Sending an object to a service through Intent without binding

Question

Is is possible to send an object to an Android Service through an Intent without actually binding to the service? Or maybe another way for the Service to access Objects...

Answer 1

You can call startService(Intent) like this:

MyObject obj = new MyObject();
Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyService.class);
intent.putExtra("object", obj);
startService(intent);

The object you want to send must implement Parcelable (you can refer to this Percelable guide)

class MyObject extends Object implements Parcelable {

    @Override
    public int describeContents() {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

    }

}

And with the Service, in the method onStart() or onStartCommand() for api level 5 and newer, you can get the object:

MyObject obj = intent.getParcelableExtra("object");

That's all :)

Answer 2

If you don't want to implement Parcelable and your object is serializable

use this

In the sender Activiy

Intent intent = new Intent(activity, MyActivity.class);

Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
bundle.putSerializable("my object", myObject);

intent.putExtras(bundle);

startActivity(intent);

In the receiver:

myObject = (MyObject) getIntent().getExtras().getSerializable("my object");

Works fine for me try it. But the object must be serializable :)