Programmatically register a broadcast receiver

Question

In your onCreate method you can register a receiver like this:

private BroadcastReceiver receiver;

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){

  // your oncreate code should be

  IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter();
  filter.addAction("SOME_ACTION");
  filter.addAction("SOME_OTHER_ACTION");

  receiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
      //do something based on the intent's action
    }
  };
     registerReceiver(receiver, filter);
}

Remember to run this in the onDestroy method:

 @Override
 protected void onDestroy() {
  if (receiver != null) {
   unregisterReceiver(receiver);
   receiver = null;
  }
  super.onDestroy();
 }

One important point that people forget to mention is the life time of the Broadcast Receiver. The difference of programmatically registering it from registering in AndroidManifest.xml is that. In the manifest file, it doesn't depend on application life time. While when programmatically registering it it does depend on the application life time. This means that if you register in AndroidManifest.xml, you can catch the broadcasted intents even when your application is not running.

Edit: The mentioned note is no longer true as of Android 3.1, the Android system excludes all receiver from receiving intents by default if the corresponding application has never been started by the user or if the user explicitly stopped the application via the Android menu (in Manage → Application). https://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-3.1.html

This is an additional security feature as the user can be sure that only the applications he started will receive broadcast intents.

So it can be understood as receivers programmatically registered in Application's onCreate() would have same effect with ones declared in AndroidManifest.xml from Android 3.1 above.

It sounds like you want to control whether components published in your manifest are active, not dynamically register a receiver (via Context.registerReceiver()) while running.

If so, you can use PackageManager.setComponentEnabledSetting() to control whether these components are active:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/PackageManager.html#setComponentEnabledSetting(android.content.ComponentName, int, int)

Note if you are only interested in receiving a broadcast while you are running, it is better to use registerReceiver(). A receiver component is primarily useful for when you need to make sure your app is launched every time the broadcast is sent.

Define a broadcast receiver anywhere in Activity/Fragment like this:

mReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
 @Override
 public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
     Log.d(TAG," onRecieve"); //do something with intent
   }
 };

Define IntentFilter in onCreate()

mIntentFilter=new IntentFilter("action_name");

Now register the BroadcastReciever in onResume() and Unregister it in onPause() [because there is no use of broadcast if the activity is paused].

@Override
protected void onResume() {
     super.onResume();
     registerReceiver(mReceiver, mIntentFilter);
}

@Override
protected void onPause() {
    if(mReceiver != null) {
            unregisterReceiver(mReceiver);
            mReceiver = null;
    }
    super.onPause();
}

For detail tutorial, have a look at broadcast receiver-two ways to implement.

package com.example.broadcastreceiver;


import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.IntentFilter;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

   UserDefinedBroadcastReceiver broadCastReceiver = new UserDefinedBroadcastReceiver();

   @Override
   public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
   }

   @Override
   public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
      getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
      return true;
   }

   /**
    * This method enables the Broadcast receiver for
    * "android.intent.action.TIME_TICK" intent. This intent get
    * broadcasted every minute.
    *
    * @param view
    */
   public void registerBroadcastReceiver(View view) {

      this.registerReceiver(broadCastReceiver, new IntentFilter(
            "android.intent.action.TIME_TICK"));
      Toast.makeText(this, "Registered broadcast receiver", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
            .show();
   }

   /**
    * This method disables the Broadcast receiver
    *
    * @param view
    */
   public void unregisterBroadcastReceiver(View view) {

      this.unregisterReceiver(broadCastReceiver);

      Toast.makeText(this, "unregistered broadcst receiver", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
            .show();
   }
}

Two choices

1) If you want to read Broadcast only when the Activity is visible then,

registerReceiver(...) in onStart() and unregisterReceiver(...) in onStop()

2) If you want to read Broadcast even if Activity is in Background then,

registerReceiver(...) in onCreate(...) and unregisterReceiver(...) in onDestroy()

Bonus:

If you are lazy

If you don't want to write boilerplate code for registering and unregistering a BroadcastReceiver again and again in each Activity then,

1. Create an abstract Activity
2. Write boilerplate code in Activity
3. Leave the implementation as abstract methods

Here is the code snippet:

Abstract Activity

public abstract class BasicActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private BroadcastReceiver broadcastReceiver;
    private IntentFilter filter;
    private static final String TAG = "BasicActivity";

    /**********************************************************************
    *                   Boilerplate code
    **********************************************************************/

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle sis){
        super.onCreate(sis);
        broadcastReceiver = getBroadcastReceiver();
        filter = getFilter();
    }

    @Override
    public void onStart(){
        super.onStart();
        register();
    }

    @Override
    public void onStop(){
        super.onStop();
        unregister();
    }

    private void register(){
        registerReceiver(broadcastReceiver,filter);
    }

    private void unregister(){
        unregisterReceiver(broadcastReceiver);
    }

    /**********************************************************************
    *                   Abstract methods
    **********************************************************************/

    public abstract BroadcastReceiver getBroadcastReceiver();

    public abstract IntentFilter getFilter();

}

Using this approach you can write more boilerplate code such as writing common animations, binding to a service, etc.

See full code:

HERE