update textView in a widget

Question

I've read a lot of Q&As but I couldn't find my answer.
May be something in my implementation is wrong.
The problem is that my TextView in the widget doesn't get updated.

The logic is this:

1.setOnClickPendingIntent on a specific button in the onUpdate()
2.clicking on this button will broadcast an intent with a declared action
3.at last i'll update the text of the textView in the onRecieve()

Widget2.class :

public class Widget2 extends AppWidgetProvider {

private static final String SCROLL_LEFT = "widget2.SCROLL_LEFT";

@Override
public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {

    super.onUpdate(context, appWidgetManager, appWidgetIds);

    for (int i = 0; i < appWidgetIds.length; i++) {
        int appWidgetId = appWidgetIds[i];
        RemoteViews remoteViews = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.small);

        Intent scrollLeft = new Intent(Widget2.SCROLL_LEFT);
        PendingIntent leftScrollPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context,
                appWidgetId, scrollLeft, appWidgetId);
        remoteViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.left_scroller, leftScrollPendingIntent);

        appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, remoteViews);
    }
}

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {

    Log.e(getClass().getSimpleName(), "onReceive()");
    int appWidgetId = intent.getFlags();
    if (intent.getAction().equals(SCROLL_LEFT)) {
        updateCurrentWidget(context, appWidgetId);
        Log.i("onReceive", SCROLL_LEFT + "   appWidgetId = " + appWidgetId);
    }
            super.onReceive(context,intent);  
}

private void updateCurrentWidget(Context context, int appWidgetId) {
    RemoteViews remoteViews = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.small);
    remoteViews.setString(R.id.name_of_the_app, "setText", "android os");
    remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.description, "best ever");

    Log.i("updateCurrentWidget", "the text have been set");
    AppWidgetManager manager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context);
    manager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, remoteViews);
}  

manifest.xml :

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk
        android:minSdkVersion="4"
        android:targetSdkVersion="14" />

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <receiver android:name=".Widget2" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE" />
                <action android:name="widget2.SCROLL_LEFT" />
            </intent-filter>

            <meta-data
                android:name="android.appwidget.provider"
                android:resource="@xml/widget_small" />
        </receiver>
    </application>

</manifest>  

and here is the simplified logcat logs:

   onReceive()
   "myPackageName".Widget2.SCROLL_LEFT
   the text have been set
   "myPackageName".Widget2.SCROLL_LEFT appWidgetId = 268435456  

everything seems to be correct but the text is never changed!

Answer 1

The key in the widget is you have to set every View and every Intent before calling the updateAppWidget() method. Here You can call updateWidgetInstance(...) from your onReceive() method:

// action = the String that you get from your intent in the onRecive() method
// id = the id of the appWidget instance that you want to update
// you can get the id in the onReceive() method like this:
// int id = intent.getIntExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, AppWidgetManager.INVALID_APPWIDGET_ID);
private static void updateWidgetInstance(Context context, AppWidgetManager manager, String action, int id) {
    RemoteViews remoteViews = updateCurrentWidget(context, id);
    remoteViews = setIntents(remoteViews, context, id);
    manager.updateAppWidget(id, remoteViews);
}

updating the View: (Here you can also change the layout of this instance depending on your needs)

  private static RemoteViews updateCurrentWidget(Context context, int appWidgetId) {
    RemoteViews remoteViews;

        remoteViews = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.widget_small_layout);
        remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.widget_name_of_the_app, "Android OS");
        remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.widget_app_description, "best ever");
        remoteViews.setImageViewUri(R.id.widget_icon_of_the_app, ...);

    return remoteViews;
}

updating intents:

private static RemoteViews setIntents(RemoteViews rm, Context context, int appWidgetId) {

    Intent click = new Intent(context, Widget.class);
    click.setAction("[name of the action]");
    click.putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_ID, appWidgetId);
    PendingIntent pendingIntent =
            PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, appWidgetId, click, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
    rm.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.button1, pendingIntent);

    return rm;
}