my phone the main activity onCreate is fired and the scheduling asynctask is executed. BUT the result is always null ?!?! It should be a non-null result if there is a scheduled pendingintent already, right?

@Override
protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {

    Intent intent;
    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm dd.MM.yyyy", Locale.US);

    for (Target t : target_helper.getAllTarget()) {

        long nextExecute = getNextExecute(t);

        if (nextExecute > System.currentTimeMillis()) {

            PendingIntent pending = getPendingIntent(context, t, false);

            if (pending != null) {

                BirthLog log = new BirthLog(t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " already active!");
                log_helper.insertLog(log);

            } else {

                manager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, nextExecute, pending);

                BirthLog log = new BirthLog("Scheduled " + t.getFirstname() + " " + t.getLastname() + " on " + df.format(nextExecute));
                log_helper.insertLog(log);

            }

            intent = new Intent(LogAdapter.LOG_RECEIVE_ACTION);
            context.sendBroadcast(intent);

        }

    }

    return null;

}

private PendingIntent getPendingIntent(Context context, Target t, boolean update) {

    Intent intent = new Intent(context, BirthExecutor.class);
    intent.putExtra(Target.ROW_ID, t.getRow());

    if (update) {
        return PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, t.getRow().intValue(), intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    } else {
        return PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, t.getRow().intValue(), intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_NO_CREATE);
    }

}

Answer 1

The documentation is incorrect. If you use PendingIntent.FLAG_NO_CREATE when calling PendingIntent.getBroadcast() it will return null if no matching PendingIntent is found. Otherwise it will return the matching PendingIntent.

The documentation says it is the other way around, but that's wrong :-(