Using Alarmmanager to start a service at specific time

Question

I have searched a lot of places but couldnt find a clean sequential explanation of how to start a service (or if thats not possible then an activity) at a specific time daily using the AlarmManager??

I want to register several such alarms and triggering them should result in a service to be started. I'll be having a small piece of code in the service which can then execute and i can finish the service for good....

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar cur_cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cur_cal.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
Date date = new Date(cur_cal.get(Calendar.YEAR), cur_cal.get(Calendar.MONTH), cur_cal.get(Calendar.DATE), 16, 45);
cal.setTime(date);
Intent intent = new Intent(ProfileList.this, ActivateOnTime.class);
intent.putExtra("profile_id", 2);
PendingIntent pintent = PendingIntent.getService(ProfileList.this, 0, intent, 0);
AlarmManager alarm = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
alarm.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, cal.getTimeInMillis(), pintent);
System.out.println("The alarm set!!");

i tried this code to activate the alarm at 4.45... but its not firing the service... do i have to keep the process running?? M i doing anything wrong???

One more thing, my service gets perfectly executed in case i use the following code:

long firstTime = SystemClock.elapsedRealtime();
alarm.setRepeating(AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP, firstTime, 30*1000,pintent);

Solution 1

HI friends, After a lot of researching and with reference from "Pentium10"'s question on the same topic i managed to get it working. Though i still cant understand why the "date" concept and the Calendar(non GregorianCalendar) object which i have mentioned in the question are not working correctly.

Calendar cur_cal = new GregorianCalendar();
cur_cal.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());//set the current time and date for this calendar

Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar();
cal.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, cur_cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR));
cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 18);
cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 32);
cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, cur_cal.get(Calendar.SECOND));
cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, cur_cal.get(Calendar.MILLISECOND));
cal.set(Calendar.DATE, cur_cal.get(Calendar.DATE));
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, cur_cal.get(Calendar.MONTH));
Intent intent = new Intent(ProfileList.this, IntentBroadcastedReceiver.class);
PendingIntent pintent = PendingIntent.getService(ProfileList.this, 0, intent, 0);
AlarmManager alarm = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
alarm.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, cal.getTimeInMillis(), 30*1000, pintent);

Solution 2

//Create alarm manager
AlarmManager alarmMgr0 = (AlarmManager)getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);

//Create pending intent & register it to your alarm notifier class
Intent intent0 = new Intent(this, AlarmReciever.class);
PendingIntent pendingIntent0 = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(this, 0, intent0, 0);

//set timer you want alarm to work (here I have set it to 7.20pm)
Intent intent0 = new Intent(this, OldEntryRemover.class);
Calendar timeOff9 = Calendar.getInstance();
timeOff9.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 19);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 20);
timeOff9.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

//set that timer as a RTC Wakeup to alarm manager object
alarmMgr0.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, timeOff0.getTimeInMillis(), pendingIntent0);

Then in your AlarmReciever class which is a broadcastReciever, under onRecieve method put your logic. This will take care of what ever the logic you want to handle when the time comes to 7.20 pm.

If you need to set multiple alarms, create another Calendar instance & set time values appropriately. You also need to create another instance for pendingIntent otherwise timers will overlap. Then set it to same alarmManager with new timer & pendingIntent.

Solution 3

You can read document from https://developer.android.com/training/scheduling/alarms.html

private AlarmManager alarmMgr;
private PendingIntent alarmIntent;

alarmMgr = (AlarmManager)context.getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
Intent intent = new Intent(context, AlarmReceiver.class);
alarmIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0, intent, 0);

// Set the alarm to start at 8:30 a.m.

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 8);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 30);

// setRepeating() lets you specify a precise custom interval--in this case, // 20 minutes.

alarmMgr.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, calendar.getTimeInMillis(),
        1000 * 60 * 20, alarmIntent);

Solution 4

The following code should work fine and it starts the service @ 7:40 PM every day. Also, if device shuts down then all your alarms get cancelled.

Make sure to set up all the alarms after BOOT is completed.

Intent slIntent = new Intent(this, x.class);

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(); 
calendar.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 19);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 40);
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

PendingIntent slPendingIntent = PendingIntent.getService(this, 1, slIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_ONE_SHOT);

AlarmManager alarmManager=(AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);

alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, calendar.getTimeInMillis(),
                          AlarmManager.INTERVAL_DAY, slPendingIntent);

Solution 5

I tried a lot To Start Service on Time So I Have one solution like

1. Calculate the difference between current time and selected time from date picker "Return Long timeMileSec = Milliseconds" Difference

2. after this create a handler inside it and Sleep if "Milliseconds" seconds

   new Handler().postDelayed(new Runnable() {
       @Override
       public void run() {
           CreateService();
           getActivity().startService(intentServiceObj);
       }
   }, timeMileSec);
   
   
   // Below is the service Methods.
   private void CreateService() {
       Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
       cal.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
   
       cal.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, year);
       cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, hourScreen);
       cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, minuteScreen);
   
       // cal.setTimeInMillis(timeselectedmillisecond);
   
       Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(),
           ServiceDailyLocationUpdate.class);
       pintent = PendingIntent.getService(getActivity(), 0, intent, 0);
   
       alarm = (AlarmManager) getActivity().getSystemService(
           Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
   
       alarm.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, cal.HOUR, 86000 * 1000,
           pintent);
   
   }
   
   // Return Differnce between two date
   private long calculateDateDiffSecond(String firstDate, String secondDate) {
   
       long numberOfDays = 0;
   
       String dateStart = firstDate;
       String dateStop = secondDate;
   
       Date d1 = null;
       Date d2 = null;
   
       try {
           d1 = sdfTime.parse(dateStart);
           d2 = sdfTime.parse(dateStop);
   
           // in milliseconds
           long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
   
           long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
           long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
           long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000) % 24;
           long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
   
           System.out.print(diffDays + " days, ");
           System.out.print("Hours::" + diffHours + " hours, ");
           System.out.print("HoursMinute::" + diffMinutes + " minutes, ");
           System.out.print(diffSeconds + " seconds.");
           numberOfDays = diffDays;
           numberOfDays = diff;
       } catch (Exception e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
       return numberOfDays;
   
   }
   

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