Android appwidget service won't start

Question

When I'm running in debugging mode I can't seem to reach any breakpoints that are inside of the service, why is that?

    @Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager,
        int[] appWidgetIds) {
    context.startService(new Intent(context, UpdateService.class));
}

public static class UpdateService extends Service {

    @Override
    public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
        // Build the widget update for today
        RemoteViews updateViews = buildUpdate(this);

        // Push update for this widget to the home screen
        ComponentName thisWidget = new ComponentName(this, WidgetProvider.class);
        AppWidgetManager manager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(this);
        manager.updateAppWidget(thisWidget, updateViews);
    }

    public RemoteViews buildUpdate(Context context) {
        return new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.id.widget_main_layout);
    }


    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }
}

Answer 1

The "onUpdate"-method is only executed if the widget is initalized (e.g. put on the homescreen) or the updatePeriodMillis are expired. If you want to execute the service e.g. by a click on the widget, you have to "attach" a pending intent like this:

@Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
final Intent intent = new Intent(context, UpdateService.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getService(context, 0, intent, 0);

// Get the layout for the App Widget and attach an on-click listener to
// the button
RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout....);
views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.button, pendingIntent);
for(int i=0,n=appWidgetIds.length;i<n;i++){
    int appWidgetId = appWidgetIds[i];
    appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId , views);
}

(cleaned up version of a working widget).

The point is, that the onUpdate() method is really very seldom executed. The real interaction with a widget is specified through pending intents.

Answer 2

Your Service might not be registered in the manifest. Or your AppWidgetProvider might not be registered in the manifest.