Unable to receive android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER broadcast

Question

I would like to write an application that is triggered when a calendar reminder occurs. I realize there is no officially documented way of doing this, but I have seen in the log that when my calendar alarm goes off on my phone (Droid X), AlertReceiver indicates that it has received an android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER:

01-03 11:03:00.029 D 1523 AlertReceiver onReceive: a=android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER Intent { act=android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER dat=content://com.android.calendar/129407058000 flg=0x4 cmp=com.android.calendar/.AlertReceiver (has extras) }

So, I set up a simple BroadcastReceiver:

package com.eshayne.android;

import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;

public class CalendarTest extends BroadcastReceiver {
    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
       android.util.Log.i("CalendarTest", "CalendarTest.onReceive called!");
    }
}

with this manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.eshayne.android"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0">
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CALENDAR" />
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:debuggable="true">
        <receiver android:name="com.eshayne.android.CalendarTest">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
</manifest>

Unfortunately, when I put this on my phone and set up a calendar event with a reminder - when the reminder alerts, I still see the AlertReceiver log entry, but not mine.

I have also read here about some system intents that require registering via code rather than in the manifest. So, I tried the following instead:

package com.eshayne.android;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.content.IntentFilter;
import android.os.Bundle;

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

        registerReceiver(new BroadcastReceiver() {
                        @Override
                        public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
                            android.util.Log.i("CalendarTestDisplay", "received broadcast");
                        }           
                     },
                     new IntentFilter("android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER"));
    }
}

with this modified manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.eshayne.android"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0">
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CALENDAR" />
        <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:debuggable="true">
        <activity android:name=".CalendarTestDisplay"
              android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
</manifest> 

with no better result.

Any ideas what I may be missing? Or any other ideas of how I might be able to capture calendar alarm occurrences?

Thanks, Ethan

Answer 1

You need to set data scheme to "content" in the intent filter.

Using manifest, add data element inside intent-filter

        <receiver android:name="com.eshayne.android.CalendarTest">
            <intent-filter>
                <data android:scheme="content"/> <!-- this was missing -->
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.EVENT_REMINDER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

Using code, add datascheme in one function call

IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(CalendarContract.ACTION_EVENT_REMINDER);
filter.addDataScheme("content");   // this was missing
registerReceiver(myRemindersReceiver, filter);