How to update widgets from a service?

Question

I have a background service that can be configured to perform some action every x minutes. I want to implement a widget that gets updated every time my service performs that action. However, I can't get the onUpdate method of my AppWidgetProvider called in any way, except when adding a widget to the homescreen.

I tried sending APPWIDGET_UPDATE intents but onUpdate did not get called although the AppWidgetProvider did receive the intent since the onReceive method was called. Is there any way I can trigger widget updates from a service?

Answer 1

Just make yourself a RemoteViews and update the widget(s) directly in the Service. You'll get your AppWidgetManager via:

AppWidgetManager mgr=AppWidgetManager.getInstance(this);

Everything else is as normal.

Note:- If you really want to force the existing AppWidgetProvider to do the work, send a broadcast with a custom action to your component, and call onUpdate() yourself from onReceive() when you get it.