How to update my notification to show my time counter changing?

Question

I am almost finished with this toy app game I am making.

Problem: My notification is always showing my counter to be 30000. Why isn't it timing down?

What I have done: I have implemented a simple Service class and a custom timer to tick down. Eventually once I am sure the timer is working I will exit the entire game.

Here is my code:

package com.example.redshirtmarblez;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Notification;
import android.app.NotificationManager;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.CountDownTimer;
import android.os.IBinder;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class TimingService extends Service{

    public long counter = 30000;
    private Context ctx;
    private Activity localActivity;


    private NotificationManager nm;

    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate() 
    {
          super.onCreate();
          nm = (NotificationManager)getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
          declareNotification();
          timer.start();
          //Toast.makeText(this, "Timer is :" + counter, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
          //showNotification();
    }


    public void getActivity(Activity activity)
    {
        localActivity = activity;
    }

    //count to end the game
    public CountDownTimer timer = new CountDownTimer(30000, 1000){

        public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished){
            counter = millisUntilFinished / 1000;
        }

        public void onFinish(){
             counter = 0;


 //Kill the game 
             int i = android.os.Process.myPid();
             android.os.Process.killProcess(i);

        }

    };

    /*
     * Show a notification while this service is running 
     */
    public void declareNotification()
    {
        //Declare a new notification 
        Notification notification = new Notification(R.drawable.ic_launcher, "A New Notification", System.currentTimeMillis());

        notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_ONGOING_EVENT;
        notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_FOREGROUND_SERVICE;

        Intent intent = new Intent(this, TimingService.class);
        PendingIntent activity = PendingIntent.getActivity(this, 0, intent, 0);
        notification.setLatestEventInfo(this, "herp", "counter: " + counter, activity);


  //This is clearly not 1337, but a good joke
            startForeground(1337, notification);

    }

}

All this does when it runs is shows "A New Notification", and then changes to "herp counter: 30000". However, this notification never changes. It just stays 30000. Why? I thought I fixed this with making the flag ongoing?

Answer 1

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notification.Builder.html#setUsesChronometer(boolean)

Show the when field as a stopwatch. Instead of presenting when as a timestamp, the notification will show an automatically updating display of the minutes and seconds since when. Useful when showing an elapsed time (like an ongoing phone call). The counter can also be set to count down to when when using setChronometerCountDown(boolean).

No updating required, works off the setWhen() value

NotificationCompat.Builder notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(context)
        .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.ic_default_notification)
        .setTicker("Ticker Text")  
        .setWhen(when)  // the time stamp, you will probably use System.currentTimeMillis() for most scenarios
        .setUsesChronometer(true)
        .setContentTitle("Title Text")
        .setContentText("Content Text");