Send ArrayList<Object> from BroadCastReceiver to Activity

Question

Scenario:

• I have an Alarm scheduled to run on a specified amount of time. Each time is executed, my BroadCastReceiver fires.

• In BroadCastReceiver I do all kind of checks and in the end it results a ArrayList of Notify class

• I display an Notification on the Statusbar

• When the user taps on a Notification, I display an Activity. I need in my Activity, the ArrayList to display it on views.

Here is the sample code:

public class ReceiverAlarm extends BroadcastReceiver {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
         ArrayList<Notify> notifications = new ArrayList<Notify>();

         //do the checks, for exemplification I add these values
         notifications.add(new Notify("id1","This is very important"));
         notifications.add(new Notify("id2","This is not so important"));
         notifications.add(new Notify("id3","This is way too mimportant"));

         NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
         //init some values from notificationManager
         Intent intentNotif = new Intent(context, NotificationViewer.class);
                intentNotif.putParcelableArrayListExtra("list", notifications);
         PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, intentNotif, 0);


         Notification notification = new Notification(icon, text, when);
         notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, contentTitle, contentText, contentIntent);
         notificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
    }

And

   public class NotificationViewer extends Activity {


            @Override
            protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
                    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
                    setContentView(R.layout.notification_viewer);

                   ArrayList<Notify> testArrayList = null;

        Bundle b = getIntent().getExtras();
        if (b != null) {
            testArrayList = b.getParcelableArrayList("list");
        }
    }

And

public class Notify implements Parcelable {

    public Notify(Parcel in) {
        readFromParcel(in);
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("rawtypes")
    public static final Parcelable.Creator CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator() {
        public Notify createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
            return new Notify(in);
        }

        public Notify[] newArray(int size) {
            return new Notify[size];
        }
    };

    @Override
    public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
        dest.writeString(id);
        dest.writeString(text);
    }

    private void readFromParcel(Parcel in) {
        id = in.readString();
        text = in.readString();
    }

    public Notify(String id, String text) {
        super();
        this.id = id;
        this.text = text;
    }

    /** The id. */
    public String id;

    /** Notification text to be displayed. */
    public String text;

    @Override
    public int describeContents() {
        return 0;
    }

}

On testArrayList = b.getParcelableArrayList("list"); from NotificatioNActivity I get this error:

E/AndroidRuntime(14319): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity

ComponentInfo{NotificationViewer}: java.lang.RuntimeException: Parcel android.os.Parcel@4050f960: Unmarshalling unknown type code 7602277 at offset 124

As you can see, from qustions from SO I say that I needed to make my object Parcelable. Maybe I did something wrong in there but... I don't know how to fix it. What am I doing wrong ?

Answer 1

In NotificationViewer activity fetch values like this:

ArrayList<Notify> testArrayList = getIntent().getParcelableArrayListExtra("list");

You are putting values using putParcelableArrayListExtra(), so you need to get the value with

getParcelableArrayListExtra() instead of getParcelableArrayList().

Answer 2

Combining custom Parcelables and PendingIntents is kind of iffy - but, as luck may have it, Intent is Parcelable, why not just pass the Intent you received as an extra to the Intent you are wrapping in the PendingIntent - allowing the receiving Activity or Service to do the processing?

Edit: As stated in this answer from CW.

Edit: Example

Your ReceiverAlarm class would work "sort of like this":

public class ReceiverAlarm extends BroadcastReceiver {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) context.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);
        Intent intentNotif = new Intent(context, NotificationViewer.class);
        intentNotif.putExtra("intent", intent);
        PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context, 0, intentNotif, 0);

        Notification notification = new Notification(icon, text, when);
        notification.setLatestEventInfo(context, contentTitle, contentText, contentIntent);
        notificationManager.notify(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
    }
}

And in the NotificationViewer activity:

public class NotificationViewer extends Activity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);


        // Fetch the Intent you received in your BroadcastReceiver
        Intent broadcastIntent = getIntent().getParcelableExtra("intent");

        if (broadcastIntent != null) {
            // Do processing previously done in the receiver here 
            // and create your "Notify" objects.
        }
    }
}